Saved from the Demo Derby: 1990 Country Squire

[Tiggie]

Finally got everything painted! Again, it's not perfect but I don't think paint ever is and that's why they invented buffing? It's good enough for me without buffing.

Ordered vinyl yesterday from VVIVID. It is red oak patterned. I can return it if I don't like it - which is pretty important to me. Was supposed to arrive July 30. Got a notice today that it would be August 6. Not happy. At least the paint will have some extra time to gas out and maybe I can work on some other projects in the meantime.

As a side note, 3M Di-Noc is available but the exterior grade is not recommended for complex contours, such as a car. They have interior grades available but I'll be darned if I pay $1000+ for interior grade vinyl.

[87gtVIC]

I actually purchased separate hoses just to use only for primer, base and clear. I keep them separate from the other hoses. Eastwood was having some closeouts on 25 and 50' hoses so I said why not. A little money here can save a lot of money/labor and time on the back end.

Hope you can get your fisheyes out after another coat of primer.

[Tiggie]

I definitely caused the problem. I've had two moisture traps, a desiccant dryer, and a filter. The desiccant apparatus got restricted, and due to how it's assembled, I removed that and the filter.

Oil made it through the moisture traps and into the hose. Tried flushing it today but could never get it completely clean. Put the filter back and ordered a new hose. Oh well. Just glad it wasn't during base/clear.

[87gtVIC]

Ugha. That’s annoying.

[Tiggie]

Been working on the front clip and tailgate this week. Put all that in epoxy yesterday and had a paint issue - about a 1000 tiny fish eyes.

It's not a huge deal but annoying. I think I can block out the epoxy a little, followed with the 2K primer and blocking again and get rid of those suckers without starting from scratch. Still annoying and disappointing.

Given the uniform distribution of them, I think the oil came out of the air line. I beat on the air compressor pretty hard this week getting it prepped and I guess some got by the moisture traps.

Going to flush out the air lines with acetone and start blocking.

[Tiggie]

Very nice!

Thanks! It's taking forever.

Painted the cowl area with a brush. No one really sees it unless they look hard. Polished the windshield today with cerium oxide. I guess where this car sat for a long time with who knows what on it, it made some kind of acid and etched into the glass. Luckily most of it came out. Also present on the big side wagon windows. I'll tackle those when it's not a humid 102 outside.

This car needs a windshield to be honest. Not getting it right now but the edges are delaminating and fogging/bubbling. Did one of you say new windshields aren't available any longer? Or am I making that up. It's the regular one, not heated.






only 99 when I took this picture.

[87gtVIC]

Very nice!

[Tiggie]

I'm digging what I see. That paint looks like it went down smooth. Gloss in the roof and side looks great!

Thanks! It's shiny for sure. Not perfect. A couple mistakes but most of that is going to get covered by woodgrain... so that's a plus for that stuff. Roof was a pain. Such a long run.

Looks nice. What brand of paint did you use ? Maybe I missed something but why is the front clip off ?

Easier to remove the fenders to get the woodgrain trim off. I really despise that stuff in terms of refinishing a car. It's easily made this process thread times more hours. And it's not done yet... got to refinish the trim yet.

Paint was from Southern Polyurethanes. I like their stuff.

[Mainemantom]

Looks nice. What brand of paint did you use ? Maybe I missed something but why is the front clip off ?

[Kodachrome Wolf]

I'm digging what I see. That paint looks like it went down smooth. Gloss in the roof and side looks great!

[Tiggie]

Three coats of base. Only two coats of clear. It looked fine so I quit while I was ahead. No plans to cut and buff.

[friskyfrankie]

Bright is good!

[Tiggie]

Did the jambs and window frames. With the glass still in the doors and the interior still in the car, this seemed like the best way. Lots of masking, however.
This probably sounds crazy but there is a decent mental game going on while painting after the first coat over primer. Have to remember where you've been and not, since you can't see a difference really. There are a lot of edges in the door jambs to forget or cover twice accidentally. This way lets me focus on those areas and not worry about the rest of the car.
I really like the base I am using. Southern Polyurethanes makes it. Lays now so nicely I think my nine year old kid could do it. Covers nicely as well.
The new while absolutely blows away the old white in brightness. I hope it's not too bright.

[87gtVIC]

Okay. That made me laugh. I’ll take it.

[Tiggie]

Looking good. I wish I was local to lend you a hand. Fun stuff…. Well once it’s done it’s all fun. The process is long and tedious but gratifying once complete.

On my Mercedes one day blasts I noticed my primer shrinking back more so then I would have liked.

When I recently repainted my front bumper I upped the grit to 400 before primer and allowed the primer to dry two hot days before wet sanding out and painting as opposed to 320 grit scratch and only allowing 5 hours to dry before wet sanding.

its stuff you really have to look for but I know its there on some of the panels.


if you do have the chance to let the primer sit for a week or two before blocking out I’d definitely do it.

I had a similar issue with the 88 wagon way back in 2007. So when I did the Rustang, I primed it in the fall and it had all winter to shrink before I blocked it! I hope this will be in primer by Saturday. Then gonna take a little break from it until after July 4.
On a side note, an old timer told me that if your paint shrinks down and you start to see sanding marks several days or weeks later, you have good adhesion! So there's a perk for ya when you see those little places.