84' Cutlass pro touring build

[64nailhead]

Holy crap, it’s starting to look like a car again!

Looks fabulous Tony. We single staged a car about 3 years ago, and all I’ll add is the final appearance after a proper sanding and buffing was night day with what it looked like immediately after painting. The guy we painted the car for had someone else do the final sanding and buffing. It was a budget deal, but after $500 to a local body guy it looked absolutely amazing. $500 was more than was spent in the paint (3 years ago - probably double for the paint now 🙁 )

My MC got painted with the remaining quart of leftover paint. I would’ve never considered a single stage until I seen the final product.

 

[Tony1968]

Before a run. After not so much

 

[Tony1968]

2 x 2 section of roof. This was so gritty I was ready to push car out of garage and toss a flare.... calmer heads prevailed. She isn't perfect. Not by a long shot. But this isn't going to be a Riddler ride. Need to do a much better job on hood and fenders. Or else.
Before

After

 

[Tony1968]

BTW this was wet sanded with 800, 1000, 1500, 3000. Polishing supplies arriving Thursday.

 

[Streetbu]

Tony you're doing a great job! Keep it up. And we all have to learn somehow. Do you know why it orange peeled so bad? Not enough volume out of the gun, or moving too quickly? More importantly though, you put enough on to be able to wet sand and make it flat. Little more work, but it'll be nice 😎

 

[Tony1968]

Tony you're doing a great job! Keep it up. And we all have to learn somehow. Do you know why it orange peeled so bad? Not enough volume out of the gun, or moving too quickly? More importantly though, you put enough on to be able to wet sand and make it flat. Little more work, but it'll be nice 😎

I really don't know. I need a practice panel to abuse.

 

[Streetbu]

Even a piece of cardboard helps. Get the settings right on your gun and you'll only fine tune them from then on. Seeing that you had a run in the paint, I'm wondering if the issue was below, in the primer or the sealer....

 

[Tony1968]

Even a piece of cardboard helps. Get the settings right on your gun and you'll only fine tune them from then on. Seeing that you had a run in the paint, I'm wondering if the issue was below, in the primer or the sealer....

I tape up brown paper to garage door and set stuff before I spray actual car but obviously something isn't right. I'm going to practice more and write down settings from different pressures etc and see what works best using sealer and paint.

 

[scoti]

Speed of application & a 'fluid' movement when actually applying are important as is maintaining a consistent distance. Those large flat surfaces like the roof top can be a PITA as far as the process (trying not to lean on the side of the car; trying to be consistent w/coverage from front windshield opening to the back; trying to overlap consistently). That's where I might fog a coat or two @ a 45° angle JIC.

Looks like you'll be fine w/some sanding effort.

 

[Tony1968]

Long post. Sorry 😞
About 30 hours on roof. First round of wet sanding then polish was unacceptable. So I did it all over again this time going as low as 220 wet. Those pock marks are deep. Went through to 320,400,600,1000,1500 afterwards. Then compound and machine polish. Totally unacceptable. To me it looks like a ten year old car that's never been waxed and spent life outside. So I have to paint the roof again. After first round I had a feeling but wasn't giving up. Oh well. Learning. And I have white blindness i swear. Only good thing to report is that the rest of body is nowhere near as bad as the roof. So I think I should wet sand and polish the rest of it and see if it's ok and I believe it will be. Then figure a plan of attack on roof. Another decent thing is that the 3 uneven coats on the roof stood up to a monstrous amount of removal. Don't know the thickness of what is left. Here's some useless pictures.