What was the problem with white when wetsanding in the sun? Just out of curiousity. I have a beater white neon in need of a trunk and rear fascia. It'd be cool if I could paint the parts this way.

The main problem was nearly going blind looking into a direct reflection of the sun. It was bad even with sunglasses on.

looks great! what seats are those, if you don't mind me whoring your thread...

No idea what brand seats they are. My dad gave them to me for a christmas present last year. I think that he got them from his mechanic. They have no logos on them so I don't know if they are a Chinese "no-name" seat or if they are known name seat that has been re-trimmed.

I'm really happy with them but since I have installed the roll cage I almost have to do a few warm-ups before I can get into the car.

A more realistic evaluation of the seats would be probably my wife's less positive (and un-printable) thoughts on them.....

That gary fishhead picture in your profile is just killin' me. LOL.

Mark

True.
No matter what method of painting you do white is the easiest and most forgiving color to paint. As a body shop friend of mine puts it "white hides a multitude of sins" ;)

Wow
Thanks Assie Driver for taking the time to give the rest of us an education - now that I wrote that I remember something in one of your posts about other teachers car so I guess you're staying within you profession. I look forward to more info

One trick for painting around the windshield moldings / seals (?) is to take some weedeater line (works best because it has flat edges), lift the edges and lay under. This will give you a space that you can get paint underneath the seal. Over time seals tend to shrink a bit so old colors or old paint wouldn't show through.

No excuses for my paint job now other than time

I was following that other thread before about the enamel paint and thinners but gave up on it because of all the problems guys were having with orange peal -> using the wrong thinners etc.
This sounds very interesting though and it's got me back to thinking of painting my car myself again.
Keep us updated Aussie Driver !
It looks like one great job you've done so far.
I defo want to see the end results on this one !!

I managed to get some time over the weekend to start working on the final sanding and polishing of the car. I only worked on the hood, and I sanded everything down with 1200 and then 1500 sandpaper, and tried to get everything as flat as possible.

My first polishing experiment was using TurtleWax swirl remover with a fixed speed polisher, using the foam polishing pad that came with the polisher.


http://swoolmer.bigblog.com.au/data/...1119100452.JPG


You can see just how little work that combo achieved. I was fairly surprised to be honest. That polisher is a $150 unit and that pic was taken after about 20 mins of polishing.

My next experiment was to use Poorboy's SSR2.5 with a random orbital polisher (similar specs to a PC) and a cutting pad.


http://swoolmer.bigblog.com.au/data/...1119100452.JPG

Now that is a finish that I'm happier with!!! To get the paint looking like that I had the polisher going flat out to generate as much heat as possible with the polish. I also kept polishing until the polish residue had almost totally disappeared. There are a number of deeper scratches in the paint that the SSR2.5 didn't get out, so I'm going to try again with some SSR3 which is a heavier cutting compound.

One thing that I'm really impressed with is the depth of shine that the SSR2.5 was able to produce. Normally an aggressive swirl remover like the SSR2.5 will leave some holograms that need to be removed with a pass of a normal polish with a polishing pad. That pic was taken after only doing the cutting. Potentially a polish will further improve the reflection.

The last pic is sort of a progression pic. The reflection of the garage roof is where I used the SSR2.5, the top of the hood has not been polished at all after the sanding and the left of the pic is the area that I polished with the TurtleWax. The headlight covers and nose cone haven't been touched since they were painted.


http://swoolmer.bigblog.com.au/data/...1119100452.JPG


I'm actually really impressed with the polishing experiment. As the guy who started this whole roller paintjob thing has said, it's not how the paint is applied that matters, it's how it is finished that makes the difference.

Plan on painting the engine bay? I've seen it done the motor still in, just wrapped in cloth and painter's tape.

Any updates or pics?

heres mine after the first coat:

http://www.neonshaun.com/miata/first%20coat.jpg

My main update is that my car was hit on the left hand door and rear quarter panel by a Ford Exploder and it now has about $1K of damage done to it. But thankfully the Ford didn't roll on top of me and burst into flames (that's unusual for a Explorer isn't it?) and the Ford only ended up with my black paint on the side of its bull bar....

Other than that I have been playing with my 'track bits';


http://swoolmer.bigblog.com.au/data/...1206151026.JPG


http://swoolmer.bigblog.com.au/data/...1206151026.JPG


So far I haven't polished the boot/wing, those shots are straight after it was rolled.

That is looking VERY neat!!!

What paint and color are you using?

using brightside "steel grey"

i dont know though... its turning out REALLY REALLY weird. I did my first wetsand a few days ago, and have since put on 2 more coats.

For some reason, these last 2 coats havent gone on nearly as smooth. I can see streaks from the edges of the roller and stuff... if i go over it again with the roller before i tip with a foam brush, it seems to make the streaking worse.

The first coat, right over the base red paint, went on really really smooth. I dont know what is happening.

Tomorrow i plan on wetsanding again with 1000 then 1500 grit, before the final 4th coat. Hopefully in 2 weeks it will be hard enough to wetsand with 2000 and buff with a PC. I'll have it sitting in my garage at 90 degrees each night till then... although it seems plenty hard after only 2 days of sitting (i cant scratch ANY off with my nails...)

humm. i hope the 4th coat goes on better...

If you are getting any marks from the roller appearing in the next coat of paint then I would suggest that you go back to maybe 800 or even 600 grade sandpaper and give the car a really gentle and thorough wet sand until everything is perfectly smooth.

I spent an hour or so sanding the boot in the pics above with 600. I did the sanding in small circular motion, covering about the same area as a cd/dvd until the paint felt really smooth, before moving onto the area next to it and repeating the technique. It felt like I was sanding forever but the results were really worth it.

When I do my painting, I don't use a foam brush. Instead I use another clean roller and go over the paint very lightly with that to remove all of the bubbles and to remove any 'lines' left in the paint from the first roller.

uhhh! Sorry brother but get that HUGE-ass-Erector-set wing off of there!!! There is no need for it unless you want your car to be laughed at and called rice all day. REally, who needs that much downforce???

maybe ill get another roller then...

do you think 2 weeks is long enough to wait before buffing?

If the extra downforce results in a faster lap time then I want/need it. Besides, that bootlid will only be fitted to the car for the track, and the rest of the time the car will be running with the other bootlid which has the rear lip spoiler on it.

And if anyone wants to laugh at my car with these 'bits' on it so it is faster at the track, then they can knock themselves out. I don't care cause I'll be the person taking home our Club's Motorsport Trophy (Modified Class), not them.

Waiting two weeks before buffing should be fine. Just make sure that you only use a swirl remover and a polish on the car. Don't use a sealant!!! Any sealant (either a wax or a synthetic sealant) will literally seal the paint and the paint then won't be able to out-gas and harden properly.

By all means do your polishing, but don't seal the paint.