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Note the paint drop on the last picture. Paint was leaking out of the air cap due to the fluid nozzle not siting properly. Need to clean the gun better!
So I've just answered the question whether I have enough space in the garage!
The primer phase is complete. For reference I used about 7/8 of a gallon of primer (4/1 mixing ratio). I did waste about 20-30 ounces of paint along the way so a gallon should be plenty.
Next step is to start sanding and see how finished parts look. I'm going to start with some low risk parts like head light covers and mudguards in case I screw up. Paint is expensive!
Been doing a lot of sanding. Mostly blocking at 400 with some DA at 320 w/interface pad.
I have not seen anyone do this but I like to go over the panel with a maroon scuff pad as a final sand. With a solid color I don't think there will be any issues.
Also removed the doors now that they are primed and sanded.
Decided to paint the headlight covers first. Sanded by hand to 400. They did not need much since they were new and primed.
1) Clean 3 times with fresh micro fiber cloths (Spray Away glass cleaner, Prep All, 70% Isopropyl).
2) Apply adhesive promoter on the areas where I burned through the Mazda primer.
3) This is where the fun starts! Apply 1 coat of sealer. Wait 30 minutes (check your TDS).
4) Tack - use these:
5) Apply 2-3 coats of base coat. I need to do 3. Waited 10 minutes between coats and tacked before each one.
6) Apply 3 coats of clear. First coat go really quick. It will look terrible but that is ok. You are basically laying glue down to hold the 2nd and 3rd coats.
Most of the videos I've seen say 2 coats base and 2 coats clear. I'm unable to get proper coverage at 2 coats of base since I am very new at this. For the clear I just wanted more meat to work with for wet sanding. It actually looked really good after 2 coats.
Some updates. Getting much deeper into the painting process.
I don't have pics for everything, but I painted the following:
1) Inside of the hatch. The visible part around the edge that does not get covered by plastic. I found it to be a bit faded and the paint extremely thin! New holes have been drilled for the 99 spec spoiler.
2) The exterior of the hatch
3) Fenders
3) Doors. Including the inside. Wanted them to look as good as the jams!
4) Hood
So far so good. Dust nibs and orange peel should be able to be taken down during the paint correction phase. Since I'm doing this at home I'll have to spend more time on paint correction than a shop would but at least I can do it myself at my own pace.
Also before I paint anything I hose down the floor and do my best to keep it wet in between coats. If I were to do this again I would get a painting suit as well. Most of the dust is probably coming from my clothes.
I am SO behind on my project. Too many other things going on but also I don't want to paint in 98 degree heat
Keep up the great work!
Yeah the finish on one fender you can see the orange peel but wet sanding will solve that 100%.
Dale
Thanks Dale.
One of my biggest worries while painting is sweat dripping of my face and landing on fresh paint. It happened when I was priming roll off my chin in slow motion like in mission impossible except i could not catch it!
Luckily it was in the edge and the paint had already started flashing so it rolled off. I now carry a towel and wipe my face regularly. I can’t imagine doing this in the high humidity in Florida.
My clear coat temp range is from 75-90 so I usually aim to be clearing when the temp hits about 80. Usually this is about 1.5 hours into painting. I pay very close attention to temperature and wind.
The doors actually have the worst orange peel. Settings on the gun changed and the paint did not atomize that great. Did not catch it fast enough. I think the solid black color will save me as it should wet sand out. If it bothers me I’ll just reshoot the doors after the car is reassembled. Should not be a big deal.
I’m hoping that while wet sanding I don’t break through the clear. I’m putting 3 coats (2 very heavy) so that I have enough material to work with. Again since this is a first time I don’t really have a feel for wet sanding so anything could happen. Kind of like tightening bolts for the first time where you just don’t have the feel to get the torque right (or when a bolt is about to snap while loosening!).
So we will see but I am hopeful I can pull it off…
Remember you are wet sanding with pretty high grit, like start with 1000 to generally get it flat. Wet sand until you don't have any more "dimples" in the surface with 1000, then start working your way up on grit.
Other big thing is avoiding edges. Wet sanding an edge will burn through FAST.
Some pics from when I did the bumper on my RX-8. I foolishly paid a shop to paint it and they did a **** job, LOTS of orange peel that I buffed out myself since I was over it. Also have had a lot of rock chips on it.
This was after a first pass with 1000 grit. I THINK it was 1000, could have been 2000. May want to start with 2000 and see if that cuts fast enough. Anyhow, you can see how it was "pebbly" looking, that's the sandpaper knocking down the high spots and you still have the shiny low spots.
Now you see the more consistent matte finish.
THIS is good, once you get it here you know you've got the orange peel knocked off. Then you start working up in grit. I actually went up to 5000 grit to make less work for the buffing stage.
Buffed out. This is with Meguiar's compound on my ancient Porter Cable DA. You can use a rotary buffer but really you gain speed but lose safety, CRAZY easy to burn through an edge with a rotary buffer. Compound, polish, then wax. Of course you want to wait until the paint is VERY cured before starting this process.
Remember you are wet sanding with pretty high grit, like start with 1000 to generally get it flat. Wet sand until you don't have any more "dimples" in the surface with 1000, then start working your way up on grit.
Other big thing is avoiding edges. Wet sanding an edge will burn through FAST.
Some pics from when I did the bumper on my RX-8. I foolishly paid a shop to paint it and they did a **** job, LOTS of orange peel that I buffed out myself since I was over it. Also have had a lot of rock chips on it.
This was after a first pass with 1000 grit. I THINK it was 1000, could have been 2000. May want to start with 2000 and see if that cuts fast enough. Anyhow, you can see how it was "pebbly" looking, that's the sandpaper knocking down the high spots and you still have the shiny low spots.
Now you see the more consistent matte finish.
THIS is good, once you get it here you know you've got the orange peel knocked off. Then you start working up in grit. I actually went up to 5000 grit to make less work for the buffing stage.
Buffed out. This is with Meguiar's compound on my ancient Porter Cable DA. You can use a rotary buffer but really you gain speed but lose safety, CRAZY easy to burn through an edge with a rotary buffer. Compound, polish, then wax. Of course you want to wait until the paint is VERY cured before starting this process.
Dale
Looks good! I should be starting on that stage soon. For the 3000/5000 sanding did you sand by hand or use the DA? I’m leaning towards sanding only by hand myself.
Another update. Had to get creative to paint the mirrors. First has to take them apart starting with prying the glued mirror glass, then removing the assembly. I found some good threads on this.
I actually attached the mirrors to some 2x4’s and placed them in my workbench. This gave me 360 access for painting.
I’m tired of looking at my primed front bumper for all this time. Like I mentioned before, priming the bumper was not really necessary so for the rear I’m going to give it a good scuff at 180 by hand and remove ‘most’ of the original paint. Then hit it with the DA @320 and finish up with the maroon scuff pad. For any break throughs I’ll use some adhesion promoter.
front bumper was lightly sanded by hand: 320/maroon scuff pad.
Now this is a welcome distraction from painting. BNR stage 2’s arrived. I just opened a major can of worms! Need to finish painting so the fun can start!
This thread will take a turn in the near future. These are so nice and will need to plan the supporting mods before even thinking about installing them.
Looks good! I should be starting on that stage soon. For the 3000/5000 sanding did you sand by hand or use the DA? I’m leaning towards sanding only by hand myself.
That was all by hand. I think you really want to go low and slow at this step, I think it's worth doing by hand on a flexible block.
My mirrors are actually in really good shape so I'm hoping I can skip painting them. At least for now
Wow, this paint job is really coming out great! Dumb question on the front fender vent insert pieces - does the mesh grill part of it come out before spraying, or do you end up painting that too?
Wow, this paint job is really coming out great! Dumb question on the front fender vent insert pieces - does the mesh grill part of it come out before spraying, or do you end up painting that too?
The grills in the vent were glued in place. I played around with it for a bit but did not want to take the risk of breaking them. Since it was black they got painted with the rest of the vents. For a non black car it would probably be worth the trouble to use some heat to free them up or mask them. With them being removed they could be repainted with duplicolor plastic paint and look like new.
Getting ready to paint the roof and quarter panels. Working in a tight garage will be challenging. Once this is done I am over the hump.
FD is pretty much disassembled and sanded at this point. Rockers will be painted so I cleaned and scuffed them really well with the maroon scuff pad. Also noticed some plugs and skirts that had to be removed:
Decided to back the FD into the garage to give myself a bit more room around the rear of the car. I'm only painting from the doors and back. Also put the car on jack stands to make painting the rockers easier but not too high to make reaching the center of the roof too difficult. I actually put 2x6 planks on the floor to help my reach.
I did practice the technique I was going to use spraying over the entire surface to help it go smoother and avoid any awkward angles. The more reps the better!
Headlight covers are back on. You can see the dust nibs on them that I started sanding. The blocks work amazing:
Since I am on a roll I decided to add some mud guards to help protect my awesome new paint. My previous FD had them and I always liked the look. Now the problem is where to find them primed or in black...
We'll VR seems to be the most common color for our beloved FD's and that's what I am finding online. Rear mud guards seems to be available from multiple sources so I guess they are not NLA yet. Front's are a different story, but I did purchase some from JP3.
Why these are offered in just primer like bumpers is beyond me. The texture on these brand new mudguards are terrible and I serious doubt they would color match correctly so they would almost certainly need paint for anyone who is not color blind.
In any case for me it does not matter, off with the red as best as possible and prime with my leftover SEM plastic primer that I used on the front bumper. At least after I can sand it smooth and get rid of most of the textured plastic finish.
Reassembly has started! Doors/Hatch/fenders and bumpers back in place.
The hatch took a little bit of playing around to get right. Made sure it lined up with the quarters which leaves a bit more gap around the taillights. Based on some searches I did I believe this is the 'correct' way.
The drivers door need some alignment as I took the hinges off to paint. Passenger door dropped right in and was perfectly aligned. I masked the edges of the doors and carefully installed the fenders being very careful with door clearances. This part was a bit stressful and one of the disadvantages to painting the car disassembled. I did not scratch anything!
Also added the smoked signal lights in the front bumper. I think they work really well on a black car. I like the look but it might not be everyone's cup of tea. Let me know what you think!
Hood looks amazing considering it has not even been cut and buffed yet. It took a lot of patience to get the front end to get to a point that I'm happy with. Best decision was changing the front bumper cover.
For the front bumper brackets I did not use the rivets I purchased from Amazon and went with M5 machine screws/nuts instead. This made life much easier as I actually had to loosen and readjust a couple of times. This would have been a nightmare with rivets. I spent a ridiculous amount of time getting the brackets in place but I think it payed off. Machine screws look ok as well and easy to service again if needed.
07-10-23, 12:09 PM
