The paint booth is only open from noon until seven at night, so I spent Thursday morning shopping for a few supplies, like masking tape and paper, and at my regular shop where I wet sanded the entire fender with #600 to give the clear coat some grip.
Once at the booth I spent a gazillion hours masking. Fortunately I have done a lot of this sort of thing, but not for many years.
I mixed the base coat paint 1:1, shot a few test patterns, then shot the car. It held fine for about thirty seconds, then it all started to run. Sigh. Paint, like welding, takes practice, and you have to absorb failures gracefully. Off came all that wonderful masking paper and tape.
Friday morning I washed the car to get rid of all the Monkey Pod tree residue, stopped by Red Line Automotive for a gallon of clean-up solvent and some shop talk about finessing out drips, then back to Ft. Shafter for yet another round of sanding. Then it was off to the paint booth.
This time I took a moment to get a picture of myself in my zoot suit. Notice my new spray gun. It is an Anest Iwata W400-LV, a good quality all-around gun. Attached to it is a small diaphragm regulator, not because I'm fussy but because the paint booth does not furnish one.
The paint I am using is PPG Deltron. The yellow is a custom mix.
Dennis over at Red Line suggested using a little more reducer to counter the runs. That sounds counter intuitive, but I gave it a try. I also spent a lot longer adjusting the gun. From that I learned how sensitive the paint flow knob is. The result was great paint, no runs.
I waited almost an hour before shooting clear coat. Much of that was spent cleaning the gun and figuring out how to read the mixing scale on the paint cup. The clear calls for a 4:1:1 mix of paint, reducer and activator. This would make a good SAT exam question. For the clear I wanted a wider pattern, so more adjusting and testing. It took me minute to get used to painting without seeing the paint -- reminds me of doing the latter coats of a lacquer paint job. Just when I was done something caused a bunch of mystery gunk to fall onto the paint. I think it was a gust of wind blowing under the door.
In the last of pictures I shot I tried to capture the fluff in the finish, but it is too small to see. Trust me, it is very noticeable standing next to the car. I started making plans to come back and do it again, after the show, when I realized that this new paint is no worse that the rest of the car. What I really need to do to make it right is a complete sand down to bare fiberglass.
In the morning I'll be up early cleaning the car, then off to Kapiolani Park for the show.
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