So I have not been able to do much work on the car lately. I finally landed a job with a local software company! Yeah... With me not getting home till 6pm during the week the only time I get to work on the car now is the weekends.

I spent Friday getting the body prepped for paint. I need to get the main body painted before it gets to cold. I removed everything down to the main body itself. Since the car was originally black I wasn't to concerned about painting the door jambs and all that. The original gloss black makes a good contrast to the flat black. Plus the paint in the door jambs is in good enough condition that a little wet sanding will bring back the shine nicely!

After sanding down the body I spent a few hours with glazing putty filling in all the little rock chips and so forth. Got everything sanded down smooth with a 200 grit. I then proceeded to tape up all the glass and the roof.

Hint: 3M blue painters tape sucks! Since I taped everything up the night before, the morning dew the next day soaked into the tape and it started pulling up! Luckily I used lots of tape so I was still good to paint.

Click for larger image!


Click for larger image!


Click for larger image!


I debated for so time as to painting the roof flat black but with the glass sunroof being black I didn't think it would look right. I decided instead to paint the roof gloss black. That way I sort of keep the stock blacktop look and it will blend better with the sunroof!

Today I went out and cleaned all the panels up and sprayed the first coat. I though the first coat went on smooth but once it dried I noticed that it had orange peeled on me! SHIT.... Well it seems I didn't thin out the paint enough on the first batch. Luckily the hardener I am using allows me to wet sand after the first hour. I hit all the fresh paint with a 400 grit to smooth it out but still keep it rough enough for the next coat to have something to stick to.

Once I got everything sanded and wiped down I hit it with the next coat. I made sure that I reduced the paint enough this time. Second coat went on really nice! There are a few spots of the car that have some light over spray "like the hatch" but I intend to wet sand the whole car down with 1500-2000 grit anyway. Since I painted outside I have some dust particles in the paint. That is the reasoning for needing to wet sand. Overall the paint is nice and smooth. After the wet sanding and a good polishing with a dull compound it will be perfect.

Click for larger image!


Click for larger image!


Click for larger image!


If anyone is wondering this is the paint I am using:

http://www.martinsenour-autopaint.co...ights/PCC.aspx

It is Sherwin-Williams commercial coating sold by NAPA. It is made for industrial equipment so it should hold up really well.

I still have the drivers fender, rear bumper and a few other small items like mirrors to paint. Hopefully if the weather holds out I can knock them all out next weekend. "Supposed to rain here tomorrow".