58367 The $75 Junkyard Carrera coupe restoration

[JTR70]

10/6/15

This Saturday is D-Day!!!


Rick stopped by this afternoon to check on me and to let me know that he's got his spray booth up in his new shop. As he looked the car over I was telling him that its all about ready save for a few spots I had to reseal (now only to sand back down) and of course the retaping. He said he was available this weekend and weather is supposed to be perfect so with that as a goal I'm making the final push to have it ready to go by Saturday morning.
This last week:

Hood taped and all final sealing and finish sanding done.

This is where most of this last week went. I ended up stripping both door wells back down to metal. I was going to just sand and scuff them but as I did I noticed the clear coat was still soft. I painted these well over a year ago so I messed up on the catalyst. Anyway, I just could not risk this area wrinkling up as this anticipated final paint goes on. I've made this mistake too many times in the past only to watch it begin to crinkle as the solvents went to work. It was a total pain but I just couldn't risk it and besides this does keep the paint thicknesses in check which I like.

Wells primered and am in process of smoothing out the A-pillar and door jambs here.

Lots of time burned on all the facets all the while trying not to sand through.

Lots of time spent truing the edges, smoothing and trying not to sand through.

Sanded through on the lower rolled edges as they were very thin so I had to reseal both front and back.

Spent the last hours of today's session fine finishing the right door and retaping. Its officially ready for final paint here. Both lids are done and will finish up the left door tomorrow which leaves only micro finishing on the body and remasking. I should make it by Saturday. Hopefully I'll have a shiny car to show you guys on Sunday.

Thanks for watching! Justin

[Don C]

Best luck with the paint job Justin, I'll bet the car will look spectacular! Has it really been over 3 years!!

[gkw]

It will turn out great.
Gordon

[Drew.s]

Good luck with Sunday Justin.
Looking forward to this milestone.
Regards
Drew

[Jonesy_356]

Go, Justin, go! Can't wait to see it!

Jonesy

[bbspdstr]

Justin, I hope it's you who lays on the paint. The painting is the fun part after all that tedious hard work. You have earned the right to finish the damn thing!

You get, traditonally, to drink at least a 6-pack in between coats, maybe more. Depends....hey, base coats count and ya need at least 3 of clear...one to cut and polish.

You may want to use something additionally recreational as a relaxant, as the best paint comes from actually not giving a shit...really!

(My best jobs did).....

[tperazzo]

Best of luck Justin. I've been following this project for awhile now going all the way back to the registry days. What an awesome project and I know it will turn out killer! Have fun and I can't wait to see it! If men could give birth this would be it!
Cheers!
Tom

[Don C]

Hey Tom, how's your project going? It's been a while!

[JTR70]

Thanks Don! Its actually been longer then 3 years. When I made up my mind to finally finish this car that was in '10 as I was just getting ready to turn 40 and had made the mental commitment that this was going to finally get done or else. I should have had this painted 2 years ago but Its taken me this long to get the shell at a level that I can live with. Time sure can slip by...
Thanks again Gordon!

Me too Drew and Thanks!

Appreciate that Jonesy!

Hey Bruce, no, its not going to be me laying down the final color its going to be my buddy Rick. In the beginning there was a part of my pride (I suppose) that was a bit resistant to take him up on his offer to shoot it but I have since gotten over that. If it was a solid color I would most certainly be shooting it myself but this is Silver metallic and I am just not sharp enough to pull that off without tiger striping it or having some other major issue happen with it. Its actually the best thing that could have happened as I know he can do it and it takes a ton of stress off of me. As you know, what makes or breaks a paint job is the prepwork and I can honestly say I did that on my own; I'm happy to give him all credit for laying down the final color. Honestly at this point I don't care who sprays it I just want this stage over with. I'll be drinking a beer while he sprays and look in on it between coats.

Hi Tom, Good to hear from you and glad your still around! Thank you Sir, I'll probably be just as nervous as an expecting father.
Don, raises a good question, what I going on with your project??
Thanks a lot you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!
10/8/15
Been staying at the shop until 11 these past couple of evenings making sure its ready by Saturday. Only tomorrow left but I think I'm well within striking distance but it will be a full day.

All the closing panels are officially ready as of wed. evening.

The final sanding on the shell was completed late this afternoon then I came back after dinner to begin remasking it.

I've got the trunk, door openings, and lower skirts to go then a final once over inspection just to make sure but come hell or high water I'll have it knocked out before I close up for the night tomorrow.

Thanks for looking!
Justin

[roy mawbey]

All the the very best for the week-end Justin.

Roy

[bbspdstr]

Hey Bruce, no, its not going to be me laying down the final color its going to be my buddy Rick. In the beginning there was a part of my pride (I suppose) that was a bit resistant to take him up on his offer to shoot it but I have since gotten over that. If it was a solid color I would most certainly be shooting it myself but this is Silver metallic and I am just not sharp enough to pull that off without tiger striping it or having some other major issue happen with it. Its actually the best thing that could have happened as I know he can do it and it takes a ton of stress off of me.

I understand....BUT....shit still happens; to wit:

I didn't want to paint this A at my shop 'cause my usual space was filled by another job, so I asked a neighbor who owns a collision shop with a nice booth a half hour away if he'd paint it for me as a sub. He is a 911 guy, but he jumped at it. He had gotten a new SATA gun ($900!) and was anxious to try it. My guys went to his shop to prep the car and mask it and he sprayed it. I went over after a bake to get it and saw subtle "tiger stripes" in the base as you describe so well.
He couldn't imagine what went wrong, so I suggested he see on a piece of masking paper how his new gun's pattern looked.....and sure enough, it was a defective nozzle (not adjustment) that made the ends of the fan heavy and the center light. $900, huh?
I brought the car back to my shop, we had a "sanding party" and sanded everything down with 400 to the base, set up my area (a real time-consuming PITA) and Ed sprayed it again.
Should have done that the first time. Live and learn. (The green tape is to note dust specks to nib carefully prior to 2000 grit.)
With added materials and time, my neighbor and I each lost a ton of money, but the car is better for it (with the world's most expensive primer coat) and at least he learned the hard way to use my shop motto= "assume nothing."
Then again, I'm sure I am the only one on this forum who has this record of bad luck and poor choices...and YOUR Coupe will be just fine with NO drips, runs, sags or errors...right?

Seriously....good luck and jus' git 'er done. Have a good "birthing" regardless of who pulls the trigger...or the zip-tabs. "Stress kills"....a great paint job.

Bruce
PS, the biggest PITA was really getting that Aquamarine blue metallic to look 'right.' Thanks to this site's help, we were able to satisfy the 30 year owner's color memory.

[Phil Planck]

Good luck Justin. My 912 is silver metallic and will need a repaint after some body repair. So watching with a lot of interest. Thanks for sharing your experiences Bruce.

Phil

[bbspdstr]

Another thought:

Justin, perhaps, if possible and desired, you could document the overall metallic painting process for those who may not be aware. It is, after all, like two paintjobs making one.

The only way to make the metallic match panel-to-panel is to "cut in" the jambs, undersides of panels, dash (I do those separately, like painting one panel very carefully, then masking when dry/cured)(I think you show this in your thread) and then temporarily assembling all the outer panels to be sprayed at once after back-taping/masking.

Many years ago, I was painting a 904 (silver) and speaking with John Paterek about making the appearance of a single stage paint and he told me he had success (on another 904) with using the silver base as a final sanded primer (find your potential sand-throughs with that, like a guide-coat), then adding a drop coat in a final base application and following up with a minimal and slightly over-reduced clear so that only a minor nibbing and polish would be needed. That works, but extra care is required in the final polishing stage when the edges and corners are so thinly coated. I tape all the edges for protection and then hand-polish those before the final glaze.

You have likely related all this in your 1137 pages (or so it must seem) of illustration, but a distilled pictured synopsis would/could be educational for the DYI guys. If you have time, of course....

BTW, as much as I love to paint, I have my main guy Ed do most of that now. Putting off rotator cuff surgery as long as possible trumps pride anytime and Ed paints as well I ever did, anyway.

As Phil and others have said, I wish you the very best of luck in your results tomorrow...and yes, in painting, luck is a big factor!

-Bruce

[merbesfield]

Justin, excited for you. GL. Bruce, what a beautiful color that A is! What a freaking nightmare to get it there. My buddy the other day while helping me with my pan install asked, "what color are you going to paint it"? I said "rust" as you see it now. He thinks I have lost my marbles. Which, I probably have. I just want to have fun with the ROPOS. It came from the factory Black. I can paint it anytime.

[MMW]

I hope all goes well & you were able to get some sleep. I can only imagine after all these years the anxiety & excitement you are feeling today. May the air be calm, the humidity be low & the paint flow like it should.