I got the inside of the trunk lid finish primed, sanded and masked and then began spraying outside base and clear. Had troubles with the Base this time. Visions of a months worth of prep work going down the drain as I was spraying it. Needed to let it dry and then scuff it down before clear. Surprised I even got it to come out half way okay given the shape it was in earlier in the day. I have some dirt nibs in the clear that I'm hoping will sand out. If I knew what I was doing I think I could take the left over clear that is activated and dab it into some of those spots. But I don't know what I doing so I will wait until it drys and take it from there.
I can see I need to vacuum off the dead bugs accumulating on top of the spray booth already so they don't make into my photos. I live right next to a farm so keeping the flying bugs out is a challenge.
Well all the body prep/paint I've been doing so far has been to help me see if I can actually do this myself and have an outcome that doesn't look too hacked up. I'm probably an idiot (my wife confirms) but have decided to go forward with doing it.
I wanted to see if the sanding prep on the trunk lid would be flat/level with the gloss black since it is the majority of what you see from the back of the car. If I couldn't get the trunk lid I'd have no chance with the roof. Even though I haven't figured out the art of buffing and getting the last small scratches out yet the panel looks pretty straight/flat so I'll be working on final sanding/spot priming the roof this weekend.
My wife chimed in and thinks I should go with the flat black instead of gloss.
I live right next to a farm so keeping the flying bugs out is a challenge.
I knew a guy years ago who claimed his best paint jobs were done in a barn. His secret, he claimed, was to add a few drops of good vanilla extract to the paint because it drove the bugs away. I have never tried it so I can't verify that it works.
You're on the right track. Don't get discouraged by little imperfections (you're the only person who will notice them) and don't fall for the flat black temptation thinking that it will hide imperfections. A blinding shine will hide more imperfections than flat black.
Remember that it's the final polish that people see. The paint (non-metallic) could go on with a brush and/or roller and it wouldn't matter as long as you color sand it smooth and polish it to a mirror finish.
Thanks 33LXS! I am noticing light is very important. Except for the weekends I do most of my work on the car late in the evening with the door closed and didn't see any waviness in the lid, but out in the sunlight I can see a slight wave near one edge that I'll need to try and work out. I'll be scuffing it back down to do a final spray on the car so hopefully I'll be able to work it out then. Not sure about the vanilla extract in the paint but after reading your post I got a large bottle of it for the garage. : )
Been working the roof and on the third or fourth block sand of primer with guide coat. I don't have a long sanding board so I notice I've been creating dips as I'm trying to fix others. On this last one I was looking around the garage for something nearly as wide as the roof and flexible for shape. I ended up trying some of the more rigid foam tubes I had laying around to protect the frame and used adhesive sandpaper around it. I have been dry sanding but when I get tired and need a break I spray water on it to see problem areas.
Guessing the car will end up with some waviness, but it won't be due to lack of effort, more so due to lack of skills.
I am taking the week off to try and get through as much of the body work and paint that I can. Temperature and humidity not cooperating though. It's like a sauna around here so I needed to break down and buy a cheap-o air conditioner for the garage to try and keep temp within the range of the paint products I already purchased.
No kidding, the inside of that roof was a bear to do. Shape of it kept blowing the base and clear spray right back in my face and with the angles curved in it was difficult for me to keep a level spray pattern without going heavy on one side or the other. Some orange peel to deal with but happy I am past that step. Outside of roof is ready to be painted once the inside drys for a day or so.
Watching paint dry. A couple bugs are watching it dry too, up close. Unhooked the air hose from the paint gun after the third coat of clear and a few bugs decided to make a permanent landing. Hopefully it won't be a big deal being it was the third coat. Lot's of orange peel today. Not sure if it was the humidity, not using enough reducer or what but it didn't flow like it has in the past. Spray was nice, just not enough flow. Hopefully color sand will take care of the peel and the bugs.
Trying to use the lines in the light reflection to see if there are any low spots. Not seeing anything at first glance but need to sand it down then get sunlight to really tell.
Someone will need to remind me why I am doing the body work and painting this thing myself because I am a goofball and forgot.
Since my last post, I had a surprise with the roof when I went to take the tape off of it. A small section of paint and clear peeled off when I removed the tape. None of my other parts had an issue so You Tubed what causes paint to peel and saw some nasty examples of people using a water hose and taking their paint right off. Went back out to the garage and realized there wasn't a bond between paint and primer. Visited several body shops for advice and they independently said it could be a number of things including, not waiting long enough for cure, solvent trap, etc., but the bottom of the examples I took didn't show very deep scratching from sanding and they recommended staying around 320/400 grit and waiting longer for each coat to flash. Long story short it took several weeks to prep the roof again. Inside has base and clear and outside is ready for repaint.
For the body I didn't want to take any chances with adhesion so I sanded 2k primer with 320 and applied sealer mixed more for adhesion. I sprayed sealer, base and then clear in one long setting. It will be extra work sanding areas that I am going red but those all use the same brand activators and solvents. All and all turned out okay, but I need to deal with some waviness on the driver side quarter panel area before applying red.
Last edited by Midwest 33 Build; 08-21-2016 at 11:20 PM.
Reason: spelling
I'll try and type fast as I keep getting logged out before finishing. I was able to spray the doors jambs and dash today with Ruby Red. Long day of masking then spraying 9 layers (3 base pearl, 3 candy clear and 3 clear). Since drilling the holes in the dash I get runs in the same spot between the two large gauges even though I am very careful spraying it. I'll sand them down again.
Hopefully I can get the inside of the doors sprayed during the week and then try and tackle the outside red next weekend.
Got the inside of the doors masked and painted. Hoping they will dry soon so I can get them positioned on the main body and get the outside red done this weekend. Not looking forward to color sanding the orange peel out of that triangled area on the inside of the door. Still haven't found anything good to use to block in on that pointed area.
I spent all day getting the sides masked off and found a way to temporarily hang doors on body while on the body buck. Who know what this will look like out in the light, but I am kind of glad the day is near over. Only thing left to do is wait for the clear to dry and pull the doors off and get the masking off the door jamb since I won't be able to get back to the car for about a week. I started scuffing up the clear on the black as I intent to add another 3 coats of clear over everything next weekend.
Hi Erlhemi. Yeh I was originally just going to hook to the openings in the door but the fiberglass is so thin there I figured the tension would just crack through the openings or jazz up the paint on the door. I came up with that on the fly. Looks simple but the tricky part was holding the door with one hand trying not to nick the paint while attaching bungee cords with the other hand. A little McGiver work there as I had to hook the bungees from the buck with tension to my belt loops which got them close enough to where I could reach and attach the bungees from the door then detach myself from the whole thing and crawl out from under the body buck. Once the doors were on then I could reposition the bungee cords for more tension.
Last edited by Midwest 33 Build; 09-18-2016 at 02:15 AM.
Decided to hold off on adding three more coats of clear. I am finding a number of touch ups I need to do. I continued on with the color sanding and buffing. I am pretty aggressive on sanding the black but taking it in slow passes on the red. Second photo is just after first go round. Many more to go based on the haziness in the photo. One more long weekend of painting the outside of the roof next weekend and I might be able to take down the paint booth after that so I get have some room back in the garage.
Looking forward to getting back to the chassis and running electrical, fuel and cooling.
Exciting day in the build for me today. I got my garage back !!! I stayed up till 6am this morning getting the inside of the trunk lid and the outside of the roof finished. As soon as it was dry I started taking down the paint booth, putting the floor tiles back and pressure washing things down. I saved the PVC poles in the shed in case I need to do some smaller touch up work in the driveway or shed. I think I have a post a year ago in September when I started sanding the seam lines down. So it was a year of body prep, practice and paint. Glad that part is over.
Thanks WRP and Erlihemi, very much appreciated. Erlihemi, great question. The correct answer I am told is my wife's car that has been sitting in the driveway but I would like the answer to your question to be the start of a Cobra project.
I put an order in on an MK4 so I'm guessing I better get a move on with finishing up the electrical, fuel and brakes on this 33. My wonderful wife said it was okay as long as she can park in the garage this winter so I need to get a move on.
Working on the placement of the under dash electronics. I figured I it would be difficult to be able to see the fronts of the infinity boxes if I kept them vertical so I rounded up some thicker aluminum panels and created a second panel that will swing down and give some visibility to them. Got it powder coated and I am starting to run the wiring now.
Congrats on the mk4! That will motivate you for sure. I picked up some motivation also, but, that one will likely show up on a different forum in the spring. At least I'm not over committed for the winter.
Sorry guys for the delayed response. I've been heads down on the 33 trying to clear up a garage spot before MK4 gets delivered this Friday and haven't logged on for a while. I under estimated how much I had left to do and I'm slow I am which is going to get me in the dog house if it snows here before I get a spot cleared for the wife's car. I probably should have taken your route Erlihemi and waited until spring.
Thanks Roman. I'm still pulling wires and re-arranging things. I'll post some of the recent pics tonight. Take Care.
A lot of lose ends to finish up before I can try starting this thing. I think I am past the worst of the wiring. I know where the remainder need to go and hopefully just a matter of routing and terminating. I was able to run the stainless steel fuel feed and return lines and got the hose ends taken care of. Seat holes are drilled. Had to go with a bizarre bolt pattern though because my exhaust bolts that go through the frame tubes was in the way. EBrake holes are drilled through frame and that is ready to go once the carpet is in. Accelerator pedal mount is installed. Still need to re-install brake lines and clutch cable.
I ended up using Eastwood Black seam sealer between aluminum panels and frame rails and then installed XMat heat and sound deadener on top. I can see I'm getting close, but there is still a long list of things to take care of. Starting to put fluids in.
Stewart transport showed up today with the MK4. Had to use the SUV and a tow strap to pull the cart up the steep driveway. Took about 4 trips and have it placed on stands in the garage. Only issue I can see is that I changed order to a bare frame but it came powder coated. I'll need to check with the powder coater on getting that stripped down. Decided I wanted to go with a bit of color on it but will now need to think about it more.
I wont post any more on the MK4 in the 33 build thread. I have another one started in the MK4 forum, but won't start going at that until I get the 33 completed.
Well it's been a month since my last post. I ended up having a brake fluid leak at the banjo bolt area on both master cylinders. Weird that it would go for a week without issue then you would start to see the crush washers start to get a shine then it would leak. Tightened the bolts down waited a week then same thing. Called Factory Five and they ended up sending me out the new Wilwood black master cylinders. I changed them out and ran more hard tubing at the same time versus the stainless. It's been a couple weeks now so hopefully the leaks are gone.
Also found out that I didn't buy the carburetors setup for dual carb use so I ended up changing the metering rods and secondary jets to mimic the dual carbs that I should have purchased. Never done that before so that was interesting.
Big day today! My family came over to help and witness the first turn of the key to the start position. I set my expectations low in that all I wanted to verify was that there were no major leaks or electrical issues that would prevent us from mounting the body back on the car for the first time since it was painted months ago.
I turned on the electric water pump, radiator fan and fuel pump and then turned the key to start position and to all of our amazement the damn thing started within literally a couple seconds after turning the key. The engine was at a fast RPM so we shut it down but very surprising and unexpected that it started. I was lucky to have a brother in law that knows carbs there and after a few hours of adjusting and test starts the thing starts quick and has a good idle.
I am also thankful for the help getting the body back on the car. Nerve racking operation when it's painted versus the many times you put it on and remove it prior to paint.
Very surprising day when you think that there were hundreds of things I wasn't quite sure of along the way and that I bought the engine a year and a half ago. Custom intake for the blower. Only about a quarter inch of free turn each direction of the distributor without disassembling the top end because of the space constraints and so on...
Got the doors remounted and then drilled and mounted the roof. Don't look too close -- I am still adjusting doors and need to put the seals in place and I still have a Ton of sanding and polishing ahead of me. A little nerve racking not knowing if I will be able to buff everything up so it looks okay but giving it my best.
Wow! That '33 is a combination of attention to detail, great component choices, and quality components.
That is a definitive Hot Rod and BadAss.
Fantastic build!
Can't wait to see what you do with the Roadster!
Where are you located in "The Midwest"?
F5R #7446: MK4, 302, T5 midshift, 3.55 Posi IRS, 17" Halibrands
Delivered 4/4/11, First start 9/29/12, Licensed 4/24/13, off to PAINT 2/15/14!! Wahoo!
Thanks Roman, Erlihemi, MPTech and WRP! I appreciate the comments. MPTech I am in Northern Illinois just shy of the Wisconsin border. I'm not sure how I'm going to finish the MK4 yet, but I do know I won't be painting it. : ) One and done for me on the paint.
There are a few parts that have just fought me the entire way on the build and even though I'm getting close to finishing things the trunk lid has shown it still has a little fight left in it. I was able to mount it tonight which is a challenge for those with bigger bellies to crawl in around the differential and reach up to install the screws. I see a very faint crack though now right where the top RivNut is on the gas tank side. Arrggh... Seems like either the Rivnut has some pressure on the top panel or the screw pushed against it at some point. I will let it be for now and see if it gets more noticeable in the daylight.
I haven't adjusted the lid yet or installed the latch but attached are some views of where it sits now.
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Originally Posted by Midwest 33 Build
