With the car clean and the garage clean, it was time to start thinking about actually putting paint on the car. But first I had to mask off a lot of areas where I didn't want paint. I will be using what is called an HVLP paint gun. HVLP stands for High Volume Low Pressure. The advantage of this type of paint gun is that it uses less air to carry the paint from the tip of the gun to the surface being painted. The result is less paint goes up into a cloud such as with the old siphon cup type guns. This means the HVLP gun will produce much less overspray, which is wasted paint. But it does still produce a little overspray, so if you don't want paint on something you have to mask it off. I laid a sheet of cloth over the freshly painted dash board so it didn't get a hazy coat of red paint. Not that it really mattered, but I went ahead and covered the floorboard area too.
As you can see in the picture below, I wrapped plastic around the convertible top frame to keep it from getting overspray on it. I also laid the old windshield in place so I could help keep paint off the dashboard. The tires were also covered.
Here is the view from the other side. Notice the blue tape along the edge of the hood. This is because I had already painted along the edges and didn't want to put more paint on there. The trick is to allow the tape to stick up about 1/4" above the surface of the hood, then crease the tape outward at a slight angle. After I spray all the color, I will remove the tape and allow more clear to be applied to the edge.
Here is a better view of the taped edges of the hood. Notice anything that doesn't get painted is covered, or masked off. If it isn't covered, it WILL get paint on it. Maybe not much, but enough to matter. The hood hinges are not masked. But the way I have the tape folded out along the edge of the hood and the inside edge of the fender, paint cannot get between them with the hood closed. When I start to put clear along the edge of the hood, I will turn the paint volume down and spray only the very edge of the hood, avoiding the hinges. That will be the very last step, after the rest of the hood has been cleared.
After going around the car many times blowing it off with high pressure air and wiping with my bare hand, the final step before applying paint is to go over it with a tack rag. A tack rag is a piece of cheese cloth impregnated with some sort of sticky substance that attracts dirt, dust, and small particles. I save my old tack rag from the previous paint job and use it the first time around. After I think I have all the dust and fine particles off the car I open up the new tack rag. When they are new they are very sticky. Going over the entire car a couple of times ensures there is absolutely NO dust or dirt on the car.
I couldn't paint and take pictures at the same time, but here is a shot after about 6 coats of paint have been applied. As you can see, the paint doesn't shine like a new car. This is because this paint is called a "color coat/clear coat system", meaning you spray the color on then come back over it with several coats of clear. Almost all new cars are painted using this system. Years ago, the paint was sprayed on and it shined. With this type of paint the shine comes with the clear coat.
The difference between a good paint job and a great paint job is the amount of work that goes into it. After all the back breaking work I have put into this car I am not about to take any shortcuts on the final step that everyone will see. So, it is time for some water sanding. Using very fine grit wet or dry sandpaper, the entire car is thoroughly sanded until smooth as a baby's butt. Here the still wet hood and fender have been sanded smooth.
It is a lot of work to sand the entire car again. But this step will help ensure a smooth glossy final finish. It is messy and back breaking, but well worth the effort when it comes to the final result.
After water sanding the entire car it will be towel dried, blown off with high pressure air, and tack ragged again.
With all the water sanding done I shifted into clean up mode. The car was easy to towel dry and tack rag off again. But the floor of the garage was covered with the dried paint that was sanded off. Me moving around would kick up these fine particles of paint so I rolled the car out of the garage and cleaned up the floor. Obviously I had to blow and tack it off again after I rolled it back in, but it was well worth it knowing I would not be kicking up the tiny particles of paint that had dried on the floor. At that point it was time for what is called the "color coat". This is what will be seen under the clear, so it has to be sprayed with no dirt or areas of mottling. Mottling is when the metallic in the paint dries unevenly and causes a splotchy appearance in one area. The secret is to spray the paint just right, not too dry, not too wet. Here she is with the color coat on ready for clear.
You may have noticed the pictures are almost all large format. The small pictures just don't show the paint very well, so hopefully the larger format will give you a better view.
Here is what I came out to the day after laying down four coats of clear. As you can see, the shine is brilliant. Even as shinny as this looks, it isn't finished. Remember what I said about the difference between a good paint job and a great paint job. Well, there is more work to go into this paint job. All that shinny clear will be water sanded down and polished out. But for now, I plan on just admiring it for a few days till this clear cures really well.
Check out the reflection of the air compressor and shop vac.
Here is the other side. It looks like a candied apple, nice and slick and shinny. As shinny as it looks, you are not going to believe what the next step is! Click the link below to go to the next page.
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