xxGenericSNxx

Wow holy spacers batman! Car's looking great. What kind of time frame do you think you have before it'll be ready to go on the road again?

overZealous1

thanks. i finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel yesterday. now all the windows are working correctly and top is working too. most all weatherstrip is on also. these were all things that i thought would give me grief knocked out in one day!
the cut and buff will be about 3 days, so it should be good to go by next weekend.

RaFFi ///AMG

Hey Oz, quick question, with the harness kit you purchased for the headlights, did it come with a plug for the autoleveling plug too?

SpiritR230

i have the harness kit, it doesn't come with autoleveling plug

E55 Prototype

Scary buffing new paint! Can't wait to see it fully corrected and done.

overZealous1

it is. had hood in one of the rooms in the house till i put it on and low and behold it had a chip right in the very front of hood. either the gf or the dog has some explaining to do!!

luckily, with this color you can do almost perfect seemless touch ups. main reason i chose it.

cal1

I'm totally ignorant to auto paints. Do they take time to cure out completely even if baked and remain soft for a period of time?

overZealous1

they do. they air out quite abit and shrink. more coats, more time. i didn't get a chance to bake it too. anything below 70 and it can't fully cure, or takes a huge amount of time longer to fully cure.
i usually do an initial cut and buff, then 5 or so months later do another cutting with just 2000 grit paper. thats when i get all the flaws out.

cal1

So do you buy a special air dry product? At my architectural aluminum shop, we do mostly a Kynar (PVDF) paint that cures out in an oven but still remains relatively soft. It is a look but don't touch product like what you see at store fronts like Home depot, Target, Loews, etc. We occasionally do a baked enamel which is harder. I am thinking that might be closer to auto style paint.

We have painted stuff too long (more than 40 ft) for our ovens that air dry. Man is that stuff expensive.

E55 Prototype

Might wanna invest in a paint thickness tool! If you haven't already...

cal1

Since the paint is already laid down, he would need an eddy current device like an ISO scope I would suspect or is that what you are referring too?

RaFFi ///AMG

damnit.

E55 Prototype

Multiple Options.... Like detailers use... Example:

http://www.defelsko.com/applications...-detailing.htm

Got Fiberglass? haha

overZealous1

i put on 5 coats of high build urethane clear. i have plenty of room to go.

Sir-Boost-a-Lot

iTrader: (1)

That's an asston of clear. You could cut that car with 320 and still have enough to buff it out
The bad thing about using that much is that it does take forever to really cure as you know.

cal1

Oh yeah! I guess eddy current isn't going to do much with fiberglass. Low tech mil gauge maybe?

cal1

defelsko is a good product, we actually use a number of defelsko devices in our anodizing and paint process to measure coating thickness.

overZealous1

i am doing my first cut with 600. then 1000, 1500, and 2000. then wool pad with 3m rubbing compound, then yellow pad and 3m polishing compound, then grey pad with 3m swirl remover. there still always seems to be a few scratches left, thats why i wait a few months for paint to fully set and do a final cut with 2000 grit to remove any last flaws and only do the rubbing compound and the swirl remover. after that, it is as good as it's going to get.

i like having that much clear, i can finish doing my body work with it when sanding, hahaa. this color is looking super deep after the cut and buff. it is hard to explain. if you have ever seen paint with zero scratches, it is a beautiful thing!! even a clean finger tip will leave scratches if rubbed on the paint even lightly, really hard to keep it that pristine and drive the car. lots of wax helps protect from that little stuff though.

Chris The Swede

As I understand you have to re-pin som pins. Have a friend that made it all work that way. I am working on getting the info from him.

Chris The Swede

Your pics dont work for me. Just a red X.

RaFFi ///AMG

It's spam.

E55 Prototype

Just another heads up... you might want to opti-coat it after you have the clear perfect, That won't happen anymore

overZealous1

i just read up on that opti-coat. not really for my type of paint job. it appears more like a rejuvenation type of product for a factory type paint job where only 2 coats of a low build production clear is used. if you were counting millage, i would have the equivelent of 10 coats of a production type clear on. seems it leaves the surface tacky also.
usually just a couple coats of a good wax is what i need. still huge maintenance to keep the contaminants completely away though. especially if you park under a tree or outside for any length of time. the wax does help them wipe off easier though.

E55 Prototype

Well it's actually more of a semi permanent protective coating.. there is multiple different types... including this...

http://esotericcarcare.com/22PLE/

Makes it so you don't really have to wipe anything or touch the car for 99% of stuff that touches it... just some good ol' water beading off everything.

overZealous1

i will look into it more once the paint is cured. i saw some other products that might be more up my alley.