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Thought you guys might want to see my latest project. I am fairly spontaneous when it comes to projects (especially considering the lack of free time), so sunday morning, i got up and decided i was going to paint the car......yea, not a maaco paint job, instead a strip, prime, and paint at the shop type of job.

The before pictures. The paint was really starting to flake, in 2 major spots, and about 5 little ones.
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint1.JPG

Numerous rock chips as well.....
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint2.JPG

In nothing flat, off come the hood, header panel, and headlight covers....
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint3.JPG

I started with the headlight covers, as i wanted to try a few things, and i figured if i screwed up a headlight cover, no biggie. First was to use paint stripper, simply spray on and scrape off the paint.....so says the bottle....extra strength even!.....
After the first coat of Garnett Red Metallic comes off.....A nice coat of primer....
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint5.JPG

Hmmm.....after some more spraying.....scrape off the primer....HEY! back to Garnett Red Metallic....sweet!!
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint4.JPG

Lets see...about this time, God walks up (as he has been at the shop tending to his fish), and says, why the hell are you so stupid....use the DA sander.....jackass. Lots of love around the shop......
So i whip out the DA sander, which makes short work of what i need to do. The idea is to feather out all the rock chips and paint runs, and get everything smooth, without going through the base coat of primer, then reprime, and start the wet sanding & paint process. Confirming my suspision that the car has had some light damage at one time....The drivers headlight cover: (From outside to in)
1 coat of Garnett Red
1 coat of Primer
1 coat of Garnett Red
1 coat of Primer
1 coat of Guards Red (red red)
1 coat of Primer
At least it was well protected....
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint6.JPG

Then came the hood....yipppeeeee
The underside hood insulation had long since peeled and fallen on the engine, so i figured i would strip the rest of that off, and will probably put on new pads....
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint7.JPG

The finished product....
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint8.JPG

And going after the hood.....I will probably need to feather the spots out a little more, and the one next to the ridge in the hood need some more smoothing, but it is coming along nicely. Another couple of hours on the hood and it should be ready to prime.
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint9.JPG

http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint10.JPG

When i got the car home, where it will sit for awhile, i pulled the front bumper cover, of which i am going do some plastic work, and get rid of the sidemarker lights. I will pull the mirrors, fenders, etc as i get to them....
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint11.JPG

Total time so far, about 5 hours. I imagine it will take another couple of hours to get these pieces ready for paint, then spray it, then lots more sanding....

Ok, worked a good 2 hours tonight again, here was the progress.....

After flipping the header panel over, there was quite a bit of rust on the front most underlip of the panel, so tonight i buzzed off all the rust with the die grinder......
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint12.JPG

Then i finished sanding out all the rock chips, and after a coat of wax and grease remover, the header panel and headlight covers were ready for primer....
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint13.JPG

First coat of primer......Should be ready for another tomorrow night....
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint19.JPG

Then i went after sanding the front bumper cover....
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint14.JPG

And contrary to popular belief, paint does actually hide rock chips very well.....I stopped counting rock chips after i hit a gabillion.
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint15.JPG

The nice thing about the plastic cover, is you can really sand the hell out of it. The cover had some very deep scratches near the bottom from hitting curbs, and also some very deep rock chips, most of which sanded out nicely. I will have 2-3 that i will fill. After a heck of a lot of sanding, it starts to look like this....
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint16.JPG

And then i had to get home before Boston Legal started, so i will hit it again tomorrow night....
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint17.JPG

http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint18.JPG

Wow doc, that looks great. Seems like you've done a lot to it. Is there a thread on here for what you've done to it?

Hmmm not much about the car yet. Car is still "in progress", maintenance is pretty much all caught up on including rod bearings, head job, clutch, etc. There isn't much i haven't done to the car. Running stock k26/6 turbo, chips, test pipe, magnaflow muffler, reliaboost, AC and Cruise Delete, along with a little other weight savings here and there :D. Last dyno was 252 to the wheels, or about 300 @ crank at about 16psi. We are developing a high flow turbo that will make a K27 look weak, that will hit boost at about 2900 rpms, so that will probably go on this winter along with chips custom mapped for the turbo, maf, and a stand alone injection system. Intake and boost pipes are powdercoated white. It's my daily driver track car, lol.

We just modified a 997 C4S, with headers, full exhaust, air intake, and GIAC flash tune, and that car and mine ran neck and neck, so it is making decent power, though there is a lot of room for improvement.

Yesp, its all in the preparation.

What type of paint do you shoot? I haven't done any painting in about 25 years: restored 3-liter Healeys 3 decades ago. Used to use a hardener called Star Rock that was incredible if you could get the air pressures right.

I am not sure what paint we will be using on it. Stephen grew up in a body shop and sprays most of the aftermarket tails and such for the company, so what he says to get, that's what i'll get. I get to do all the fun work lol, he is going to do the spraying, paint mixing, etc. I will post what i use once i figure out what it is, lol.

Lets see, this weekends work....

Euro bumper, here I come.....side markers and washer nozzle holes in the bumper get filled.....
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint22.JPG

Slapping on the glass.....
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint23.JPG

After lots of sanding you end up with imperfections on the first round...
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint26.JPG

So you add on another skim layer and keep sanding, the skim layer sands best by hand....
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint27.JPG

The headlight washer nozzle holes filled.....
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint28.JPG

Skim layer on the other side.....
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint29.JPG

After hours of sanding, it starts to look like something....
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint32.JPG

http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint33.JPG

The hood, ready for primer....
http://karl.wilen.us/images/Paint30.JPG

Should be priming early this week, then a day or two to wet sand, and then paint.....

Hey PorscheDoc, it's a great job you're doing on that Porsche of yours! I can't wait to see it when it's finished.

I don't like to pick flies, but if you are going to this much effort, why don't you paint the whole car? You also say "Euro bumper, here I come.....side markers and washer nozzle holes in the bumper get filled", but the euro bumper has the washer nozzle holes in it!

[sm=rolleyes.gif]

Correct, but it doesn't have the side markers....i am getting rid of the headlight nozzles because they are not connected. The entire car will probably end up getting painted over the winter, though just "painting the rest of the car" is a HUGE undertaking, as i won't just respray it. The rest of the paint is good enough though that i can blend it all in. I have about 30 hours into prepping just the hood, header panel, headlight covers, and bumper. Then I will prime, then lots of wetsanding, then paint, then lots of wetsanding, then clear.....long long process.