chevynut
05-27-2015, 12:06 PM
We finally hauled my frame to the paint shop yesterday morning as scheduled. My brother and my son helped me load it onto my son's 20 foot trailer and the rotisserie BARELY fit on it. We even had to take off one lift jack to get it forward enough that the rotisserie tires fit on the back end of the trailer. I put some "off-road" pneumatic casters on it and it made it a lot easier to push around on gravel.
After we delivered it to Matt's shop we all went to lunch since it took us til around noon to get over there and unload and shoot the bull a little. After lunch we went over the frame with some 600 grit sandpaper again, catching some spots I missed. Even after 3 weeks of working on priming and sanding, there were still some spots I feel I should have worked on more. Matt told me I should have used guide coat, since he does that on everything. He says that will also tell you where you've sanded and where you haven't. I sometimes lost track of where I saw defects so I wish I'd done that. I just thought it was overkill at the time...for a frame.
I really wish I had not done any finish work on the frame until recently. If I'd left it in epoxy primer it would have been easier to finish it now and I could have done the welding I wanted to do without the mess. Matt showed me some "one-step" waterproof high build primer he uses and currently is using on a very valuable 60's Maserati. He says it's better than anything he's tried before and doesn't need epoxy under it like Slicksand does, doesn't shrink, and sands easily. He's used it for several years now. After all of this work, I have convinced myself that using the SPI epoxy or Matt's high-build primer product is the way to go. Using epoxy, slicksand, then K36 is a pain in the ass and it's expensive...way more expensive than either of the other products. I had to be careful I didn't get sand-thrus and then I had to fix the ones I got and keep re-sanding. With the "one-step" products you just spray, sand, re-spray, and keep doing it until it's finished to your liking. And it's a lot cheaper.
We finished the sanding, and Matt blew it off with high pressure air very carefully getting into every nook and cranny. The we wiped it down with oil and wax remover, and Matt shot the white DBC base. After that we started shooting the color. The paint seemed to cover well in just a couple coats, better than I expected, but we put more than that on. What I noticed was that it was really hard to get paint into closed areas or tight areas like the side body mounts, inside the k-member, and places like that. We also painted the transmission crossmember and the radiator support. We looked the frame and parts over carefully after shooting the basecoat, then started spraying the clear. We finished around 10:30PM after taking about an hour off for dinner. It really does look good. ;)
After we finished, I realized this painting was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Matt is a very talented painter, and he still had a hard time painting every surface due to all the angles, brackets, holes, etc. He said a frame is a lot harder to paint than a body for that reason.
I took some pics with my phone inside the booth but they're not very good. We left the frame there for a couple of days to cure, then I'll bring it home.
Here's a picture of a panel I had Matt paint along with the frame to give me an actual paint sample to use to choose my other colors. It really "pops" in the sunlight. I'll post pics of the frame when I get some good ones.
4452
And here's the newly sprayed panel with my interior colors:
4453
After we delivered it to Matt's shop we all went to lunch since it took us til around noon to get over there and unload and shoot the bull a little. After lunch we went over the frame with some 600 grit sandpaper again, catching some spots I missed. Even after 3 weeks of working on priming and sanding, there were still some spots I feel I should have worked on more. Matt told me I should have used guide coat, since he does that on everything. He says that will also tell you where you've sanded and where you haven't. I sometimes lost track of where I saw defects so I wish I'd done that. I just thought it was overkill at the time...for a frame.
I really wish I had not done any finish work on the frame until recently. If I'd left it in epoxy primer it would have been easier to finish it now and I could have done the welding I wanted to do without the mess. Matt showed me some "one-step" waterproof high build primer he uses and currently is using on a very valuable 60's Maserati. He says it's better than anything he's tried before and doesn't need epoxy under it like Slicksand does, doesn't shrink, and sands easily. He's used it for several years now. After all of this work, I have convinced myself that using the SPI epoxy or Matt's high-build primer product is the way to go. Using epoxy, slicksand, then K36 is a pain in the ass and it's expensive...way more expensive than either of the other products. I had to be careful I didn't get sand-thrus and then I had to fix the ones I got and keep re-sanding. With the "one-step" products you just spray, sand, re-spray, and keep doing it until it's finished to your liking. And it's a lot cheaper.
We finished the sanding, and Matt blew it off with high pressure air very carefully getting into every nook and cranny. The we wiped it down with oil and wax remover, and Matt shot the white DBC base. After that we started shooting the color. The paint seemed to cover well in just a couple coats, better than I expected, but we put more than that on. What I noticed was that it was really hard to get paint into closed areas or tight areas like the side body mounts, inside the k-member, and places like that. We also painted the transmission crossmember and the radiator support. We looked the frame and parts over carefully after shooting the basecoat, then started spraying the clear. We finished around 10:30PM after taking about an hour off for dinner. It really does look good. ;)
After we finished, I realized this painting was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Matt is a very talented painter, and he still had a hard time painting every surface due to all the angles, brackets, holes, etc. He said a frame is a lot harder to paint than a body for that reason.
I took some pics with my phone inside the booth but they're not very good. We left the frame there for a couple of days to cure, then I'll bring it home.
Here's a picture of a panel I had Matt paint along with the frame to give me an actual paint sample to use to choose my other colors. It really "pops" in the sunlight. I'll post pics of the frame when I get some good ones.
4452
And here's the newly sprayed panel with my interior colors:
4453