Aaron's 76 Type LT Project

10 minute(s) of a 383 minute read

I spent yday mostly removing runs and other big issues from my panels. I was going to spray some more this weekend but stopped after the spoiler pieces and side mirrors. I got to the point where I felt like I was spraying just to get it done and didn't think my focus was all there. So I will spray those in a few weeks after I spray the shell this upcoming weekend. So my attention now turns to getting the shell prepped.  

I did try my hand at wet sanding some flat areas and it went well. It was actually a nice change of pace. Sanding doesn't bother me so I think I will somewhat enjoy the "cutting" stage. If anything it was nice seeing the peel sand away and having a preview of what the panel will look like when it was wet. That was a nice mental boost.

A boring pic of me doing some 1500 sanding on the fender. I was very deliberate when I did this. I would make 5-10 sanding passes and squeegee off to see what peel was left. Fortunately this SPI clear sands very nicely.

5-16-2015

I spent all day prepping and masking off the shell. I wiped down the shell twice with soapy water (blue Dawn) and twice again with just water. I intended to spray color tonight but I was feeling too tired so thought it would be better to spray everything on Sunday so I didn't make any mental errors. My wife's great uncle came by for lunch so that set me back a few hours, but it's all good. I should be able to hit the ground running tomorrow.

A few pre-painting pics for the heck of it

5-17-2015

Got color sprayed, now just need to spray clear. We had some rain move through but I should be able to spray clear late afternoon or this evening.

5-18-2015

I got three coats of clear on just before midnight

There's some minor trash that will need to be sanded out but no runs to speak of, at least none I could see upon final inspection.

Now I have the backs of the hood and trunk lid, the bumpers, headlight bezels and tulip panel left to spray. I should be able to knock out some of that next weekend.

5-19-2015

I re-examined the shell last night and the dash/cowl looks awesome, I shouldn't have to do anything to that, which was the goal. I saw one tiny run on the passenger side door jam, but it's on an easy area to get to. Other than that all the jams look nice and glossy and shouldn't need any work. The less I have to do on those weird areas, the better.

I should be able to tackle the roof and 1/4s really soon.

5-20-2015

LOL, nobody will ask me to paint. They know I will laugh them off my property

I was wet sanding the hood last night and I am noticing the presence of a handful of teeny-tiny light colored specs. Obviously they are somewhere in the clear, but I am not sure where. The hood was the first panel I sprayed and I honed my process to decrease trash getting into the work space, so I am trying to decide what my approach should be with this panel.

I was chatting with 1981g and he reinforced that I can get as OCD as I want, but at the end of the day a few tiny specs here and there won't be the end of the world for my project. So I need to decide if I want to remove EVERY last little spec or draw a line somewhere. I am not averse to shooting clear on the hood again if I think I removed too much to get the trash out and want to make sure I have proper coverage.

My plan is to sand with 1200 and see what I can get out and then re-evaluate. If there's just a few microscopic specs left then I will just leave them.

I think no matter how good a paint job is, the one who sprayed it will always know where the flaws are and you just have to figure out what is acceptable to you. The average person wouldn't know since they aren't looking at the body from 6" away like I am right now.

So I am sitting here at the airport having a beer and I know what my problem is. I spent many months on the body work and I have convinced myself that nothing short of perfection is acceptable. But the body work I did isn't perfect so why does the paint job need to be perfect? So this mini break (little 3 day trip with wife) is perfect for me wrap my head around where I am at and what I want out of this car. Its not a damn show car, its a driver. So I need to approach it that way.

I am pumped after chatting with you guys. I was so pissed yday seeing these little flaws but I now know that's not the end of the world. I just needed a serious reality check.

Thanks for hearing me out.

5-26-2015

So I was sanding more of the hood and the trunk lid and I notice more little light colored specs, so I am going to re-spray both panels. I am 99.9% sure I know what happened. When I sprayed the hood and trunk I was entering the spray area via my combination back door/air filter assembly that serves as the air inlet. This allowed too much trash to enter the space and thus it got into the clear during the first coat.  

I was sanding the doors and fenders and none of these panels have any such trash in them, they look damn near perfect as far as trash goes. Not coincidentally, I changed how I entered the spray area AFTER the hood/trunk were sprayed (entered thru the front via my little trap door versus through the back). You put 2 and 2 together and this is the most logical conclusion.

All told it's a few extra days of work but I owe it to myself to have consistent results, especially since I know how the other panels look.

6-2-2015

quick update - I decided to shoot more clear over the pieces to achieve an even better end result. I wet sanded the panels with 800 grit to get the peel/trash out and then laid 3 more coats of clear. Thus far I have re-sprayed the doors, fenders, front upper valence and some small pieces. I can officially say both wheel wells are done at least!!

I am going to knock out some smaller pieces tonight/tmro and then move to the hood on Saturday and then the bumpers and headlight buckets on Sunday. I should have everything sprayed by Sunday except the shell. Then I can begin prepping the shell next week for round 2 of clear.

I wrestled with the idea of shooting more clear but in the long run a few more weeks isn't going to make or break my project, so I decided to go for it. This will give me a lot of material to work with when sanding/buffing, so that's not a bad thing.

6-4-2015

thanks Tom

I am down to just a few pieces left to spray (or re-spray) so making some good progress toward starting actual cutting & buffing. Thinking I can spray the shell with more clear next weekend and then move to the next stage. I am getting sort of good at this painting thing now that I am basically re-spraying everything

I am going to spray the back of the hood and back of the trunk next, then the top of the hood, then the bumpers and headlight buckets. I've taken over a spare bedroom to store most painted pieces until I can begin installing them, so here is an obligatory pic. The number of gray pieces are shrinking.

6-5-2015

Got the backs of the hood and trunk lid sprayed in clear tonight. I obviously won't be doing anything else to these. I didn't see any runs so that was good.

Tomorrow I will focus on the top of the hood, which I should be able to knock out.