Let the painting begin... Abarth.. why not :)

[joshuagore]

I have wet sanded one door so far as a test. The results are great, and I am really happy I decided to go with more clear than I 'needed', because now I need it for wet sanding. I will keep everyone updated as the car goes back together.

Josh

[mdrburchette]

Bravo! Can't wait for the end results.

[engineerted]

Is that at trials bike I see in the background? Gas Gas? I remember going to a few trials events when i was a kid.

Ted

[joshuagore]

All praise be to Dupont paint, Sharpe guns, and my friends mostly my brother who took his birthday weekend to stay till 3am, and wakeup and do it again all weekend.

Yes.... My brother is a road racer, and recently(after a 100mph crash) he has decided to take a break and try somthing abit less.... fast He picked that up and has been practicing daily, which I think is better suited to his learning method, so I see him picking it up. I love trials!

Josh

[joshuagore]

Ok so most of the car is wet sanded, from 600 in the worst orange peel places to 800, to 1000, 1500, and finally 2000. I had a few mistakes, but luckily I was able to fix them up. I was anxious and didn't want to wait until the entire car was sanded to see it buffed up, so I took a few minutes to run through the steps on fender.

Thank God for 2 stage. I have been able to remove almost all of the paint defects.

Glazed...



Partially Sanded...



This is what the clear started like...


Tomorrow the paint will be all tidied up... or so I hope.

Josh

[baltobernie]

No first-timer can resist test-finishing one panel! It may be a little less traumatic with clear, but wet-sanding single-stage paint for the first time is a real Gulp. Watching all that color stream down the driveway is not for the faint of heart. Congratulations on a great looking job. Tell me, didja reinstall badges just as soon as each panel was done? I couldn't wait, either!

[joshuagore]

I did not install badges... yet. I did totally biff. I wanted to bad to have all the panels be perfect that I got abit overzealous with the sand paper and cut through the clear in 3 spots. These spots took me all day to prep and paint. I will clear them tomorrow. So far the front fenders, doors and 1 rear panel is buffed out. The rest are awaiting those fix jobs to be cleared.

Frustrating, rewarding, paintful (yes I meant that) day.

Josh

[pope]

No to be a smart ass but, it looks like you used a 3/8" nap paint roller to apply the paint. No wonder you are having to do so much work getting the orange peel leveled.

It is a great feeling to get the car painted. The color is awesome and you should feel very proud after it is done. But you might have to sleep for a week when you are done from all the work it took to finish the paint surface.
Cant wait to see the shiny results.

I think you are glad you went base/clear. All that sanding would have had a red river running down your driveway
Great job!

[joshuagore]

No to be a smart ass but, it looks like you used a 3/8" nap paint roller to apply the paint. No wonder you are having to do so much work getting the orange peel leveled.

It is a great feeling to get the car painted. The color is awesome and you should feel very proud after it is done. But you might have to sleep for a week when you are done from all the work it took to finish the paint surface.
Cant wait to see the shiny results.

I think you are glad you went base/clear. All that sanding would have had a red river running down your driveway
Great job!

Your observation is accurate and redundant (as no one knows better the level of orange peel than the orange peel that sprayed and is now sanding it). When I started the project I had space to paint indoors for a weekend. After shooting my primer which went on like a dream I cleaned my main gun, and moved the car out for a day of sanding. Saturday night when the color started my gun was puking it out. This lead to a gun teardown which is when I realized that one of the seals had disintegrated. This meant that my smaller detail gun would have to do. A gun I would have been happy to use on the color, but was hoping not to use on the clear for fears of the exact problem I experienced. I ended up not being able to find a seal and repair the larger gun and sprayed the clear with the detail gun. On most panels the orange was not that bad, but on some of the slab sides it was just horrid. This is why my arms are tired.

Yesterday I made some silly mistakes as people often do when they put timelines on such detailed work. I said I wanted the body buffed up before the weekend was over. I got excited with the sand paper and popped through the clear and even the color in a few spots. Live and learn.... except when repairing those spots with more color/clear, I biffed again.... and again. Finally I got it last night. After work I am going to sand the color and spray the clear. Tomorrow sand the clear and finish the buffing.

Notice I just put another tight timeline on things. I never learn. I appreciate the compliments.

Josh

[Braido]

I just painted my Fiat as well. Took the bumpers off and the side markers, moved them to the holes below the headlights and used them as signal lights and fabricated them in. I had a local body shop do it and it took a long time for them to get to it (about 3 months) but they did a great job. They took everything off that they could, removing all the trim, lights, rubbers, everything. I'll post some pictures soon, i hope your car turns out just as you hope, i know mine did.

[joshuagore]

I just painted my Fiat as well. Took the bumpers off and the side markers, moved them to the holes below the headlights and used them as signal lights and fabricated them in. I had a local body shop do it and it took a long time for them to get to it (about 3 months) but they did a great job. They took everything off that they could, removing all the trim, lights, rubbers, everything. I'll post some pictures soon, i hope your car turns out just as you hope, i know mine did.

Thanks! I hope it turns out well too. Today I am fixing some mistakes and sanding/buffing tomorrow. I took the 'fixing' downtime to do a custom carpet setup, and all black vinyl door panels. The door panels turned out decent, and the carpet looks good sans one wrong cut. While I wait for this stuff to dry I will likely try and carpet the rear seat area where I removed the rear seats in an effort to make space for camping equipment. The last move on the project will likely be spraying the lower skirt on the rear of the car black to match the rockers.

As always I will keep the thread updated with pictures and such. Thanks again to everyone with advice, and I swear in the future I am trying to get less orange peel Easier said than done at my skill level.

Josh

[mdrburchette]

So many things can cause orange peel. I'll be attempting to paint my racer this winter. Thankfully I have Ron to guide me.

[pope]

Orange peel means that the fluid needle needs to be opened up more.
Runs mean that you are holding it in one place tooo long or the air pressure need to be boosted.

[joshuagore]

Thanks for the gun tips, I read that knowledge but of course its easy to read, sometimes hard to apply or remember.

I sprayed my mistake area's and masked as the book suggested to aid in creating a blend line. Clear is next then careful sanding, this time with some masking tape on my precious edges.
You can also see my recovered door panels, which came out pretty good, not that great looking from that angle, but its much smoother than it appears.

Josh







p.s. That yellow race bike in the background is for sale

[mdrburchette]

Looking good! Are you leaving the rear cowl and trunk lid red or painting them black? Orange peel can also be caused by too low air pressure or wrong mixture for the weather.