"The Ayatollah of Rusty Hole'a 1987 SWB 6.0 4L80E

[Gordonr1973]

Then it was time to get ready for my base and pearl.

Yes, I'm doing the truck in caddy diamond white.

Yes, this is the first time I have ever painted a vehicle.

Yes, I'm spraying it in my garage.

Yes, I don't know why I chose that color either for my first paint job.

Yes, I know I'm crazy!! lol

[Gordonr1973]

This is 3 coats base and 2 coats pearl...hard to get a good picture of it close up, but it looks okay.

I should say that I am using TP Tools Showtime 90 PLX turbine paint system.

I only have a 20 gal compressor that is decent, but I can't keep oil and water out of the lines and I wanted to be sure the air was clean.

It was easy to get used to and Carmen at TP Tools helped me get the gun set up correctly, so I was really happy with their customer service.

Plus, so far it turned out pretty good, have a bit of orange peel in spots due to my error. But since it is just the spots where it will be hard to see once all put together, I'll chaulk it up to experience and fix the areas that are in plain sight.

Will spray the clear tomorrow.

[cletis]

Way to jump in with both feet! I have never sprayed either and I'm looking to learn. I have found out though on a few projects, wet sanding can improve a paint job alot.

[steemin_ehman]

Holy!! Looking good! I may have to come take a peak at your paint system set up, I'd love to be able to paint in my garage!
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[Palf70Step]

Looking real good!

[Greenlee]

Sweet! Nice work.
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[Gordonr1973]

Originally Posted by cletis

Way to jump in with both feet! I have never sprayed either and I'm looking to learn. I have found out though on a few projects, wet sanding can improve a paint job alot.

Thanks, I bought a wetsander so I can do the outside next spring after I paint it. I might do a bit on the inside in the trouble spots if it isn't too cold out when I do it.

[Gordonr1973]

Originally Posted by steemin_ehman

Holy!! Looking good! I may have to come take a peak at your paint system set up, I'd love to be able to paint in my garage!
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No prob, you can come check it out.

But doing it in your garage will stink up your house no matter how sealed you think you can get it!

[73gmc454]

Looks great , I like the fact you just went ahead and did it yourself , no need to spend a year waiting on somebody else to do it !

[noonzor]

looks awesome man! where abouts in edmonton are you? im in st.albert.

[Gordonr1973]

Thanks guys.

I'm in the southwest part of town, beside Riverbend in Twin Brooks.

Shot the clearcoat today, have some orange peel in the door sills, glove box door and the bottom of the inner fenders.

I mixed 4:1, using meduim temp activator.

It went on fine for the first few minutes, thewn it started to collagulate almost and I could see that it was almost shooting gobs at a time.

After I saw what was staring to happen, I went with 3:1 and 10% slow reducer. It worked ALOT better. The column turned out the smoothest for some reason?

A word of advice: if things are starting to go south when painting, STOP RIGHT THERE! :-)

If I would have stopped sooner, I'd have a lot less wet sanding to do now!! Oh well, it is still only in the not often seen spots so I will wet sand and buff next week after I get my frame back in the garage this Friday.

[y5mgisi]

Damn dude! Excellent work! Subscribed!

[Gordonr1973]

Any advice on how to deal with this peel would be welcome!

[Vernski]

Originally Posted by Gordonr1973

Any advice on how to deal with this peel would be welcome!

Hi Gordon what was the recommended mix ratio on the paint can for your temp allot of mfg don't recommend painting below 70* so if it's colder than that it could cause the Orange peel. But could be to thick or the paint gun not set right also. Get a big piece of card board to check your spray pattern on and set the spray gun before you paint. They have a paint section on the forums here, with allot of good advice check them out you might post your question there and get more info. By the way I like that Caddy color...Vernski

[Gordonr1973]

Thanks guys;

When I painted the base it was easy, full coverage with about 50% overlap. Hardly any runs and only the glove box door shows that it could use a little more coverage.

Then I waited a day & did the pearl....was okay to apply, two coats, overlapping by about 75%. Made sure not to put too much on to avoid dulling it down.

Then I waited a day to spray the clear.

There were two things that I think may have caused me the problem: it seemed to get gummy in the cup for some reason and shot out towards the end like funny string that you can buy at the dollar store, the second was that I was using a 1.0 tip.

The can recommended 4:1 and I did exactly that for my first cup.

After I remixed the second cup at 3:1 with 10% slow reducer, it went on in a lot finer mist. But I think it was the first coat of clear that caused the problem.

I started to wet sand today. I have a Hutchkins Waterbug wetsander that I used with 1000 grit for the smooth areas on the firewall & I used 800 grit by hand on the hard to get to areas.

I was pretty careful not to sand through anywhere yet. I have some time tomorrow morning where I can keep going at it on the rest of the cab and the other door.

My hinges and column are fine though, but they are the pieces that I cleared first before I had started to have problems with the clearing.

As for what was sanded tonight, is this sanded not enough or too much? I know there are still little divots that aren't dull yet, but I'm scared that those might be from the base or pearl so I don't want to go too deep.

[Greenlee]

Maybe try buffing a small area and see how it turns out. It looks like it may need a little more sanding to me. However, I'm a bad person to ask. I painted a Jeep a few years ago and I sanded through in areas, painted some more, sanded some more, painted some more... It took way more work than it was supposed to.
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[Gordonr1973]

Well my work schedule got bumped around today so I spent the day in the garage wet sanding everything over again by hand.

I took it down a lot further but managed to keep from sanding into the pearl.

After I get home tomorrow I intend to reclear it again with 2 coats.

[jokermrl]

Looking real good. Spraying on some clear would be your best bet, with the orange peel i saw in your pics after sanding. I have had that happen to me before, its all about right mix and temp and spray pattern. Good luck cant wait to see her when she is done.

[Gordonr1973]

I had a chance today to respray the clear.

I was VERY careful, recleaned my gun and checked my spray pattern before I started.

I think the problem the other day was I think I forgot to put the o-ring back in to the lid for my paint cup after I cleaned the cup the night before....that may be why there was no constant pressure while I was spraying.

Well, today went alot better.

I do have some runs because I reduced the clear a bit to keep it from setting too fast, but those I can buff out later.

Anyways, going to leave it sit for the weekend and go get my frame on Monday.

[Greenlee]

Looks good! By the time you get to the outside you will be a pro.
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[Vernski]

Trial and error is a good teacher looking good there Gordon...Vernski

[Gordonr1973]

Thanks guys....I'm learning as I go for sure!!

Brought back my frame to the house yesterday and as expected my crazy neighbor had to come running out of his house beaking off within 30 seconds of me pulling up with the trailer...I think he just sits by the window and watches for any movement on the crescent. Last night I saw him driving down the wrong side of the main street so other drivers had to drive around him....coo-coo!

Anyways, I got started today by putting the belts on, here's pics of how they run:

[Gordonr1973]

I also put on some vent caps on the vents on the tranny and both tanks. They are one-way A/N aluminum vents that I ordered off of e-bay.

[Gordonr1973]

I also mounted up my rad support, I had to cut off the old pieces with an angle grinder, then hammered the bolts out.

The support is a little wobbly, but the bolts are tight so I think it will firm up once the fenders and everything is bolted on.

[noonzor]

wicked progress man! looks great!