Geek2.0's VP Berlina

[Geek2.0]

The weather has been against me!

I got the plastics all primed and cleaned all the sanding dust off the car and then started her up (first go!) and moved it out in the driveway, felt like progress moving it! Started a huge fuel leak though, i have always had issues with either hose clamps loosening, or new hoses shrinking after a month or two, im unsure what happened this time but all of the lines at the tank end were super loose, easy fix though!


Here's the mess that was my booth!

got the bottom tarp out just in time for it to start pouring, so everything went back in the garage. Got the car out again today and spent most of the day pressure washing the tarps on the garage, then set up all my lighting:



And for good measure I put the car on bricks to make it all a nicer height for spraying.



It was still pouring today and is due to rain a little tomorrow, humidity will be way up to (which i think is bad for painting?) so ill just aim to get everything masked and prepped and spray colour Thursday and clear Friday, should be much warmer and dryer by then. Cheers fellas!

 

[Geek2.0]

Uni has been getting in the way so i haven't had the chance to spay yet, but i believe tomorrow should be the day!

Things to do before i paint are:
finish masking (hour or two max)
wax n grease remover
final clean of the booth
probably another clean of the car to be sure
warm up the booth (I'll get my heater cranking while finishing the other stuff)


Over the last few days ive just being doing small things to make tomorrow flow a little quicker, i did a ghetto fix to my air pressure regulator/filter:

Sealed up all the edges of my booth, which worked really well, my fan pushes filtered air in:

and seems the booth is so well sealed it puffs up: (note how its pushing against the roof and walls)

and then all the over spray should flow out the door through this pipe:

And tonight i leave the car partially masked, just got the doors and rear wheels to go:


I hope i will be posting a more exciting update tomorrow!

 

[Geek2.0]

So i got my spray on yesterday!
Spraying the metallic could not have gone much better, I'd read that light blue and silver metallic were very hard to spray but luckily i didn't have many issues, and any unevenness was hidden by a mist coat.
Then i let it flash for a while and came and did the clear, didn't go so well. At some stage during the clear my booth sprung a leak just under my fan/filter, putting all the over spray straight back through, clogging the filter and removing practically all circulation. That in-turn made my respirator's filters fail very quickly and before i realised what was going on i was chocking in my mask. I didn't have any spare filters and all the shops were shut so i was forced to leave the car with only 3 coats of clear (2 of which were very light).

Thought i would hit it with some scotch bright, clean it up and spray a few more coats this morning but i ended up feeling so bad i went to the hospital. They checked me out and said i just needed to breathe clean air and rest it off, thankfully that seems to have worked! Really not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow, im at a loss weather to try to scuff it up and spray more clear and risk delamination or solvent issues (guessing here), or to just go with what i have and not cut it back. I know i wont be happy if i can't cut and polish it up so i am thinking i might take the risk and try a few more coats tomorrow and just hope it works.

 

[hi_ryder]

fyi once you take these molds off the car they start shrinking. like physically getting shorter over time, put them back on as soon as possible. with double sided tape and a thin bead of black urethane. i had mine off the car for like over a year and they ended up being a whole half inch shorter. ive put them back on and it shits me every time i look at them, cause i know theyre not right...

just a heads up...

front door mold original length

same mold but off the car for a year

 

[Geek2.0]

Yeah cheers for that, i read about that in your cali thread! Hopefully they will be off for less than 3 weeks and i checked them the day before yesterday and they still appeared right (just by eye against the door), so hopefully it will all be good.

 

[VQXTC]

Hey there Geek2.0,

Wow what a build so far, fantastic effort... there is nothing like learning on the job... lol.
I am in the process of spraying a Nissan S13 Silvia myself, I to have never sprayed a car but learning heaps and built a spray booth inside my shed using clear plastic as opposed to tarps.
I will be having a go at spraying the senator as well once the silvia is done.

Can you show me some more pics of your booth setup especially your filters etc, you can PM me if you like?

Good luck with the painting, hope it all works out for you.

Cheers

 

[Geek2.0]

Yeah mate I'll send you a PM tomorrow with some more details, the only thing i would change is i would use an intake fan and filter and an exhaust fan. That would put less stress on the masking tape holding the booth together and probably would have eliminated the issues i had (mentioned in post #33).

 

[VQXTC]

Cheers for that Geek2.0, look forward to the PM.

 

[Geek2.0]

I went down today and cleaned everything up a bit, i had a fair bit of dry spray so i sanded that off with some 1500grit, then i roughed the whole car up with some grey scotch bright, did all my final wipe downs and then sprayed some more clear.

Continuously learning! figured out i was moving way to fast with the clear, and got heaps better results by slowing right down. I'm also not very good at spraying the horizontal surfaces and keep getting alot of dry spray, i think that is due to my angle, i have a hunch that i was spraying at like 70 or 80 degrees not 90, ah well, always wiser after the fact.

So as it sits now i should be finished painting with exception of the mirrors and bumpers.

Pics (they are awful photos from the lighting in the booth):


It needs a cut and buff for sure, but i have a good feeling that it is going to look good!

I'll call the windscreen guy tomorrow and aim to get the glass re installed on Friday, hopefully that will be long enough for it to cure. I'll get the heater on and bake it a bit when i can.

 

[VQXTC]

Looking good mate, she should come up well with a buff. I have been told that you should leave the top coat as long as possible even perhaps for several months before trying to buff it.... apparently the longer you leave it the harder the top coat will be and the better results you will get when you do buff it.

Keep up the good work mate.

Cheers