What did you do today?

[R_D_Olivaw]

Hi Tony,

A combination of weather, family commitments and work have prevented me from going anywhere near the car since the last update; however I hope to continue this weekend, if the wind isn't too strong.

The plan is:
1. Fill the indentation I spotted after applying the first coat of primer, then sand.
2. Fix the paint contamination issue with degreaser, panel wipe and sand paper.
3. Add another coat of primer, starting with the doors, boot and bonnet that have only received the etching primer so far.
4. Practice spraying the base coat and lacquer to see how it comes out.

I have Monday off so hopefully I'll have some progress to report.

[R_D_Olivaw]

Here's a quick update on yesterday's activities.

1. Cleared the lawn of walnut tree leaves, which took a lot more time than it should have, but a job that has to be done quickly as the leaves can kill the grass within a few days due to the high level of tannin.

2. Pushed the car out of the garage and sanded the car with 500 grit sandpaper to remove the knifing putty and prepare the primer for a second coat. Also filled a small indentation in the back and sanded it down.

Before photos.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/t5m7yippxcktq2k/IMG_2566.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mqf95ihn574bo33/IMG_2568.JPG?dl=0

3. Although my last attempt to spray under my gazebo can best be described as a total disaster, it didn't deter me from having another go, and as it so happened it turned out to be a good idea, as it started to rain a little when I was packing up, and only the front 4 inches of the car got wet.

4. I then went over certain parts of the car with degreaser, then cleaned off the dust and wiped down every panel with panel wipe in preparation of the paint.

5. Gave the car a second coat of filler primer. Although the conditions don't look good in the photos, it was about 21 degrees when I did it and even at the end the temperature hadn't dropped that much. I did have a little problem with wind (stop laughing, I'm not referring to that type) in the beginning, but it didn't prove to be a problem.

After photos
https://www.dropbox.com/s/twahkd7ovj3lzhu/IMG_2569.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o7ujy7mbkr1jo6j/IMG_2570.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mu6bw4269vft9gf/IMG_2571.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/axaskefxh2fm7os/IMG_2572.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wzxuuul40guyt0t/IMG_2573.JPG?dl=0

I think I'm getting a little better with the spraying as less of it went on the drive and more ended up on the car; however due to the rain today I haven't had the chance to look at it in the light of day.

I do know it won't be perfect as I managed to knock over the lights just after I'd finished painting, and as you can guess they landed well and truly on the car. I sprayed over the impact zone, but I know I'll need to do a little fixing.

My plan for tomorrow is to spray the boot, bonnet and doors with two coats of primer, and then have a play with the undercoat and lacquer to see how that works. I've managed to get through about 10 litres of primer (5 litres of primer, plus 6 litres of thinner) spraying the car, and I have the equivalent of around 5 litres of base coat, so I can't make too many mistakes.

[R_D_Olivaw]

Take 2. Having written up what I did today I managed to close the browser window whilst checking the photos before saving.

The weather wasn't as good as last week's weather forecast had predicted, so today's work got off to a late start which resulted in a late end, and whilst things didn't all go well, I was happy with my progress.

The boot, bonnet and doors have now received two coats of primer, though my friend "the paint reaction" came back to haunt me on one door and the boot. I'm now 100% sure it's caused by some aerosol paint I used to cover up some work. The paint is impervious to sand paper but melts when it comes into contact with thinners. I will need to revisit the boot and door again, but since I'd forgotten to paint the door mirrors again, it won't be a big problem.

Here are a few photos from the day.

My gazebo did a good job of keeping the rain and wind off.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kvg2c9616q9mlu1/IMG_2575.JPG?dl=0

I sanded down and repainted this area, but I'll need to take another look as I must have missed some of the bad paint.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nfkrho7h6tp9aok/IMG_2576.JPG?dl=0

It was surprisingly light when I started, but pitch black by the time I packed up.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ibdow2t8s6g8zx8/IMG_2579.JPG?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9j7soab4xh9i00e/IMG_2580.JPG?dl=0

I'm not quite sure what caused the checkering in the paint, though I must admit I hadn't prepared my test panel very well, so it might have something to do with that. I'll take a look at the weekend when it's light and I can see what I'm doing. Don't worry about the colour, my local paint guy sold me some paint he had surplus to requirements and at a very reasonable price (£8 for 1 1/2 litres). It seems people must order paint but not collect it, so he gets stuck with it. The local art students must have cottoned onto this as he sells it off to them. I'll be practising on my test bonnet until I'm happy with the finish. Bad primer and lacquer I can sand down, but the base coat has to be perfect. Although the paint looks shiny it doesn't have any lacquer on it, so in theory it could look a lot better.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/f9rkmdxa7950krw/IMG_2586.JPG?dl=0

If anyone is interested in having their driveway painted please let me know, as I'm getting quite good at it.

[Tony Hayward]

Ian

Glad to see you are making good progress, even with the slight hiccups.

Carry on the good work, then come and paint my car!!!!

regards

Tony

[R_D_Olivaw]

Hi Tony,

I hope you meant drive!

[R_D_Olivaw]

Funny for the day.

When I finished my test painting last night the bonnet was still quite wet, so I carefully picked it up and moved it around the back of the house. When I came home this evening I thought I'd take a better look to see how the paint had dried. Imagine my surprise when I found 25% of it was on my path having been washed off by the rain.

The drive looks nice though in grey, yellow and blue!

[Fareham GT]

I told you buying lots of pots of child's poster paints was a bad idea!

BG

[R_D_Olivaw]

The man in Toys 'R' Us, assured me that they would do the trick.

[R_D_Olivaw]

It's a boy!

Okay it's not a boy but it is blue.

After a little bit of preparation and a few test sprays on my spare bonnet I put the first coat of blue paint onto Casper (376 ERC). All things considered it did go quite well, but there aren't many warm hours to paint and the first coat took over an hour to dry. In the end I got out some fan heaters to assist. Tomorrow I'll start earlier to give myself plenty of time to get another coat on plus at least one coat of lacquer.

I ran into a few small problems.
1. A small fly landed on the roof just after I'd painted it and then proceeded to trek across the roof leaving small footprints in the sand, so to speak. I'm not sure if he made it off alive or not.
2. I managed to touch the roof with my sleeve when it was still wet, but hopefully my quick repaint has removed all traces.
3. I do have a number of very small flies stuck on it, but they seem to come off easily once the paint has set.
4. I have some paint around the size of a fifty pence piece that did not adhere, so I'm guessing there must have been some contaminate that my degreaser and panel wipe managed to miss.
5. There were some runs, but they seemed to disappear once the paint had dried. That was lucky as they were quite major and all on the wheel arches. I probably had the gun too close when I sprayed them.

Here are a few pictures. If the final look is as good as the paint looked when it was wet I'll be happy.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lk8dglhadyq3kzf/IMG_2590.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7g3o4rhae9qo0w0/IMG_2593.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nzo9f1xhgxs3yr9/IMG_2596.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/b77usnby2e17fcx/IMG_2597.JPG?dl=0

Overall I'm very pleased with the results and should have plenty of paint left over if I need to redo some parts. I sprayed the car in a metallic blue similar to its previous colour, though it doesn't look very metallic in person.

As previously mentioned I'm available if you need your drive painted. I can do grey, blue, silver and black.

[R_D_Olivaw]

Today went a little better than expected, probably because I started earlier and had more time.

Things I learnt today were.
1. Wrap tape around the sleeves of your painting overall to stop them from touching the paint. I should have learnt this yesterday, but clearly the lesson had not sunk in.
2. Check how much lacquer you really have, just to make sure it's the same as the number in your head.
3. Think twice, no three times before deciding to spray a car, especially if you've never done it before and have never been able to spray anything well.

The car is now blue and lacquered; however there is still more painting to do as I have yet to paint the boot and bonnet. That aside I'll be able to put the doors back on the car and re-assemble them which will help to tidy up my garage.

I'm going to leave the car for a little while now as I have other things to get on with, but at some point I'll go over the lacquer with 2/3000 grit sand paper to take out some of the imperfections, and then go over it with a DA polisher to bring our the shine. All being well this shouldn't be a problem as I've done it before, but you just never know what could happen.

Here are a few pictures from the day.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rotjtzhxocvlahf/IMG_2602.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gi1ce2im3w9uba6/IMG_2603.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/erdlkvngs3mrqpe/IMG_2607.JPG?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sbkdblnwtwqmjwi/IMG_2608.JPG?dl=0

The new blue is a little more vibrant than the previous one, and a little darker, though the light hasn't been great so who knows what it will look like in the sunshine.

[Tony Hayward]

Ian

Well done!!
With all that streamlining over the door apertures, engine, boot and windows, it should go at least 20mph faster!! You will need to keep your cuffs tied to avoid the draft!

Keep up the good work.

Regards
Tony

[JayeM]

Well done, Ian!
I know I wouldn't have the courage or skill to try spraying at home like you have - great effort, and it looks like it's paid off handsomely.
Looking forward to seeing pics of it on the road next!
All the best,
John

[cminvader2]

Mark 11 rebuild continues
More progress on Invader, chassis finished and on all 4 wheels, and now body fitted, see pictures below. Now just a few little things to finish off, engine rebuild/fittment, gearbox, brakes, electrics, interior, paint, oh and badges! like I said just a few things.
But the inportant thing is it's actually going together at last!

Cheers Colin

[R_D_Olivaw]

It's looking good Colin, just try not to lose all those parts you've squirreled away.

The one thing that struck me in those photos is how tidy your garage is. I have a double garage and I'm constantly tripping over things. I think I'm suffering from a little garage envy.

[R_D_Olivaw]

Hi Tony & John,

Thanks for the kind words. It turned out to be a lot more time consuming and harder than I had expected, and as with most learning curves things didn't always go well. I know it's not perfect, but I think I'll be able to correct the problems I have next year when the weather is better. The main thing now is to finish off the boot, bonnet and door mirrors and put it all back together.

Luckily a chat with Brian Gent and the Hampshire Group avoided a major blunder, as I didn't realize you had to put the head lining back in before the windows went in and secondly, the installation method for the windows differs to other cars and all the videos I'd seen on YouTube.

Luckily Mr. Gent has kindly offered me his trailer services to get the car to a trimmer so I can get the headlining in, but that will need to wait until the end of November/Early December when I can afford it.

I'll try to take a photo of the car in the sunlight this weekend, if we have any, so you can see the real colour.