Roller Paint Job Diary

That's like asking if bears shpoopt in the woods or if fish fmatek in water! I haven't stopped since November! Restoring even the screws and bolts! It's our only car, but she's been such a sweetie since we bought her 1997, that we decided to spoil her rotten and give her a full makeover!

The pictures will come too. I saw a keychain digital for $40 reduced to $15.00. Its not that I'm cheap, its that I've got a Pentax, a Nikon and a Canon with all the toys, and I just don't think this digital game has 'arrived' enough to buy a good one. One buddy might take some shots.

No brewskies until I'm done. Iced Tea and iced coffee!

 

brother...it aint nowhere as cool ...bone stock,6cyl/auto,shot paint,bad interior....otherwise.....its MINT !!

 

Digital Cameras still maturing! Kodak just announced a new breakthrough with their light filtering invention that takes out the glare!

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/06/14/tech-filter.html

I was a partner in a technology brokerage firm in the late 80's, when a Polish scientist walked in with a proof-of-concept for an electronic replacement for the human eye! At that time, Polish Universities were all under the Polish Army, so his government called him a traitor when he emigrated to Canada.

So we called in our Federal spy agency to clear the road of any international hurdles and to ensure that his patent wouldn't be stopped by the Canadian Military as a potential device for their exclusive use.

Once that got cleared away, we licensed Canon and Kodak for use in Scanners, Cameras, and other optical devices, including eye replacements. One happy client. From there, came the cellular phone digital image capability.

We sold our firm and moved on to Clean Air technology. As it turned out, the optical device made more money. No Pain, no Gain! So Kodak's announcement today confirms what we thought when we guided this client with his patents, it still had a way to go.

Diary entry:
Well, another day of prep work on the car, today, rain tonite, and primer tomorrow. So far it looks like I'll have a 6 day run of calm winds and decent temperatures/humidity. The humidity is a bit too high today (80%), but gets closer to 65%-70% by 4:00PM, so I'm going to try to get a thin coat of primer on the roof today. If not then I'll prime tomorrow. It's really a layer to show me where to fix the body work. It's a brown car, so the gray primer will contrast when I wetsand (320 grit).

OH! OH! Hey! I found a good thread on repairing dents. Its short but cuts through to the chase! (I've got a dinged wheel well to restore.)

Here: http://autobody101.com/forums/about3775.html

 

STRETCHING! Once I get some pictures, you'll see what my Mexican Paint Booth looks like! I re-discovered muscles I had completely forgotten about!

One of my neighbours found a kids' swing frame in the trash a couple of years ago (14' top rail with post brackets and the six legs. I have some 2X8 X 14' joists, so I made a 7' high structure, and used my big Trailer Tarp (13' X 19') and tatched myself a shady canopy.

I can't take all the credit for this simple DIY design, because my wife was telling me that in Monterrey, MX, where it gets up to 125F for about 3 months, the bodyshops don't paint inside because the humidity is too high with the AC on. They paint outside, under a tin roof canopy.

Anyway, we've got 20 MPH winds and it doesn't even flutter. Its a nice beige tarp (trucker-quality, reinforced vinyl, and cool as a cuke!)

The big-box stores are selling them at $399. Then you still have to put it up. I used what I have and had to put it. The $399 + Taxes is in my account, not theirs. All I want it to do is keep the sun off me, while I work, and paint. I have to buff/wetsand every two coats anyway, so any 'dust' with get knocked off. Mosquitoes and wasps are something else.

Bodywork today!

Speaking of Bodywork, this site has some really good tech archives on the SCIENCE OF restoring dents before putting on the BONDO:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/archive/index.php/f-8.html

Check out Numbers 68 and 69, 95, 115, 121.

I saw a really good article on making templates. The idea is that if you have to replace a quarter or roof panel, make a template of what section you need to attach to (welding/braising), then when you go to the junkyard you can mark it off with a bit more from the donor car, so the guys cut it right and you can do it right. Here's the article:
http://www.autobody101.com/articles/article.php?title=Making%20Templates

And another on dents.
http://www.autobody101.com/articles/article.php?title=Flat Panels

Also, does anyone know what a Vexon File looks like? It's a brand name, but I'm guessing that it's a rasp-type file that either has those hole-mesh type replaceable file surfaces or a body rasp. I tried searching for it, but all I got was bodymen comments and links to sites that mention it but don't show it.

I did find one thing that might be a good DIY tool. It looks like a sandbag that you fill with sand or heavy fine material (Lead Dust?) and use to support a body panel that you're tapping a dent from from the other side:
http://www.covell.biz/signaturetools.htm

Their main page: http://www.covell.biz/

Sunchaser has some pro-grade tools and videos too:
http://www.sunchasertools.com/

 

I don't want to diminish the need to track humidity and temperature cycles when it comes to mixing Mineral Spirits with Tremclad, but you'll generally find that you'll be adding more thinners when humidity is higher than 55%. The paint is touch-dry without thinners in 5 to 7 hours. That's a 40% time difference. HotRod Mag's July 2007 issue says that they did theirs with a mix of 40 to 50% thinners. The shop was in Southern California, and they did it in March (cooler, more humid Remember El Nino effect?).

The article also said that it didn't seem to make a difference. I guess I'll find out. The Moparts.org site guys were getting a lot better than a 4 to 5 foot shine. Hotrod's guys baked the car for the last 2 coats (they only went to 6).

Now, I have to admit I'm lucky, because the woodgrain siding is a satin finish, so any paint will outshine the rest. But I think Hotrod just wanted to do a Proof Of Concept job, not outshine all the commercial paint vendors in their magazine. Heck even Rustoleum didn't have an advert in that issue, so why hype it up to a great finish!

I'm still going to track my mixtures and correlate the temps and humdidity (hohum).

Right now (9:02AM) it's 90% humidity, so I'll do bodywork until about 2:00PM when it will be down to about 60%, then paint the gray Tremclad Primer with a 40% Thinner. My reasoning is that the humidity will stay around 60% until about 9:00 PM (still sunlight) and have a chance to touch dry before the rain forecast or the evening dew starts floating around. It'll be about 73F (23C) by then until 11:00 PM, when it drops to 70F (21C). Tremclad can dry in 10C (50F) temperatures. I figure I'll increase the Thinners when the humidity rises too fast for the 5 to 7 hour dry-time, or when it looks like the temperature is too cool (around 65F/15C). We'll see. Rules Of Thumb are made to be bent.

 

Well, it was a gorgeous day. Perfect for painting, except for the high wind gusts. But I really under estimated the prep work. I had the roof rack to remove, door chrome, the two lower chrome pieces below the doors, and all the door hardware and window seals. It's nice again tomorrow, so I'll start removing the doors and tailgate, clean up the frames (on the body) and clean up the door frames on the doors (scraping off remaining woodgrain chunks.)

The window moldings have a few scratches, that I think I can buff out, and put another coat or two of Clear Coat (Gloss finish Rattle can).

I found something really unusual though. All the windshield molding is original. US and Canadian windshields have US manufacturer logos and part numbers sandblasted in the glass. The car's windshield is 'Hecho En Mexico", by a Mexican producer. Well, the UNUSUAL thing is that the moldings have a molded synthetic backer strip (Rubber, or some type of vinyl) underneath. The 1978 donor car didn't have that, and I've never seen it on any car made up here. It's a good idea, because the side and rear windows are exposed to stone chips like the windshield and molding, and this backer strip fills the molding shape, so that the molding doesn't get dented.

It made me wonder if the Mexican parts lists are longer (as in more unseen features) than US/CDN models.

Anyway, with the doors off, I'll spray the insides with rust-proofing stuff, after I clean up any surface rust, and fix some dents.

I was surprised at how tough the Loctite was on the door latch screws. Man, were they stubborn to get out! I have spare screws from the donor. I know you need to have those screws really secure, but I liked the Chryco and GM way with those 'star' washers. That stuff is good, that loctite!

 

Roller Paint Video!

I found a video doing this! More tornado warnings tonite, here in the area! No painting! At least I can watch.

http://www.rickwrench.com/boxwrenchrolls.html

 

We're running at 40+C degrees here for almost a week. Can't paint because it wouldn't biind to the metal or primer. Rust paint has to cure (embed) itself into the previous layer even moreso when its that thinned out (40 to 50%). The Humidity factor is perfect, though - 38 to 55 %.

But I did get one coat on the tailgate and the colour is nice. Rustoleum's new Chestnut Brown, like a creamy cocoa drink. Its really close to the original tiger-eye colour they used in Ford Mexico's plant, without the metallic flakes.

All the hinges are off, all the glass is off, the old sealant is cleaned off and all the window body frames have been rust-reformed and prepped for final colour coats.

I derusted all the hinges and the mounting plates and painted the hinges, after checking the bronze bushings, and rust-reformed the mounting plates after de-rusting them too.

I'm cleaning the doors one by one, fixing seams, using undercoat inside them, after using paintable seam sealer from the inside at the bottom edges to prevent dust and water accumulation.

Got new window channels and a mohair tape that I can bind to the original Division Bar glass-run plastic. I can't find replacements for Fairmont/Zephyr sedans or wagons, so this should restore the functionality and the appearance.

 

Earlier in this thread, I mentioned that I had downloaded most of the first 43 pages and most of the next 59 pages of the original post on roller painting from the moparts.org forum. If I did it right, sometime Monday or Tuesday, the entire 83 megabytes (9 zipped MS-Word 2000 files) will be accessible via an FTP download.

I have an ATI Video card, so I embedded the pictures in their full 16 million colours. In total, there's only about 30 pages of text which would be about 66,000 bytes. The rest of the 83 megs is pictures, some are step by step, some are Ride Pride, some are potential results with different grits, temperature/humidity issues, buffing methods.

Hotrod Mag had an article in the July 2007 issue (released in late May) and there is a short thread of supporters and detractors (as always):
http://forums.hotrod.com/70/1455267/general-topics/get-a-good-paint-job-for-98/index.html

Make sure you check out the vette pictures on the second and third pages of that thread. WOW!

He's got more detailed info here: http://www.spokanehotrod.com/
and especially here:
http://spokanehotrod.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!ACBE4D187B0DFB3E!253.entry

and now a website too!!! This guy was one of the first that really got INTO it. He speaks with authourity (firsthand knowledge)! I heard that 69chargeraaa (original poster) has since made a CD tutorial.
http://rollyourcar.com/aboutus.aspx

This thing is gaining traction...:icon_drive:

And if you get down and depressed while you're doing this, go here and have a real chuckle, LIFE is truely funnier than professional comedy. This guy painted his car in a Home Depot Parkade and his outdoor parking stall at his apartment. It's the telling that's so funny!

http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=2331682&page=0&fpart=28&vc=1

 

i just got the new issue of hot rod yesterday and i,ll be dog gone if that roller paint issue aint still cookin,,,,there was a page of nothing but positive feedback and an e-mail from that mopar guy who kinda started this whole thing,,,,,,like i said earlier its not my cup of tea but i find it very interesting nonetheless and more amazed at such positive responses,,,,,,,funny thing though years ago we moved into the ground support equipment shop that was occupied by pan am after they went under and the paint booth was thirty years old and we could no longer use it,,,it turned into my welding bay so i,m painting one of the vans for operations with water base paint ,,,,,with a roller and i was astouned at the positive response when they saw it ,,,i was embarrased at first but given the van looked like hell it actually cleaned up really good for a roller job,,,,but of course i didn,t sand and buff it out,,,,,

 

Ah, 80, don't you recall all those cute college gals doing breast excercises in the hallways, while they were waiting to get into the next class?

All that sanding and rollering and buffing would build up your pecks and your abs in no time flat, A lean, mean muscle machine!

I'll find out PDQ and let you know if it did it for me!

For sure I'll lose an inch or two on the ponch!

 

Got the roof primed! Then it started to rain (drizzle). I did the inside and door/tailgate frames on Saturday (primed and painted 1 coat).

The roof rack rails did make for a few rusty pits, but I got them all out. Once the weather mellows out (5 straight days of calm winds and mid-20's (low 70F). Should be fairly quick now.

 

just out of curiousity stormin you mentioned you had a hill billy paint booth ,,,why dont you just spray the car ??? and by the way i like the the booth you decsribed in your earlier post you made,,,even if you had any amount of dirt in the paint you could justcolor sand and buff it out ,, just curious thats all

 

My neigbours might not like my color dropping on their lawn furniture and cars?

Actually, the fact that one third of the car gets covered by new woodgrain, really makes it an easier job. I got the tailgate refinished on the inside face today, including spraying undercoat after spreading new body sealant on the inner seams.

I tested the outside of the tailgate with the roller (one coat, sanded and then a second coat, and it gleamed just right! I could see the reflection of the fence without any buffing. All together, I'm going to apply 8 coats.

First 2 - no sanding except for nubbies on the first coat (if any), then 320-grit.
Next fix any sanding dips (glaze putty)
Next 5 coats get sanded with 600-grit
Last coat gets 800, then 1000, then 1500, then 2000, then buffing.

No wax for at least a month.

The only difference is the woodgrain area, After the first and second coat, I'll sand down with 400, put on two more and thats it for those. I have to apply the woodgrain after the paint on the doors, then install them, because I can't weasel a heatgun on the inside door edges once they're installed.

It would be the same if I sprayed, except this way, I can touch up any chipping without worrying about overspray.

If I get decent weather for five days, I'm done! It's 5C degrees tonite, but the humidity is way down, early in the day. You can't spray below 21C (70F) but I can apply this Rustoleum/Tremclad at 10C and up (45F).

Winds are down too, because we're getting our normal predominant North West winds, so there's no dust flitting around.

I've borrowed a cheap digital camera, but the fellow is bringing the special USB cord around next week. I'll take some pics and post them sometime next week.

 

well i understand the neighbor thing but if ya had a door for it and ventilation but i understand,,,,dont forget if your using spot putty ( ie; the non catalyzed type) dont forget it dries ssllooww it basically highly concentrated primer ,,,i do believe you could get away with using the catalyzed polyester stuff,,,however if you guidecoat the primer and block it,, it will show the low spots before you paint and if you really wanted you could just roll on some of that 2k catalyzed primer surfacer and maybe not even need the spot putty