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.