I've decided that, with a healthy YouTube channel (thank you!) and, in my opinion, a better video product that blog product, it's time for me to suspend regularly updating the Roundtail Restoration blog. I'm always behind and it's become increasingly difficult to keep up. Where I am now with the restoration (constant sanding and spraying) is very repetitive and not very exciting. Writing posts that I think are informative and useful has become quite a challenge.
But, Roundtail Restoration is not going away. Domains are cheap, Blogger is free, and there's a lot of good information in here.
Note that I did use the word "suspend". When I start to get into the reassembly phase, things will get much more exciting and there will be many new lessons to learn. At that point, I will resume regular posts.
I want to thank each and every one of you, my subscribers especially. The support has been amazing and your feedback well taken. I will maintain the subscriber's list. When I make an update, I will let all of you know, as usual.
If you would like to cancel your subscription, please email me here. If you'd like to subscribe, email me here.
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Thank you!
For convenience, here are all of the recent videos that I have not already posted in the blog:
To make sure I knew what to expect and try to learn some lessons, I took an old 240Z fender that was in bad shape, stripped it down to bare metal, and built it back up through base coat and clear coat.
I used the same methods and steps that I am using on Dorothy. I learned several things along the way, including the fact that I had my gun set up improperly since...well, since I started painting.
Turns out the regulator needs to be the last thing in the air line before the gun. I had the desiccant filter in there. So, my air pressure, while indicating the "right" pressure, was reading artificially high because of the back-pressure provided by the desiccant filter. Since I'm a rookie and didn't really know what the correct spray pattern looked like, outside of a "cat-eye", I went with it. I'm usually smarter than that.
All in all, I was happy with how it turned out, though I have more to learn on cutting and buffing. Based on my new gun set up, I took some of the panel back down to bare metal and will be doing another section again, up through clear coat, just to make sure I know what, if anything, I need to change.
Here are the videos of the series and the dedicated video to how I figured out I was doing it all wrong. Thanks!
If you were ever in the military, you probably know that there is a procedure for everything...and I do mean everything. For the Navy, this includes how to use threaded fasteners properly.
Now, before you think that this may be a simple thing, remember that the Navy operates warships in the harshest environments on the planet. Just like most complex mechanical objects, these warships are held together with countless threaded fasteners...nuts and bolts.
The removal, inspection, and tightening of these threaded fasteners is vitally important to ensure that one of this nation's warships can go into harm's way, take battle damage, and come out victorious and still afloat.
The Navy's procedure for the use of threaded fasteners is Naval Ships Technical Manual 075. This publicly available document is simply awesome if you want to know the theory behind and methods used to ensure your threaded fasteners are properly tightened and stay that way.
I did a 4-part set of videos focusing on the classic car application of NSTM 075. I'll warn you that a lot of it is me talking, but there's a lot of good information in there. I hope you learn something!
Time to get caught up. This post will be a bit long in doing so. I finished up the sill rework to include getting seam sealer in the gap. That worked out really well thanks to a recommendation from one of my regular viewers. Speaking of which, to the video:
Earlier this month I ordered what will hopefully be the last of my paint supplies from SPI. I got another quart kit of epoxy, but this time in white. I'll use this as my final sealing coat (it'll be reduced by about 25%). I'm going with white instead of grey to give the red a bit brighter of a base to go down on. I'm not sure that it'll really matter, but hopefully it'll give it a bit more "pop" than it would have over grey epoxy.
I also ordered another quart of medium red as I used about 1/3 of a quart for tinting the Raptor Liner. My concern is that I would run out of red in the middle of painting. That wouldn't be incredibly terrible but for the fact that all of the base coat cans should be about evenly combined and mixed to ensure a uniform color. If I had two quarts that I mixed, than ran out and got a third from a different batch, the color may not match. That would have bugged the hell out of me. So, I got another quart. I may not use it, but better safe than sorry.
The last thing that I got was some more Wax and Grease remover but this time, it's solvent-based instead of water-based. For whatever chemical reason, the water-based stuff shouldn't be used to clean base coat. Since the solvent-based stuff is okay on anything and I wasn't sure if I was going to need to spray the base coat, I got a gallon of it. It's supposedly really good to clean your oven, too, so I may try that when I'm all done with the paint job. Good excuse to spend the money right there!
More paint and supplies. That's a bit over $200 worth right there. Stuff's not cheap!
Toward the end of the last post, I wrote about putting down some body filler in various spots to clean up some of my weld seams and panel-to-panel gaps and such. I did more of that, including some minor filler pitting that I had on the bulkhead repair that I did a forever ago.
Polyester filler are the sill-to-upper-A-post seam.
Once that filler was all dry, I sanded it all smooth, blocked everything out through 320-grit and hit the car all over (exterior) with another round of epoxy primer and left it to cure for a few days.
With fresh epoxy covering the bare metal, especially around my sill rework, it was time to get the rework finished up with filler and seam sealer. I did a couple of applications of filler and got it all blocked out. Turns out that area is now better than the driver's side, so quite a turn around.
For the seam sealer application, I put blue painters tape on either side of the gap (recommended by a viewer) to bound the area and filled it will seam sealer, running it down smooth with my finger. This will give me a flexible seal in the seam that hopefully won't crack with the bumps of the road.
Seam sealer. Hard to see since it's about the same color as the epoxy.
There wasn't a whole lot else to do that night since it was towards the later side and a school night, so I decided to give wet sanding a try. Turns out I bought the wrong sanding discs (not wet/dry), but with some water and my 3M DA sander, I went through 400-grit wet (they held up good enough). Smooth as silk! I didn't take any pictures because you really couldn't tell the difference unless you felt it. That was about it for that visit.
When I came back again, my first job was to get the big compressor fixed. I found both a start and a run capacitor on, where else, Amazon and bought them both. Capacitors can be tricky to verify broken, so I played it safe and got both (under $20 for the pair). I swapped them out and the compressor started and ran fine...for about 3 minutes. It locked back up on me. So, I took it all back apart again, cleaned some contacts for the centrifugal clutch up, put it all back together, and it has been running strong since. Not sure that I actually needed those capacitors after all, but it's working, so good enough for me!
Horrible picture of the old starting capacitor. Run capacitor is to the right of the shot.
As far as Dorothy goes, my object was to start back in on the bonnet. I decided to stop wet sanding the body. With it needing to stay in the "paint booth" because of my limited room, I didn't want overspray from other things that still needed to be painted to mess up my wet sanding. Therefore, I covered it with plastic and moved it, sideways, to the back of the booth.
I put the bonnet on the rack, inner side up, and got to work on that. My only goal was to get it in epoxy following some block sanding and such that exposed some bare metal, especially in the areas under the wheel arches.
Because this area was tight, I purchased a Harbor Freight touch-up spray gun. As always, I used a coupon and, for about $25, it was mine. It's only got a 0.8mm tip (the epoxy calls for a 1.4 or 1.5mm tip) so I was concerned that may be an issue. Only one way to find out!
Ain't it cute?!
Because I struggled with is so much when I was setting my gaps, I also wanted to get the transverse support tube installed prior to painting color so I didn't mess up the paint trying to adjust it. I measured the gaps between the end of the tube and the wheel arch support brackets after getting my gaps all set (and before removing the tube) so that I could put it back in about the same spot.
Measurement prior to taking it apart.
With that, I put the tube back in and tightened it down...or not. Either because I wasn't that carefull or just years of vibration (or both), the threads on the studs had flattened out so much that I couldn't tighten the nut. It would only get so (not) tight, then just kind of skip.
The studs. The rear one was compromised by functional, but the front one was shot.
I brainstormed for a bit (you can see that about here in the video) and was ready to drill the bracket out and replace the studs, but decided that it would be better to just paint what I had (I had already mixed the epoxy and didn't want to waste it) and worry about the stud after I asked for advice on my favorite forum. Thanks goodness I did!
Following paint.
The little paint gun did very well. I was actually quite impressed with the coverage and the spray pattern. It allowed me to get into the tight spots, actually putting it through the headlight bucket opening, to get to all the tight areas. I'm sure there are other options out there for a touch-up gun, but I'd recommend this one if you don't have your heart set on something else. The true test will be when I need to lay down red and clear coat. I may change my tune then, but we'll see!
Painting wrapped it up for that visit and I came back for the next one armed with a solution to my stud problem. A gentleman on the forum, a machinist by trade, recommended running a metric die on the stud and converting it from the 1/4-28 UNF thread that it was (want to know what that means? Watch my threaded fastener video) to a 6 x 1 metric thread. The size difference was just small enough to cut fresh metal for the metric size, but not so much smaller that I would compromise its strength. It worked like a champ!
Post- repair.
If you look closely at the picture above, you'll notice that the threads kind of flatten out in the middle. That's where the damage was. However, I cut just enough metal that the nut gets good purchase and does tighten. I didn't get crazy with it, but I think it's good enough. I also cut down the rear stud just to be sure.
All better.
With that all done, I went for another round of epoxy in there to cover the minor portions of the tube that hadn't gotten a full coating. I also did a random assortment of other pieces (door hinges, headlight buckets, windscreen brackets, etc.).
All sorts of stuff ready to paint.
I also cleaned up the hardware that held the bonnet pivot support tubes. I had cleaned these all previously, removing all of the old paint. With the summer's increased humidity, this stuff started to surface rust since they were original fasteners and, therefore, not zinc plated. I scuffed up those and a few areas in the wheel arches and hit those with epoxy primer as well. There is another coat or two of Raptor Liner in it's future.
Passenger's wheel arch, rust protected.
All those parts above, painted.
That was about it. You may notice a strange, large, white piece in a the picture above. I mention it in my video a few times. That's a wasted 240Z fender that my garage mate kindly donated to the cause. I'm going through the whole bare metal to clear coat process on that to make sure my procedures work. It's still in the epoxy phase, but here's the video so far on that:
That's all I've got and I'm all caught up...for now. Thanks for reading and watching!
Sorry, folks. I've made several videos since I last updated my blog, but only two of them are really work in progress videos. However, I did do a series on redoing the seats, which I'll provide below:
Definitely a topic that lends itself much more to video than it does words. The link is a dedicated playlist for all three videos.
I also am in the midst of a 4-part series on threaded fasteners using the lessons and directions that we used in the Navy. It's a lot of me talking, but it's full of information. Here's those:
I tried to make these videos shorter, but I talk to damn much. I should get the last one out soon.
As for the work that I did in direct support of the restoration in progress, most of it has centered on some re-work. I never liked the area where my passenger's side sill met the B-post. While contemplating the extent of that rework, I had a sort of epiphany as I stared at it; I'm probably not going to have the car on the road this season, so I may as well just get it fixed right. Otherwise, it would stare at me every time I walked up on the car.
Construction-wise, the sill sits on top of a flange in the B-post. I don't think it was ever spot-welded (from the factory) in this area, but it was brazed.
When I was struggling with my gaps, a very kind gentleman from England who works in the industry was kind enough to send me some pictures of the last Triumph Spitfire, in Inca Yellow, that rolled out of the factory in Canley. It rolled right into the British Motor Museum and is the top car in a 3-car rack (along with a TR6 and MG Midget). It's only got about 10 miles on it, so this was the standard coming off the line in August of 1980. One thing I will mention is the gentleman told me that the tooling, jigs, and fixtures they were using by that time were over 20 years old, well past their "sell by" date (which is about 7 years).
The sill-to-B-post transition. Notice the brazing spot.
As an FYI, this is the front sill cap. Guess that little edge that I left on mine should have been ground down.
On the stop shelf. You can just see the top of the Midget below it.
Now I knew the look that I needed to recreate. The metal had been damaged a bit when I was putting the sill in, causing the gap. Since there was no access behind it, I had to cut a window to make the repairs.
Tracing out my cut area. Sorry that I didn't take a "before" picture.
This was easily accomplished with a metal cutoff wheel.
The window to the repair.
The flange on the B-post needed some help. It had a few holes in it and just needed some love and straightening. I did the best I could.
After some work.
Once I got the flange as good as I was going to get it, it was time to fit the cut-off piece back up to check fit. Not so hot.
Huge gap! Time for some weld build-up.
I did a weld build-up right at the vertical-to-horizontal transition near the top. This corner should be relatively sharp but was rounded at some point during the sill replacement (or old sill removal).
The step of the flange in the B post was deep enough that the sill didn't rest on it (guess that's why they didn't spot-weld it). But, I needed something make up the gap, so I welded a flange on the cut-out piece and removed some of the damaged flange that was therefore no longer required. It was kind of a hybrid flange, I guess you could say, but it made it easier to get it fit up.
Damaged flange area cut out. The weld build-up in the corner of the B-post is also easier to see here.
With that figured out, it was time to weld it all back up. Getting it all sized and adjusted was not that easy since it was a blind weld, so to speak. I couldn't hold the cut-out piece in place with a magnet and see what gap I was going to get at the same time, so I used some tape. The video does a better job of showing this. Eventually, though, I got it lined up and welded in.
Piece replaced. That rounded corner at the union is much sharper now.
And with minimal gap.
With it all welded in, I got some fiberglass filler on it to provide some reinforcement (I should have epoxied it first...grrr). I was careful to keep the fiberglass out of the joint itself because I was afraid it would eventually crack since I'm sure this is a flexible joint.
Fiberglass filler applied and curing.
Sanded down good enough.
I sanded the fiberglass down to get the high spots off. I'll get it into epoxy primer on the next visit and then do "normal" filler work on it to get if flat.
What the gap and union look like after the repair.
Once all of the filler work is done and epoxy is down, I'll use seam sealer to seal the gap that remains. It should also give it a cleaner look as well.
Speaking of cleaner look, I also used some polyester filler, after scuffing the epoxy, to fill some of the areas on the upper A-post that needed it. I'm not too concerned with this area since it'll be covered by the bonnet a majority of the time, but there were definitely some spots that needed the attention. Namely the sill to A-post area had some decent gaps. The polyester filler, along with the epoxy that will go over it, should keep any moisture out of there.
Polyester filler applied and in the process of being sanded smooth.
Next post, I'll finish up with the sill repairs and move on to the bonnet, which also gave me some problems. Thanks for reading and watching!
Holy cow! I just looked and it's been almost a month since my last blog update. Whoops! I did have some vacation in there, so there was that, but I'll try to get caught up here somewhat.
First, the new compressor works fine, but I don't know how to clean a paint gun! To the video:
I was able to get back over to the garage within a day of the compressor failing so that I could spray the epoxy that I had mixed up when the compressor failed. The pot life on the epoxy primer is north of 72 hours (temperature dependent) and I was at about 36 hours since mixing, so well within the window.
Given that, I gave it a quick stir, set everything up and laid the paint down. This is what I ended up with:
Looks like my Raptor Liner!
That wasn't good. I recognized it after laying down the first coat and decided to lay down a second coat. The texture wasn't too bad and I figured I could block it out. But why, oh why, did this happen? Turns out my lack of experience, and tendency to plow through, led me to miss obvious signs of a problem.
First, I had to crank open the paint supply valve on the gun much more than I normally do based on my pre-paint testing. I normally do about 1 1/4 turns open on the supply for my first epoxy coat. I needed over 2 turns this time. That was my first indictaion.
Second, the spray pattern itself was kidney-bean shaped. This shape is indicative of either a clogged fluid tip or air cap. I knew something was up, but wasn't sure what. But, again, I plowed through, resulting in two wet coats of textured epoxy. While the look was cool, it wasn't what I wanted, of course!
The spray pattern.
After I put down those two coats, knowing I had a problem but not why (yet), I called it a night before I did any further damage.
I returned to the garage, having figured it all out after asking around on the SPI forum and got to blocking. Fortunately, though it took a lot of elbow grease, I was able to block all of the texture out.
The dark areas are where I haven't blocked down to, yet.
The passenger's rear wing, post-blocking.
I guess one good thing about this, in hindsight, is that I got another good blocking session out of it. I started with 220-grit because I didn't want to burn through if I could help it. While this took more time to get the texture out, it did provide another chance to get everything flat again. Got to always look for the positive in learning something!
With that mistake taken care off, it was onward and upward, with build primer next. I did about 3 full coats of build primer, waiting 5-minutes in between coats to let it flash.
Build primer done!
That was all I had time for that visit and I returned the next to start blocking. I remember to use some guide coat this time and started blocking it at 220-grit. It went fine with some burn-through areas to bare metal, but I expected that.
Passenger's side, post-blocking.
After that, I broke out my 3M random orbital sander and sanded it all with 320-grit. This was very nice and a hell of a lot easier than blocking by hand. From my research and a bit of common sense, once you start getting above the 200's for sandpaper grit, you'd really have to stay in one area for a while before you start to make a sizeable dent in the paint.
I'll hand block out to 220-grit, but above that, even with not much experience, I consider myself safe to use an random orbital sander from that point out. One other nice thing about random orbital stuff is that, unlike direct-drive sanders (a gross example be an angle grinder), the random orbitals will stop spinning if you apply too much pressure. That makes it a bit forgiving.
Don't get me wrong, you can still mess up your paint and cause some waves, but it's a bit harder to do with a random orbital. The same goes for polishers, but I won't need to worry about that until after clear coat!
Speaking of clear coat, I tried to simulate it by spraying down the driver's side rear wing to get a look at how bad it was, waviness-wise. I was pleasantly surprised. Not too bad. But, I was ready to be done with that stuff, so that's all for now. Cheers!
A bit behind again, so this will be a two-fer. Starting off, once you spray, you must block! To the video!
At the end of the last update, I got three coats of 2K build primer on the inside of the bonnet and on the sills and rear of the. With the next visit, it was time to start blocking it all out.
Sounds like a broken record, huh? But, to provide a bit more information, I started with 150-grit blocking, then moved to 220-grit, and then on to 320-grit. I'm doing this all by hand for now as the use of an orbital sander scares me a bit...afraid I'll cut in too deep and mess something up.
As I stated with the inside of the bonnet, I am trying to flatten it out to make up for the fact that I didn't take it to bare metal except in spots that had some rust. I wanted to make sure it was all surface stuff, which is was, but that resulted in a difference in height between the paint and the bare metal. Not something I thought about at the time, but once I had started the path back to red, the subtle height difference was quite apparent. This was my second round of 3 coats of build primer and I was hoping that would do it.
The build primer is made to fill in the subtle lows and the rest of it, on the higher spots, gets sanded into dust and brushed to the floor. It's the last step in make sure your panel is straight. It's not magical though, so if you didn't get it the panel near 100% with either metal work or filler, the build primer is not going to save you! There are other options out there that are more aggressive, you could say, like Slick Sand or Feather Fill (both by Evercoat; I'm sure there are lots of options out there). These are essentially sprayable filler material. I didn't really look into this as an option. No real reason and it may have been a better choice for me in the long run, but I really can't say either way.
Again, I start with 150-grit blocking, using a 4-inch or 9-inch block depending on the panel. The inside of the bonnet is tricky because the curves are concave, which makes it harder to block. But, it is the inside of the bonnet, so I'm not so concerned about it being perfect. I'm not going to cheat and put down Raptor Liner, but I've had that discussion with myself more than once!
Once the 150-grit is done, it's on to 220-grit, also with a 4- or 9-inch block.
Following blocking through 220-grit.
The desire is that as you move up in grits (e.g., 150 to 220 to 320) you would like to get a longer block, going all the way out to 18" if possible (which is the longest block that I have. They make a 24-inch and even a 30-inch one as well, but I figured that was overkill for Dorothy's small stature). The longer the block, all things being equal, the straighter the panel when your done. But, the inside being convex, I was mainly locked into using the 4-inch or 9-inch block. In some spots, I used a 4-inch soft block that allowed me to follow the contour and even just my bare hand, though lightly so as not to introduce unevenness.
Trouble areas near the wheel arches. More blocking.
Same concerns, but other side.
The garage mate was headed over for a rare visit while I was there and I was going to have him help me flip the bonnet so I could start the "good" side. We got to talking about the garage layout and the amount of stuff that we had both accumulated over the preceding several years and we decided to go to town, gut the place, clean it up quite a bit, and reorganize and restow everything. The sucked up the rest of the day, but the results were worth it. We got rid of a lot of junk and otherwise made a more efficient use of the 20' x 40' space.
Tool box is on other side now and much more accessible.
New shelving unit and a better use of space (like the drill press where it can be always plugged in).
The day before my next visit, I ran my son over to the garage to help me flip the bonnet so I could get started on it the when I got there. With the bonnet flipped, I got to blocking, following the same process as I explain above. This time I used some cheap Walmart spray paint as a guide coat (get the flat black, the gloss black tends to clog the sandpaper a bit more) to block out the bonnet through 220-grit.
"Guide coat" applied.
Post guide coat blocking, other side.
One thing that I should have done is spray guide coat between each grit of sandpaper so that I could tell if it was getting better (or worse). I may have also done some light hammer and dolly work in there, but only very minor stuff (shhhh).
For the area around the headlight buckets and the parking lamps and turn signals, I mainly used the 4-inch soft block or my hand as these were tight areas. A red scuff pad worked here, too, if for nothing else than to smooth it all out.
Tricky area.
I got through 220-grit and stopped. I wasn't happy with the scratch marks that I had and I kind of locked up on what to do about it.
All blocked through 220-grit.
After some thinking and looking at my doors, which are almost perfectly smooth compared to the bonnet, I think I just need more paint. I stopped for the night at that point to ask questions on the SPI Forum.
Next visit:
My ace in the hole, hopefully, is the 3M palm sander that I have. I brought it out towards the end of the first video in this post. I picked up a flexible edge hook and loop backing pad, an interface pad, and some 320- and 400-grit sanding discs. By the way, I've been using the Dura-gold stuff that Amazon sells and have been happy with it. They didn't have 400-grit discs in stock for prime shipping, so I went with (and the link is to) a different brand called TigerShark, which incidentally is more expensive. I don't like it as much as the Dura-gold; doesn't seem to hold up as well. But, I did get 50 disks, so that may be enough not to matter.
As a little present to me, I also got a set of 3M Worktunes bluetooth ear muffs. These things are pretty cool. I usually have something going in the garage - music, talk radio, random podcasts - but I couldn't hear anything while I was blocking and doing other stuff. These things take care of that very nicely. The sync with my phone and voila! Entertainment!
With the palm sander all set up with 320-grit paper, I got to sanding. Much faster of course, but I was being very gentle, letting the sander do the work. I was especially careful on edges so that I didn't burn through to bare metal if at all possible. I didn't really have a problem with this, probably because the sand paper isn't very aggressive at 320-grit.
Once I got through the 320-grit, it was on to the 400-grit, following the same method. The scratches, however, remained. This makes sense, of course. If you don't work your way up through the grits, getting, for example, the 150-grit scratches out with the 220-grit paper, and the 220-grit scratches out with the 320-grit, by the time you get to the 400-grit, you're not even touching the 150-grit scratches...they're just too deep.
Example of some bonnet scratches.
More scratches, a bit easier to see.
These examples were on the bonnet, but the body was similar. I had posted these pics along with questions on the SPI Forum and everyone essentially agreed that I'll need more paint. Because I've got bare metal spots, I prepared to do full-strength epoxy (two coats) on the body and the bonnet.
By the way, I think I've mentioned this before, but that SPI Forum is just a good as my favorite forum. The people are understanding and easy on you. There are a couple of guys on there that do this stuff, or did do this stuff, for a living and they're experience is awesome. Also some high-end restoration guys on there, too, I think. So much great information.
Body all ready for more epoxy. You can see a good size bare metal spot behind the wheel arch.
The guy who has the next unit over was there, so I asked him to help me flip the bonnet and, with that, I got the wire tabs welded in. I had gotten these made and painted in epoxy (with a paint brush) quite a while ago (I don't even know how long to give a link to you). The epoxy needed to come off for welding, so I clamped the tabs in, marked the holes with a Sharpie, pulled them back off and got the epoxy removed. I couldn't get the flattened drill bit in there and the epoxy is very stubborn to come off, so it was easier on the bench.
Tabs clamped in and ready to get welded.
I've run into this before, but again I had the problem of finding a good ground for the welder since the bonnet is covered in paint. Fortunately, the very ends of the tabs were not painted. I had taped them all to a piece of metal so I could handle that vice the little tabs themselves when painting. These provided my bare metal spot and I clamped the ground strap right to them.
Problem solved!
I had intended to paint the body and the bonnet (standing it up on end) all at the same time, but the limited size of my "spray booth" made me nervous that I would bump something wet with paint or, worst yet, back into the bonnet and knock it over. I decided to just stick with the body for now and the bonnet will get love sometime in the future.
With the paint mixed and induced, it was time to spray and everything was going just fine until...the compressor seized up! That was a big bummer. I finished as much as I could with what was left in the tank, but it wasn't much. I got one coat on about half of the body, maybe a bit less.
Needless to say I was pretty upset. It's the garage mate's compressor and I've used it the most, so it was on me as far as I was concerned. I let him know and, turns out, the thing was pushing 20 years old and he was surprised it hadn't died already. He also had another compressor. A bit smaller, but oil-lubricated vice oil-free like the one I broke. That means it runs quieter and, more importantly, cooler, hopefully helping me with my moisture concerns. It has a 30-gallon tank (vice 60) and puts out about 10scfm at 40psi (vice 13 or so). I think it'll work, especially if I'm careful in how much I shoot at one shot. Another benefit of having such a small car!
We were able to get the compressor to the garage that night, but it will require some wiring modification (it's a 220v machine but has a different plug than the other one), but he's going to take care of it. I should be back in the painting business on my next visit!
Oh, while I'm thinking of it, I've started a new YouTube playlist focusing on lessons learned and tips. It won't be anything Earth shattering but just random recollections of things I've picked up along the way. There is only one video as of now, but I hope to add them at irregular intervals. And they should be pretty short, as well. Here's the first in which I also give you a bit of my background:
Getting back to the progress, as the title suggests, I got some 2K build primer on both the back of the tub and on the inside of the bonnet. I did several other things too, of course.
End results of epoxy on the driver's seat.
And these are the front bumper brackets. I plan on putting them in Raptor Liner, too.
I also figured out since the last visit that I had put the steering column switches in on the wrong sides. Turns out the headlight switch goes where modern cars have their turn signals (at least in the USA) and the turn signal on the other side. I wonder how many times I'll turn the headlights on to make a right turn?
Also, if you remember, none of the adhesive that I had tried up to that point had worked. For the first time in my life, I bought some JB Weld. I'm not sure if that's saying anything or not, but it worked, of course, so I was happy!
Much better.
I also took another crack at recovering one of the crash pads under the dash. This one came out pretty good and I'll probably take it. The transition from the foam strip to the metal still has some vinyl bunching up on me. I may revisit, but we'll see.
Not perfect, but better.
With that done, I moved on to getting the underside of the bonnet and the back of the body in 2K build primer. The reason for doing the underside of the bonnet again was an attempt to level off the inside where I didn't take it all to bare metal. As for the body, this would be the first time it was put into build primer.
In the video, I go extensively into how to mix the stuff and other information germane to the 2K build primer. I won't go into here, but if you want to watch that stuff, you can link to the portion of the video right here. Very briefly, the stuff mixes 4:1 (instead of 1:1 like the epoxy), there is no induction time, the pot life is short (30-45 minutes) and I spray it a bit slower than epoxy. You also need a larger spray tip because the stuff is really thick; I use a 2.2mm one.
The bonnet.
Driver's side.
Passenger's side.
At the very end of the visits, I break out one of my seat covering kits and show you a lot of that. I really just wanted to mess with it as I'll need to be serious when I'm ready to go at it. Unlike the crash pads, I'm afraid I'll only get one crack at the seats so I want to study up and make sure I give myself the best chance of doing it right the first time.
I promise that I will do a full, dedicated video on that when I get there. That's all for now. Cheers!
