I got all the threads on the body chased yesterday, of course I broke one of the taps but I knew those broken dental picks would come handy one day.

I have been asked a few times what I use to seal the mud guards to the inside of the fender, household weather strip closed cell foam rope, 3/4" in dia. then slice off a 1/3rd of it so you have a flat area to adhere to the edge of the mud guard. Sometimes you may have to shave off a little more of the outside curve to get a good fit.

I have most of the clutch, fuel and brake lines roughed in now, still want to try and straighten them up a bit more.

 

 The biggest disadvantage to using your garage as a paint booth is all the trash that ends up on the clear coat, it doesn't matter how clean I blow the shop out, cover up stuff with plastic or soak the floor down.  I don't paint often enough to lay down a clear coat like glass like some guys, mine are always covered with orange peel anyway so I guess some trash isn't too bad a price to pay.

Like it or not the clear has to be sanded, I tried to start with 1500 grit but could see quickly that I would have to go down to 1200.  A nib file is the tool to deal with trash and runs. 

Here is where I have gone over the worst of trash with the nib file.

The tear drop at the bottom of run takes a week or more to fully cure, so if you go away at it with a nib file too soon it can pull the paint off as you get down to the bottom of the drop as I have done here. Now I'll have to apply some colour coat to that white spot with a toothpick then cover it with clear and wait another week before I go back and try to work it again.

Recommissioned

The painter who painted Cody's goon would use a straight razor blade. Put a small piece of tape on each end wrapped over the blade. That spaces the blade up the thickness of the tape. He would then scrape runs with the razor blade standing straight up off the paint. You could then scrape them down a little, but not all the way. Let them harden up some before coming back to them.

  On 2/1/2024 at 12:31 AM, Patcon said:

The painter who painted Cody's goon would use a straight razor blade. Put a small piece of tape on each end wrapped over the blade. That spaces the blade up the thickness of the tape. He would then scrape runs with the razor blade standing straight up off the paint. You could then scrape them down a little, but not all the way. Let them harden up some before coming back to them.

I tried a razor blade once and it is sooo easy for the blade to grab too much material and gouge or tear, I caused so much damage that I went the nib file route after that.     For those of us who don't do this work everyday, a file may be slower but it's generally safer.

Datsun goodies from Rockauto arrived today,  these door handles are just as well made as the originals and only $27.00, they even come with rubber finishers.

 

 

@grannyknot Just looked. Are they still available

looks like you have stuff from ZCD as well.

Edited February 1, 20241 yr by Yarb

  On 2/1/2024 at 8:59 PM, Yarb said:

@grannyknot Just looked. Are they still available

looks like you have stuff from ZCD as well.

Looks like $27 from ZCDepot. I didn't find them at Rockauto...

This shipment was from Z Car Depot. We have shipments of goodies coming from all over the place at the moment, including Rock Auto.

Sent from my SM-S901W using Tapatalk

I got everything sanded down to 1200 today, on the very last piece, one of the sugar scoops I burned through the colour to reveal the primer. I had also broken through the paint with the nib file on some runs, so there was no other choice than sand the clear with 400 and paint/clear it again.

Sanded clear coat is the perfect substrate for paint so with in an hour I had it painted and 3 coats of clear on it.  Turned out so well I think I can start with 1500.

For a minute there, I thought you'd sanded and repainted the entire car! 😲  The scoop looks great now.

What do you think the problem was with the nib file?  Was the clear coat still not fully cured, or did the file just get too much bite because of the large of width of paint that it was trying to cut through?

I understood that he painted the whole car...

  On 2/4/2024 at 11:55 AM, Namerow said:

For a minute there, I thought you'd sanded and repainted the entire car! 😲  The scoop looks great now.

What do you think the problem was with the nib file?  Was the clear coat still not fully cured, or did the file just get too much bite because of the large of width of paint that it was trying to cut through?

Those 3 drips were fully cured but on an inside curve like that I should have stopped and gone out and bought a curved nib file, the flat one that I have was not the right tool for the job, completely my fault. Same with the burn through, that front area didn't get a thick enough coating of clear, luckily everything was still close at hand so it was easy to correct the problem with a respray.

  On 2/4/2024 at 12:08 PM, Patcon said:

I understood that he painted the whole car...

I'm glad the screw up happened on a small part that was easy to remove, if it had been on the roof it would have been a whole other ball game.