93Coupe.com » Paint and Body

Smoothing Engine Bay – Base and Clear

admin — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 02:55:08 +0000

Finally done with the engine bay. It has been the project that goes forever. Just when you think you’re done, there’s another step.

My last step was epoxy primer but it left a little orange peel and required sanding. Here are some pictures of the progression of sanding the epoxy in preparation for base color.

Then I wet sanded with 600.

Final Paint – The pictures came out yellowish and dark

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Smoothing Engine Bay – Epoxy Sealer

admin — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 12:56:54 +0000

After all of the filler, primer and block sanding is done, you’re ready for your base coat color, right? Maybe not. Frequently when sanding in preparation for base coat, you’ll end up breaking through a layer or two of your previous work. This isn’t usually a big deal but those different materials MIGHT show up as looking just a bit different once you do your final painting. A sealer coat gives you a uniform surface to work with when you apply your color.

In my case, I used a slightly reduced SPI Epoxy Primer (http://southernpolyurethanes.com/Photos/spi_070202_0256-2.jpg). The only downside to doing this is that it’s one more coat that has the potential to introduce some orange peel. In these pictures, it looks very glossy..I actually thought I’d be basing right over this because it looked so smooth. Upon further inspection, it had just the slightest orange peel texture to it, so I decided to smooth it down with 600 grit sandpaper before I shoot the color. I’ll post some more pictures this week of the sanding process and the final painting. THEN I can move on to the suspension and brakes!

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Smoothing the Engine Bay Round 2

admin — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 12:17:04 +0000

Ok, when I repurchased the car, the previous owner had started the long project of smoothing the engine bay. In doing so, he also removed the A/C from the car, filling those holes in as well (a big no-no back here in Florida!).

Here’s how the car was when I got it back:

A lot of the bare metal was left exposed from the previous project and it had sat long enough for that metal to start rusting. Also, the USC “All-Metal” filler would crack anywhere that I tried to work on it – so most of it had to come out.

I ended up using the “Perfect Paint Job” instructions from Southern Polyuerethanes. It basically goes like this:

Do your metal work
Epoxy Primer (SPI)
Filler (Evercoat Rage Gold)
2K Primer (SPI)
Epoxy Sealer (SPI)
Base
Clear (SPI)

I’m doing the final blocking on the 2K Primer now and hope to base and clear this weekend. Here are some more current pictures:

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