If you are a professional painter - you are a genius and should be given Knighthood status.
After no less than FOUR complete attempts on the rear right tail light rust, I've got the hang of sanding, filling & priming. That's the easy part for me. It's the next bit - the painty bit - that I just can not get my head around.
At one stage I thought I had it figured out! I used the combo of priming, wet-sanding at 2000 grit, then painting, wet sanding gently again to remove the orange-peel effect, then clear-coating.
It all went well until it got to the painting & clear coat part. That's when I just could not get rid of the matt-effect.
The reflection in my paintwork is rubbish. I wouldn't be able to see the Titanic if it parked next to me!
After sanding and painting for a few hours each night after work, and two weekends worth, I've just about finished. Still a little to be done here and there but generally things are looking ok.
I use the term "ok" in the broadest sense of the word. I think I'm a perfectionist trapped in a rush-job-cowboy's body!
After the tail light, I began sanding & tidying up the boot lid (trunk lid for those in the USA). Well, just the back bit.
I peeled all the badges off and began sanding it down to it's base coat. Followed by filling (aka "bogging") and more priming and more sanding.
There was a dent, and a "GSR" badge glued over the dent to sort-of minimise the dent. Nice try! I saw through the plan and pulled everything off the back of the car and started from scratch.
I've since found the most boring part of painting isn't the sanding or priming, but the WAITING!
After you've poured hours into preparing the surfaces for priming or painting, you spray your paint or whatever onto the body - then wait.
And wait.
Then, after you've got bored and started on something else, it's time for the next coat. You can't rush this part either (which frustrates me). I started wet-sanding after only an hour of spraying the paint and whoops, was that a mistake. Clumps of seemingly dry paint collected under the sandpaper and started putting little gouges into the rest of the soft paint.
I learnt my lesson! It's not worth it! Wait for the paint to dry according to the can!
Luckily there's heaps of other stuff to do on the car in-between paint coats so I soon got a rhythm going and was multitasking. Not bad for a mere male.
The painting is about 99% complete now. As you can see in one of the photos below, the back of the car is complete. I even repainted the bumper in Satin Black to freshen it up. Man does it make a difference!
Looking at the photo of the rear, the car looks like it could have just rolled off the production line.
Apart from, well most of my paintwork, it's not looking too bad. I will have some sections redone professionally once the car is complete but that's a way off yet. For now, I think it's enough to impress the Warrant of Fitness testing officer that there's no rust. Or at least none he can see... ;)
I don't think rust will be a major problem anymore for me from this point. The car will live permanently in the garage even when the conversion is complete, and I try to keep my cars washed and dried anyway which should aid in keeping any rust at bay.
I've used two pots of POR-15 so far, and anyone that's used this product can tell you that it's just incredible! It may be about a trillion dollars a litre but wow does it kill rust (and I mean dead - forever) leaving a thick, resin-like coating that is as hard as diamonds. It's just the bee's knees of rust killing & I'll never use anything else!
After this evening I'm happy to say the painting is now complete! I painted the front bumper and it's starting to look like a decent car... without an engine.
I'm sure the neighbours will be relieved and glad to hear no more paint-balls rattling each night.
Now that I can forget about shaking paint cans each night, it's time to begin cleaning the car and getting that classic old car odour out of the carpet and seats! Some serious scrubbing lies ahead!
