Finally got all my ducks in a row and got the whole shell, front guards and boot painted. The weather was perfect for painting, no wind, not too hot so it all went quite well.
Here are some photos of everything getting ready for the topcoat.
This is the shell waiting after final sanding, the cover helps keep contaminants off the primer while it sits:
You can see the gravel stop on the sills here, I found a nice grey coloured gravel stop, means it's less likely to show up as a shade change when painting as it's similar to the primer:
And my carefully masked up boot lid. It took ages to mask the frame up so I could spray gravel stop on the skin, but the end result was worth it! I used gravel stop on the boot lid for a few reasons, it reduces drumming, reduces condensation formation on the skin and hides a surface that is impossible to get looking great with sanding.
You can see a spot that is darker than the rest of the gravel stop, I dragged some masking tape across it as I unmasked, I reprofiled it with a piece of foam using a stippling effect, it worked well and saved me a lot of hassle!
Here's the rear of the boot lid painted, gravel stop looks great:
Front of the bootlid ended up fairly peely, I wasn't totally comfortable with where I was when painting it and it ended up a little dry. Never mind, there's four decent coats of solid blue 2k Glasurit there, more than enough to rub back and buff. The whole shell will need a cut and buff anyway:
And the rest came out quite well. only two tiny runs and the usual dirt specks that you get in a garage paint job. It'll look great with a cut back! The guards in particular came out nicely:
I painted the shell doors on as it seems all the major resto shops have gone over to this method. I was a little concerned about paint coverage around the front of the doors and A pillars, but there was no problem at all. Plenty of room to get the gun in and around there and good coverage.
It allowed me to do a final alignment of the doors and not worry about damaging topcoat and for that alone it was well worth painting this way. I'll definitely be doing it this way on the future!
I'll leave the paint set up and cure for a week or two, then I'll make up a few covers for the doors and rear quarter panels for when it's being worked on around the garage.
Then I'll get the parts car off the ground and steal it's front and rear suspension assemblies. They'll get stripped of suspension components and put up under the car so I can work on the engine conversion.
Once the conversion is done (brackets etc made, driveshaft measured), the suspension members will go out for blasting then I'll epoxy them and refurbish all the suspension/brake/rear end components.
So it's still a long way to go, but the major, super time consuming part is done at least!
Here are some photos of everything getting ready for the topcoat.
This is the shell waiting after final sanding, the cover helps keep contaminants off the primer while it sits:
You can see a spot that is darker than the rest of the gravel stop, I dragged some masking tape across it as I unmasked, I reprofiled it with a piece of foam using a stippling effect, it worked well and saved me a lot of hassle!
Front of the bootlid ended up fairly peely, I wasn't totally comfortable with where I was when painting it and it ended up a little dry. Never mind, there's four decent coats of solid blue 2k Glasurit there, more than enough to rub back and buff. The whole shell will need a cut and buff anyway:
It allowed me to do a final alignment of the doors and not worry about damaging topcoat and for that alone it was well worth painting this way. I'll definitely be doing it this way on the future!
I'll leave the paint set up and cure for a week or two, then I'll make up a few covers for the doors and rear quarter panels for when it's being worked on around the garage.
Then I'll get the parts car off the ground and steal it's front and rear suspension assemblies. They'll get stripped of suspension components and put up under the car so I can work on the engine conversion.
Once the conversion is done (brackets etc made, driveshaft measured), the suspension members will go out for blasting then I'll epoxy them and refurbish all the suspension/brake/rear end components.
So it's still a long way to go, but the major, super time consuming part is done at least!
