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Paint cars, fenders, bumpers.... whatever. The painting skills you acquired should be used to make more money for more awesome RX7 parts, vacations, blah blah blah.
Please don't let your skills go to waste, your a natural.
First off, the car looks SO GOOD. I agree, you have ended up with an end product that is way better than taking it to a paint shop, save for a super high end shop that would have charged $15k or something.
My paint project is stalled, it's been so damn hot here that what I do need to do outside I can do in about 30 minute spurts in the morning before it gets too hot. Fall/winter is gonna be paint time for me!
On the topic of waxes, I'm a huge fan of the "new tech" coatings like ceramic and graphene. My black RX-8 daily is ceramic coated and it stays looking clean longer, this is HUGE on a black car. That's also the key reason I decided to go black on the FD and not do a color change, the fact that my car would always look dirty used to just **** me off. With a good coating the dirt doesn't want to stick and it just looks better.
That said, here's a superb video breaking down the differences between different types of coatings. This really clicked with me and got me understanding the different types of products.
Also would love to see a little bit of a how-to post on your process - what products worked, what techniques worked, what you would change if you did it again, etc.
Dale
Thanks Dale!
I think I pretty much covered the products I used along the way in the posts above. The only thing I fell flat on my face on was trying to reproduce the gravel guard finish. That takes a special technique. My understanding that even new fenders do not have it so there must be a way. I tried the SEM product which should have worked but I probably did not have the right gun/settings.
I used an LVLP to get around the compressor requirements. It worked but it is slower and you increase the odds of a mistake. There were a couple of guns that Brian recommended that were less that $200 that I was considering. The Black Widow and Harbor Freight is also well rated. Then there is the DV1 $$$$... I think if I were to attack this again I would get a better compressor and call the electrician to wire it in. I would also strongly suggest using a dedicated clear coat gun. Just buy a second A610/r500 (or better). This way you don't have to clean it so thoroughly and worry about contamination.
By far the biggest issue for me was space. I only had about 10 feet across which made it very tight. If I had more space and a better gun I would probably spray most of the car at once and be done in a weekend. I asked around and it is possible to rent a spray booth for a couple of days. I just not want to deal with the hassle of towing the car/tools to the shop. This may be a good option for some...
You could also do all the prep work and find someone on the side to paint the car. This would eliminate most of the stress and be fairly cost effective as you are paying for a few hours of his time and that's it.
Just wondering if there are any updates, how is the paint looking/doing after some time has passed?
Got a big trip this month and next month but going to try and start in on my paint job!
Dale
To be honest I'm afraid to drive it in traffic to find out! For the most part I have been enjoying the FD on back roads early in the morning when I'm pretty much on my own. So far no issues.
I did finally bring myself up to speed on waxes and ceramics. I decided I was not ready to put something semi-permanent on yet so I just used ceramic wax and some other products I have used over the years.
The finish after applying all 3 was like glass. Water beads off right away so I'm happy.
My focus now is getting FC Tweak dialed in and auto tuned. For now I'm leaving the boost at 10-11 psi as I don't have the supporting fuel mods yet and with the stage 2 BNR's I'm a bit nervous.
I must say that the FC Tweak program is incredible. It has never ran so well before and I haven't even autotuned it yet.
Let me know if you have any questions. I would be happy to help. This is a very rewarding project so hopefully you can start soon.
Wanted to share some updates. At some point during the months the car was down for painting the odometer went out. Sent it off to rxclusterworx to be repaired. Also had new gauge faces installed with a more modern screen.
While I was at it I finished the interior plastics this time using my paint gun as opposed to rattle cans. Turned out much better than the last time I did this on my previous FD.
I forgot to mention that I removed the chrome rings on the cluster and made it look basically like new. I always thought the chrome rings looked out of place on the FD and wanted to switch them to black without breaking the bank. The process was very simple (for a change!).
1) Remove the clear plastic from the cluster.
2) Give it a good rinse and wipe to get rid of any dirt.
3) Wet sand the rings with 5000 until the chrome is gone leaving a dark gray finish.
4) Polish with your favorite product. I used the same stuff I buffed the car with (CSI). It will come out gloss black.
5) Optional. Wet sand and polish the complete plastic surface. This will make the plastic look like new with nice high gloss black rings.
Wish I knew this years ago when I had my FC TII. The plastic looked terrible and could have easily been restored.
