Paint and Body Work 42
Color and clear going down on the larger pieces. These are all fresh from clearcoat, so there are some dust nibs and sagging that will have to be sanded and buffed out- I saw one of their guys working on the side skirts doing exactly this- but it already looks unbelievable. The owner is concerned he doesn't have enough PPG for the entire car, so he mixed his own BASF paint for the chassis. He said Imola Orange Pearl is a really interesting color because it is made up of mostly a tinted pearl with very little actual color in it.
The mesh will be painted black.
The ill-fitting B-pillars. Spencer and I will have to get creative with spacers and foam to get these to sit right.
On the hood and deck lid, that's PPG on top and his BASF on the undersides. I could not tell the difference even in direct sunlight.
When I stopped by the shop today, they were working on sanding and buffing out the clear coat on the side skirts. They also were working hard on the front bumper. The owner said it was in worse condition than even I expected. He said it had been painted at least 5 times (they found 6 coats of varying shades of red paint on it) and all of them were of poor quality. He said they were able to blow off some layers of paint with just compressed air! They basically sanded all of that garbage off and coated the entire bumper in a thick layer of sanding primer. Now, they have to sand it down to get the surface perfect again. I was a little concerned he was going to tell me I needed a new upper bumper piece, but he said they could salvage the existing one. Just a lot of sanding. Next up are the fenders and doors. He's going to hang them together as they would sit on the car and shoot an entire side in a single pass. This should minimize any weird striping or shading you get from the orientation of the pearl flakes in the paint if you paint the parts separately. Even though this is a 2-stage color, he said there's so much pearl in the paint that this is the best way to ensure an even coat.
Color and clear going down on the larger pieces. These are all fresh from clearcoat, so there are some dust nibs and sagging that will have to be sanded and buffed out- I saw one of their guys working on the side skirts doing exactly this- but it already looks unbelievable. The owner is concerned he doesn't have enough PPG for the entire car, so he mixed his own BASF paint for the chassis. He said Imola Orange Pearl is a really interesting color because it is made up of mostly a tinted pearl with very little actual color in it.
The mesh will be painted black.
The ill-fitting B-pillars. Spencer and I will have to get creative with spacers and foam to get these to sit right.
On the hood and deck lid, that's PPG on top and his BASF on the undersides. I could not tell the difference even in direct sunlight.
When I stopped by the shop today, they were working on sanding and buffing out the clear coat on the side skirts. They also were working hard on the front bumper. The owner said it was in worse condition than even I expected. He said it had been painted at least 5 times (they found 6 coats of varying shades of red paint on it) and all of them were of poor quality. He said they were able to blow off some layers of paint with just compressed air! They basically sanded all of that garbage off and coated the entire bumper in a thick layer of sanding primer. Now, they have to sand it down to get the surface perfect again. I was a little concerned he was going to tell me I needed a new upper bumper piece, but he said they could salvage the existing one. Just a lot of sanding. Next up are the fenders and doors. He's going to hang them together as they would sit on the car and shoot an entire side in a single pass. This should minimize any weird striping or shading you get from the orientation of the pearl flakes in the paint if you paint the parts separately. Even though this is a 2-stage color, he said there's so much pearl in the paint that this is the best way to ensure an even coat.
To be able to reach out and touch it in real life is just so cool.
