I blame Mythbusters and James May

So, as is usually the case, I just had to do some trials before I got into the finishing of the black and the clear coats. I just had to test out a few automotive products I had to see what effect they came up with in comparison.
This came about as the rubbing compound I was told that was magic for the job was a complete disaster on its first run - it clogged stuff up, tore lint off the cloth, and just got so sticky and messy that I literally had to sand it out. I had a feeling i was 100% to blame however.

I drew up a nice little testing area complete with control and worked in some of the products. I figured out how to use the compound in the process and it come up superb. Its the second panel from the left, the one that looks like a frakking mirror.

Black coats

Well after another good weeks work I have nearly gotten to the end of the black coats. After a fair bit of painting and sanding and cutting through to the red I have actually come to the conclusion of doing multiple coats (3-4) before even attempting to remove orange peel. Its starting to look pretty good!





Unfortunately, there has been some fail crop up - lots of cracks like the ones below. After a lot of trying different things to remove it (and just having them re-appear when I re-painted), Ive narrowed it down to using a gloss paint. I have been using a flat black paint, but I ran out late one afternoon and decided to finish off with a black gloss I had (same brand/type/etc). I though id be able to paint over it OK, but those surfaces just cracked up. I lost nearly a frakking week trying to fix it - the only solution was to sand back to the red and start again.



Thankfully that has worked, and I'm back on track.

Tape down, operation black coat is a go

Well, finally I have cracked the sads with the red and have taped it to move onto the black coat. Eventually, I got into a loop of not being happy with the result, sanding more, sanding through to primer, repainting, etc. Its not all perfect, but Its going to be good enough to hit with rubbing compound after I pull up the tape. It was time to boot my OCD and just get on with it.




This is what I've come up with and have started painting with. Once the black is sprayed over that and sanded back to a flat sheen, I will pull up the blue painters tape, revealing the red below.

I have come across my arch-nemesis, water. One of the screws kept popping up through the red (below, screw removed) which I had to de-bog, rip the screw out, drill the hole out bigger and re-bog. There was no choice - covering it wasn't a option.



Also, I had some issues with swelling on some of the joints. I had gone back to primer on these bits but I though 'well, they wont be seen and will be painted black, and it hasn't cut through to the wood, so I can keep wetsanding'. Apparently this WAS NOT the case, and there has to have been a gap of some sort (even though these joints have been worked and re-worked more times that I care to remember). Thankfully, they have shrunk back after a day in the sun (The below pic is after shrinking - it was popped out about 5 times as much when it happened). I suspect a hit with a rough grit, re-prime well and continue painting will fix this up. Frustrating, yes, end of the world, hopefully not.

Red Basecoat down

Well, after a lot more work, I have coated the entire project with 2-3 coats of red spraypaint. I think ive gotten the hang of what I can and cant do with the paint.



This has taken another good 4 days to get to the point of having being pretty happy with the coats. The worst part is 95% of it wont be visible! The plan from here is finish sanding - I will give the whole lot a sand with 600 until most or all orange peel is gone (im ok leaving some orange peel where I know I will cover it with black), then 1200. Ill do this to give myself plenty of choice as to where to tape. When I decide on the locations, I will go over those parts with 2000 grit, dry, and then tape.

I did a good bit of work on the below peice - to the right is what it looked like all over after being worked on with 1200 grit. I was dissapointed with the result... So tonight I decided to give it a quick buff with some of the swirl remover stuff I had (not the rubbing compound Im going to get, but its something) juuust because I HAD to see if i was on the right track. Good news is, as you can see below, I am. I have buffed half of it to show the difference in colour and shine.

Bad news is, ill probly have to rough it back up to ensure the black spray paint sticks. But thats a bridge I will cross later!


Half Buffed, half left raw with 1200grit scratches in it. You guess which half is which.

Hopefuly tommorow I will have the whole lot sanded and taped ready for black paint!