1993 Toyota MR2 project

Show off your work! Anything from final results to full start-to-finish project journals.



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PostPosted: Mon Sep 28, 2020 10:26 pm
Thanks Pete, going to try that one too.



Settled In
Posts: 45
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2020 9:53 am

Country:
USA
PostPosted: Sat Oct 24, 2020 1:11 pm
A ton of work the last few weeks, as cold weather is looming, and I'm now 'done', although in another thread I detail an ongoing issue. So...

After shooting it with two coats of poly primer, I realized that a huge amount of the prep work I'd done was a waste of time, as the poly buries everything. It's super easy to sand, too, and with guide coat applied, I was able to find a dozen or more door dings and dents, and block sand them out without having to use any body filler.

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This is after the entire thing had been block sanded, first with 220 and then 400 and finished with 600 per the TDS of the basecoat.
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Since I have no garage, it was time for my redneck 'booth.' Not pretty, but it worked. Simple PVC pipes driven into the ground, shock cords for support, a fan at one end and filters at the other, and 1mm sheeting on all sides and floor. Positive pressure achieved.

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The main problem with the booth was dew. Every morning the plastic inside and out was covered in dew. I smothered the car in thick blankets to keep it dry, but still had to wait until 2 or 3 o'clock to start spraying, after first ensuring it was dry inside and out.

So, after months of planning, learning, and prepping, it was finally time to spray. Here it is after the second coat of base. I ended up doing three.

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Next, the pearl midcoat. I was cautious with this, starting with a low pearl load and increasing it a little with the second coat to get the subtle effect I was after. Pictures do not come close to doing it justice. It glows a sparkly purple along the body lines in the sun.

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Finally, two coats of clear to finish. I would have liked to have done three, but I was running out of time. These coats went fine, but unfortunately, a misting of dew formed on the roof before I could hustle it into my neighbor's garage for the night, and now it's cloudy. I'm getting advice on how to correct that in a dedicated thead.

The finished product as of now, apart from the roof, is better than I could've hoped for. No runs, no fisheyes, no solvent pop, no hose drags across a panel (my biggest fear), no visible sand scratches. Very, very little orange peel too. Just the cloudy roof issue, and worst case scenario I just sand and re-shoot clear. All in all, I'm really happy, as you can see from this pic (panel gaps are because some parts were removed to paint & haven't been reassembled yet):

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Things I learned:

As mentioned already, I spent way too long prepping intricate nooks and crannies and making sure there were no sand scratches rougher than 400 grit. I could've done the whole car in 120 grit and the poly primer would've buried it.

There was no room in the redneck booth for the rear spoiler, mirrors, and other trim pieces, so I had to paint them on the covered patio. This worked fine, BUT moving between the booth and patio with a twisting, kinking hose was a nightmare. I should've invested in a better hose, one that would lay flat. Amazingly, after all the prepping and planning I did, I forgot to move my lawnmower, and my hose snagged on it while moving between patio and booth.

My water filtering worked great. Between coats, I released the drain valve on the compressor tank, both ball valve traps on my copper manifold, and I changed the dessicant beads in the filter at the gun between base and midcoat, and midcoat and clear.

I would say to any newbie out there, don't be afraid to paint a car in your driveway or a makeshift booth, and with a 33-gallon compressor you got off Facebook Marketplace. However, you really should secure a garage to park it when you're done, otherwise you're asking for trouble.

Thanks again to the many people who helped me tremendously!



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Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2020 9:53 am

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PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2022 1:54 pm
Hi all! It's just shy of two years later, and I'm back. My driveway paintjob has mostly held up well, but an issue has developed in the last month. See pics below:

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This is the only spot this has happened. It's on the corner of the thin, thermoplastic front bumper. It could be some kind of contamination I didn't deal with, or lack of a flex agent (I was assured I didn't need one), or something else. But anyway. How would you fix this? Should I sand down the entire bumper cover and then blend new base/mid onto this area, and re-clear the entire cover? Is there a quicker/easier spot repair? Or should I assume whatever happened here could happen elsewhere on the bumper cover, and just take the entire bumper back down to primer, and start over from there?

Thanks for any advice!

I should add: this color turned out to be a little too mild for me. Next summer, I'm planning on re-painting the entire thing in a close copy of the Nissan Midnight Purple 3 pearl. So while I'm willing to do the fix the right way, I'd also take something of a shortcut if possible, since it just has to get me to the next paintjob.
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