Well Shaun, I don't think there was anything I didn't do! Now I see why they charge so dang much for paint jobs. A lot of work goes into painting a car - gobs of hours. Stripping the car to bare metal, inside & out, engine bay, under the front hood, as you can imagine, is very labor intensive. Then you gotta clean, vacuum, blow it out, wipe it down, vacuum, blow it out, wipe it down..., in preparation for epoxy coat. Once the epoxy has been applied you're ready for body work. For me, that's where a lot of time was spent/wasted and the one thing I wish I could have done differently. But, it was a learning curve, and since it wasn't going to get done on it's own, I had to keep at it until it was done. Hammer & dolly is one thing, but the body filler really took me for a curve. I made the mistake of trying to fix "the spot", over and over, instead of covering a wider area with the filler, which is what was required to finally get it right. I can't believe I went through a whole gallon can of filler on the car! Mind you, most of it was sanded off, but the mere fact that I had to re-apply & sand multiple times on the same spot, just killed me.
It felt wonderful when it was finally smoooooooth, but that phase just took too much time. Some things just take longer to learn I guess.
Of course you blow through areas of the epoxy while sanding so you have to re-apply epoxy in those areas, again & again, but I won't go into that.
Then you sand down the whole car, again. Clean, wipe, vacuum, ... Apply two coats of 2K primer. Apply guide coat and wet block sand the whole car, again. Inevitably, there were low spots & highs, so you break out that can of filler & go to town again. Only this time, you have to go easy as to not break through to bare metal. More cleaning, then another coat of 2K primer followed again with guide coat. Wet block sand, and holy ****, it's silky smooooothe & straight! That was/is a good feeling.
Up to that point I did everything in my makeshift carport but used a booth to apply the sealant & paint. Of course there was more sanding because I wasn't used to the different spray gun, air pressure, lighting, nicer environment, and nerves, which caused massive runs, fish eyes, dry spots, and orange peel.
I was really happy to learn, from my buddy who owns the booth, that I wasn't done with "sanding" yet. Apparently, I have to block sand the whole dang car "again" and buff & polish, if I desire that showroom finish. :eek: I do not like this sanding.
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