Putting into words the hundreds of tiny details that must be taken care of to prep a car for painting is difficult. Even more difficult is taking pictures of things that are hardly visible to the naked eye, much less the lens of a camera. I will do my best, but this page will likely involve more text than pictures.
Aside from smoothing out all the little bumps and blemishes, I have two major obstacles to putting a nice paint job on this car. The first is that the engine is not ready to be installed. The last thing I want to do is put an engine in a car with a brand new paint job. It is just inviting disaster. If the tail of the transmission just touches the top of one of the fenders, it will mean a lot more work. Putting the engine and transmission in always involves a lot of leaning over the fenders, or literally climbing into the engine compartment. Either way, it is hard on the tops of the fenders. The solution is to paint the fenders and hood off the car. But that creates another dilemma, the possibility of the paint not matching. Metallic paint, which is what I will be spraying, is affected by the way it is applied. Using more air pressure gives a lighter, more metallic hue. Less pressure results in more of the color showing. It may only be a half a shade, but can be easily seen when it is side by side, such as where the doors and fenders meet. Adding to the problem is the fact that this is a base coat clear coat paint process. There are restrictions to applying this type of paint. The base coat cannot accept another coat once it dries. Also it must be clear coated within 24 hours, preferably within just a few hours.
Secondly, being a convertible makes it a logistical nightmare painting the trunk area. Check out the picture below. Where would you mask off to keep over-spray from getting inside the car.
The narrow strip across the middle of the picture has to be painted too, as well as the complete inside of the trunk.
Here is another view. You can see that the narrow strip of maroon on the forward edge of the piece that ties the quarter panels together presents a problem. Notice that it blends into the inside of the quarter panels where the convertible top mechanism mounts.
Aside from these special challenges are the usual tasks associated with painting any car.
Every panel is sanded with fine grit sandpaper on a rubber block. This is the last chance to detect any low spots.
Curved areas are sanded with the sandpaper wrapped around a rubber hose. Here is the trunk lid after final sanding. All surfaces have to be as smooth as glass.
The entire car has been blocked out with fine grit waterproof sandpaper three times.
All of the door gaskets have been removed. Uneven surfaces, like this aft end of the driver's door, require detailed attention to be properly sanded. The doors must be sanded along the bottom and forward ends as well.
Here is a close up of the door hinge area showing where it has been sanded. The rectangular ID plate will be masked off. The hole is where the courtesy light switch was removed.
After everything is sanded there are several areas that need to be sealed with seam sealer.
On both sides where the quarter panels meet the rear body panel there is a seam that needs to be sealed.
Also where the quarter panels meet the rocker panels.
There were other areas that did not photograph well, such as where the gas filler neck comes through the hole in the quarter panel.
I had sealed the edges of the trunk floor before, but it didn't look just right. So I added another layer. The little jar with a paint brush is acetone. I brush it on to smooth out the sealer. It makes for a nicer appearance after the paint is applied. The little dabs of sealer are to fill pinholes in the welds holding the floor to the frame rails.
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