Remember: it just needs to photograph well.
NOT be my neon.
Remember: it just needs to photograph well.
NOT be my neon.
Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) said:Remember: it just needs to photograph well.
NOT be my neon.
It won’t be anywhere near that quality. Most of the rough wetsanding is to knock down any runs. Once they’ve got enough paint on them, I’ll wet sand them to either 1500 or 2000, then polish. The paint on the rest of the car is pretty tired, so I’ll need to polish it up too (and possibly clay bar it first) in order to get it as shiny as the replacement panels. I know the color won’t match perfectly, but am hoping if they are all about as glossy as each other, it shouldn’t look too bad.
I like how it's coming
Can't wait to see this come together.
The SS wheels look pretty cool with out the canter cap. I think a bronze color would look good as a wheel color. Looking forward to updates.
I LIKE the idea of center capless and bronze. That would look fantastic against the black.
And tim: sounds like you are on the right path with the paint.
Looks like my paint mix was a little too thick last night. A bunch of tiny bubbles did not pop, so wetsanding is definitely next. Not sure it'll happen tonight, due to weather, unless I try to do it inside the garage.
In reply to OjaiM5 :
Okay, those wheels look awesome polished up like that. I can’t imagine how much effort it would take to make mine look like that. I need to look for details on that car, mainly out of curiosity. Looks like it has had some serious weight reduction.
In reply to eastsideTim :
I wetsand inside with a spray bottle of soapy water on a sawhorse set on cardboard. Keeps the mess down, and i wipe the slurry off with a squeegee.
Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to eastsideTim :
I wetsand inside with a spray bottle of soapy water on a sawhorse set on cardboard. Keeps the mess down, and i wipe the slurry off with a squeegee.
I’ll have to give that a shot. Do you just wipe the panels down with alcohol or something else to finish cleaning after the squeegee?
No motivation after about 6 days in a row of working on it. Going to take a break this evening, and be more refreshed and ready to make some progress on the weekend.
In reply to eastsideTim :
Umm, windex. And a microfiber towel. Ive actually prepped for paint that way more times than I care to admit to.
Tim -did you see this for sale? Some cool ideas.
First round of wetsanding done. Bubbles are knocked down, along with most of the runs, but I did burn through in a few spots:
I'll hit it with some Windex tonight, but still let the water dry out of any crevices before painting. Will try to get two layers on tomorrow, and get the paint mix right this time, although I think thinner is better, in that it cuts down on the thicker runs and bubbles.
OjaiM5 said:Tim -did you see this for sale? Some cool ideas.
That looks like fun
Three more coats of paint between Saturday and Sunday. In the next day or so, I’ll wet sand again. If I don’t burn through with the 600, I’ll assume it’s safe to start going finer.
Had the day off, so back to paint work. Started with 600 grit, then 1000, then 1500. There are still a lot of runs that might require even rougher sandpaper to take out, though, and I am concerned I'll burn through the paint again. At that point, I decided I need to take Dusterbd13's advice to heart, and this is not the blurple Neon. Got the rubbing compound and polishing compound out to test a few spots.
Before:
After:
Here's the worst run in the paint after a quick polishing:
However, here's the panel from about 4-5 feet away:
The run is still visible, but isn't overly noticeable. Since I am likely to just take the 12 points in concours, it's tempting to call it a day on the paint, and assume the car will look good from 20 feet away. However, I am still debating whether to go over the panels with 2000 grit, in order to make polishing easier.
I am also tempted to give in and hit up HF for a cheap-ish polisher, so I can do the whole car at once, as the paint could definitely use some refreshing.
Big concern is I do not want this to slow me down from getting back to mechanical work. I need to deal with the remaining leaks and spend some time driving the Impala, to make sure nothing else needs attention.
Didn’t like the amount of scratches I could still see in the areas I polished, so went ahead and wet sanded with 2000 grit sandpaper tonight. Will hit it with rubbing compound sometime in the next few days, then wait to polish until I’ve picked up a rotary polisher.
The big angle grinder polisher is awesome. It will take those scratches out with a quickness.
Also, on runs. Outline the run with painter's tape. Block sand the run with 800 until its ALMOST flat. Remove tape, finish panel. That is how indid about 137 runs and sags in the miata. Also, the buffer, followed by the da is how i got depth out of green
I've got a HF polisher if you didn't already pick one up- may be back up your way tomorrow afternoon (heading up to LKQ for a diff I hope) as well if you wanted it.
Ashyukun (Robert) said:I've got a HF polisher if you didn't already pick one up- may be back up your way tomorrow afternoon (heading up to LKQ for a diff I hope) as well if you wanted it.
If you don’t mind, please bring it on up!
eastsideTim said:Ashyukun (Robert) said:I've got a HF polisher if you didn't already pick one up- may be back up your way tomorrow afternoon (heading up to LKQ for a diff I hope) as well if you wanted it.
If you don’t mind, please bring it on up!
Sure thing! I'll plan to swing by on my way back from LKQ since I have no idea how long pulling the diff will take me and want to get up there with as much time to do so as possible. Hopefully I'll be able to do it fairly quickly and not get TOO caught in rush hour traffic.
Extremely minor update - epoxied the broken mounting post back onto the spoiler. Life has been a bit hectic, and weather has been awful. Hoping to get back to serious work in the next few days.
Thanks GM, for not using a connector for all the wiring in the door. As far as I can figure, I need to fish all the wiring into the car to remove the door and reverse it when I put the new door on.
In reply to eastsideTim :
Thats the way my gmt400 doors are. Bastards.
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :
I realized I don't have to pull them all the way into the interior at least, but it's still annoying. Made worse by all the added sound deadening for the sound system it used to have
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