Progress on my Paint Job

[Joe Flanagan]

I managed to spray base and three coats of clear on my hood and front fenders. I have a few runs in the clear but I know I can sand them out and if I cut through the clear I know how to fix it. Now I want to paint the fire wall so I'll be able to install the engine and start connecting everything when it's too cold to paint. At the very least, I'd like to get the bare metal covered with epoxy and high build primer before the winter.

Here are some pictures:

[dezeldoc]

What color is that? looks the same as my 50 mint green. after looking i think yours is a little greener.

Edited October 3, 2009 by dezeldoc

[Joe Flanagan]

I don't know what color it is. I found a Glidden color called "sugared lime" at Home Depot that I liked. I took it to the paint shop and they matched it pretty closely. When I shot it on the trunk lid, my eyes just about bugged out. It was way too green. Rodney B., who saw the color, figured this out way before I did. All he had to do was look at the can. I took it back to the paint shop and told him it was too green. He gave me a tiny can of black paint to mix in with it until I got to the color I wanted. This is right on the money. It took a lot of black paint, though, to tone that green down.

But I don't know what to call the color.

[55 Fargo]

Hi Joe, thats coming along real well, keep up the good work, once all is painted and cleared and back together withthe trim and lights and such, it will look great, runs can be sanded out and polished.....Fred

[Joe Flanagan]

I'm getting plenty of practice, Fred. I'll run out of good weather before it's finished, though.

[claybill]

joe...a very nice color..amazing what a touch of black will do..

IDEA!!!! have a 'name my color' contest on the forum!! i would love to throw in a few names!! mint joe-lip..

bill

[P15Mike]

Look's good Joe ! I like the color . Looks like your body work turned out real nice also .

Mike

[Bingster]

Wow! I'm really happy for you, Joe. That looks great! I've been following your saga and I can identify with your learning curves and disappointments along the way. Feels pretty good now, egh? You're gonna have a car you can be very proud of. Wish mine were that far along. Take care.

[Joe Flanagan]

I guess it could be like the famous undercoatney contest. Flanagreen or something like that.

I really struggled with the body work, as you know. And the body wasn't that bad. But it was enough to give a rookie fits. I fought every last imperfection and sometimes I almost said, "Oh no one will ever see this," but I just kept doing everything I was advised to do by the guys on the other forum I frequent. Believe me, guide coat is your friend. There are a few very small surprises that I will have to live with, things I didn't or couldn't see. They're very minor at this point, though. I hope I'm as lucky with the rest of the car.

The thing I hated the most was going back and doing over pieces I'd screwed up. A waste of time and paint.

Here's something important I learned: When you're spraying clear, stay back. Waaay back. I got the best result when I hit the surface with the fine mist at the end of the cloud of clear coming out of my gun. I was afraid I'd get bad orange peel and it actually laid on with an orange peel effect but after a few seconds, it all kind of flowed into one glassy surface. That's something I learned the hard way, by holding my gun too close to the surface and getting massive runs. More body work tomorrow. I have to fix a nice dent in the roof and associated oil can. I also did sloppy welding when I installed the drivers side rocker and have to touch that up. But first! I have to sandblast it because it's been bare metal for many months and now has a nice coating of the brown stuff that never sleeps.

[Fireball]

Good job Joe that looks Flanagantic! My advice for runs, buy one of these files.

Let your clear dry at least two weeks, even more if possible. This is doable even after a day but gets easier when the paint really is hard all the way down. Slowly and carefully file down the run near to level with the rest, but not quite. Then wetsand the run with 1200 and 2000 and buff to perfect.

With using that file for the first step, you minimize the possibility to ruin surrounding areas with exessive sanding. The file gives you much more precise control over the run than paper.

[Joe Flanagan]

Fireball,

I actually have two of those nib files. A rough one and a fine one. They're fantastic tools. They really make the job easier. Problem is they're so small they're easy to misplace.

It's funny, but I've heard two theories on sanding clear. One says the sooner the better because it's still soft. The other says wait because it's easier to sand once it's fully hardened.

[Plymouthy Adams]

cut the nibs/runs when still in a "soft" state..the final color sand let the paint dry..remember if cutting the run you have removed the hardened skin coat only the base paint you just exposed is not hard yet...catalyzed paint is a chemical process hardening but it still regulated to time and temperature

[Joe Flanagan]

The last couple of days saw a lot of progress. Nothing all that visible, but major work all the same. I touched up the weld on the underside of the driver's side rocker, jacked that side of the car up as high as I could get it, put it on jack stands, and hit the bad places with the MIG. Then I used Ultra Glass filler/sealer on the area from the front wheel to the back. When I installed the rocker some time ago, it didn't go anywhere near as well as the passenger side. I was hating life at that point: Welding on my back, sandblasting on my back, grinding on my back. I remember having to force myself to go out there and spend a couple of hours working on it every weekend. Also, the rocker is pretty misshapen. It's just the way it went in and I said, To heck with it. It will be covered by the rocker trim but there will be issues mounting the rocker trim. I'll deal with that when the time comes.

Though the bare metal on the car has been covered with a phosphoric acid solution for about eight months, I still had some rust around the body. Most of this was from me touching it with my sweaty mitts. I thought I'd be able to use a wire brush to remove it but of course not. Out came the sandblaster. I had to have Armageddon in my driveway because one Armageddon is not enough, apparently. There wasn't a whole lot of rust but there was enough that I had to blast quite a lot of sand. Cleanup took a good while, but I vacuumed everything up and then wiped the whole car down with wax and grease remover. Then I went after the freshly sandblasted areas with phosphoric acid and hit any last rust spots with the wire cup brush on a grinder (plus acid). By about five o'clock I'd gone all the way around the car. It's ready for epoxy primer tomorrow morning. I'm taking the day off and the weather is supposed to be good. Right after the epoxy, I'll shoot the high build primer and then I won't have to worry about it anymore. It can stay like that for the next five years. Looks like I will get the firewall painted and I will be able to get the engine in this fall. I don't know what it's like to do mechanical work anymore. Can't wait to continue building this thing.

[RobertKB]

What color is that? looks the same as my 50 mint green. after looking i think yours is a little greener.

dezeldoc, I think you need to get an alignment done!

[Joe Flanagan]

I think he's just keeping his options open.

[dezeldoc]

Dang Plymouth's never can decide witch way they want to go!!

[RobertKB]

Joe, I should have mentioned in the earlier post that your paint job is looking great. Love that colour!

[Joe Flanagan]

Thanks. I actually am about to run out of paint and it was mixed by eye. There's no record of the precise ingredients. I sprayed a sample and left it with the paint shop a couple of days ago. Hopefully they can match it.