Installing weatherstripping

It's been a few weeks now, but I installed the weatherstripping on the trunk lid and doors.  There are a few tricks to it that don't seem immediately obvious as first.

I used Carpenter Reproductions weather stripping that I ordered from CJ's.  My panels were off the car laying upside down when I installed.  I did a test first first, just a mock up to make sure the stripping was going to be the correct length.

The weather stripping has a mold releasing agent on it that can make it so it doesn't adhere to the adhesive well, so first clean the weatherstripping with wax and grease remover.  I've read that some people have had to scuff their weatherstripping with a red scotch brite to make it adhere better too.  Then scuff the surface on the car that the weatherstripping will be adhering to with a red scotchbrite, and clean the surface with wax and grease remover and let it flash off.

I used 3M Super Black Weatherstripping Adhesive, applying a light coat to the panel as well as the mounting surfaces of the weatherstripping and letting it set up for a few minutes  until it was tacky before setting the weatherstripping on the panel, working in sections a few feet long at a time.

A tip I discovered...the adhesive is like black rubber cement, it will be stringy and get on the panel, and it will squish out and get on the panel.  This can easily be removed by the sticky side of some masking tape...it just pulls it right off, providing the adhesive isn't fully set up and cured.

Some areas of the stripping, especially the corners, I had to tape down to hold it in place to make a good seal.  I let it cure overnight at least before messing with any of the panels or trying to mount.

One word of caution, be prepared for your doors to not close well or all the way initially.  Eventually the stripping will soften and collapse a bit, but in the meantime, I have raised the latch on the trunk and will lower it over time as the weatherstripping settles.  The doors take some effort to close, but I've been keeping them close to train the weatherstripping as well.

I have tape holding down the weatherstripping on the trunk lid.  The weatherstripping should butt together at the striker location.  Sitting looking at my trunk lid upside down and backwards, I realized after the fact that I made my butt joint at the front center of the trunk, thinking it was the back.  Oops, but not a big deal.  At least it won't be real visible this way.

Trunk weatherstripping is completed.

This weatherstripping fit well.  The top is both adhered and secured into plate with a small screw.

Painting on-car jambs

I had myself another jamb session...several weeks ago now actually, but just now getting around to updating.

The entire car got rolled into the booth, and I painted the door jambs on the car, the inside of the trunk, and the cowl jamb.  When I painted the jambs on the panels I did not mask and just let the overspray go on the rest of the panel.  If you go this route, be sure to sand or scuff the parts of the panel expected to be hit with overspray so there will actually be overspray adhesion.  When the rest of the panel is wet sanded down later, the overspray will be smoothed and leveled but not completely removed, so you will be counting on its adhesion so everything above it does not lift off as well.

On this round, I wanted to see if I liked masking the adjacent panels off better.  The best way to accomplish this is to back mask where the mask is taped down and folded back over itself so as to create a transition and now a hard tape line.  To accomplish this on the cowl for instance, one would lay their mask over the engine bay area and tape it to the cowl.  Now gently fold the mask over the cowl exposing the cowl jamb to spray.  When making the fold take care so as not to make a crease...you want a smooth transition.

Anyways, I put down two coats of base and two coats of clear.  I actually got some runs in the base so I had to sand them down wet with 600, and shoot two more coats.  After the base had set up for at least an hour, I measured off the stripes in the cowl jamb, taped them off and sprayed the white.  I'll talk more specifically about spraying stripes later.  After letting the base set up for at least 3 hours, I sprayed the two coats of clear.

The entire car got a final seal coat of lightly reduced epoxy.  This sprayed on as smooth as glass.

All the jambs are based and the cowl stripes are taped off.

Cowl jamb after 2 coats of clear.

Door jambs with base and clear.

Up close on the cowl jamb...very little to no orange peel in the clear.  I am not planning on cutting and buffing the jambs so had to take care in setting up gun adjustments and controlling my distance from the panel and stroke.

First day of clear coat

Referring back to the previous entry, the following day I shot two coats of clear.  Here I am using SPI's Universal Clear, which is beauty in a can and translates very nicely to your body panel.

I will not be cutting and buffing the undersides of the hood and trunk, or the door jambs, so it was important to get the gun adjustments as good as I could so as not to get any orange peel.

Now here's an important tip: don't just set your gun and then immediately start hosing down your panel, only to finish it and be dismayed at all the dry spray or orange peel you have.  Take an obscure section of the panel and just spray a foot swath, then stop and stand back for several minutes.  Watch how it flows out.  A lot of things look real peely at first, and you come back in an hour and it's flowed out and is smooth as glass.  I can swear the clear is going on too dry or peely and I'm not happy, but I come back the next day and it's like a sheet of Saran wrap laying over the entire panel, smooth as glass and  beautiful.

Anyways...if you're happy with it, hose it on.  If not, adjust gun more, and spray another foot section.  If you're getting a lot of peel, start by screwing your fluid tip in to REDUCE the amount of fluid transferred to the panel.  Do a quarter turn at a time.  If you need more, screw it in more, and up the pressure by about 2 psi.  I start at 2 3/4 turns out, with pressure at 28 for the clear, fan set at 80-90%, and I adjust all three accordingly  until I have a consistent pattern.  But enough of this nonsense; I say it like I'm some pro.  I'm not; I've just been through the learning pains.

On to the progress:

The hood under structure after 2 coats of clear.  It came out 90% peel free.

This is a close up of the hood.

Door edges cleared.

Fender jambs done...though this pic just looks like base without the clear.

Trunk under structure cleared.

Even fender and door bolts get base and clear.

FIRST DAY OF PAINT

Today I sprayed the first of the basecoat.  I sprayed the door edges and underside of the hood, just two coats of base; it covered very well and I didn't want to waste expensive base on these less than essential areas if it wasn't needed.  All parts are given one seal coat of unreduced epoxy before they get base.  This ensures the surface is a consistent color and all filler and bare metal sand through spots are covered.  If the epoxy is sprayed on smooth as glass with no imperfections or dust, then I'll just scuff with red scotchbrite and spray, as I did with these tonight.  However, I can not achieve this level of perfection most of the time (or anywhere it counts) so I just plan on wet sanding the epoxy seal coat with 600, this ensures a perfect surface for base.  More on that later.

As stated, these parts were just scuffed well with red scotchbrite, cleaned with wax and grease remover (SPI), and received two coats of the ProSpray base, with 5-10 min of flash between.  Tomorrow I will clear.

It is so important to not just take your gun and immediately go to town on your panel, especially with a metallic.  In a less visible area, just spray a foot, stand back and watch it for a few minutes and see what it does.  I had some mottling initially, and took me awhile to get my gun dialed in just right, coupled with the right distance from the panel and speed.  Eventually I got it perfect and it was smooth sailing after that.

But tonight I was plagued with technical difficulties; first the ballast went out in one of the angled flourescents in the ceiling, so I did not have that light.  Next, I had an air leak in my filter system from the cheap o-ring in it going bad.  Then, the filters on my exhaust fan got full of overspray because I did not clean them out first, and the exhaust was not doing a good job of clearing the room of fumes and overspray.  Then my mask seal around my face was leaky and I took a big hit, which has left me not feeling well all night.  To make matters worse, the protective cover on my lens made everything blurry so I had to peel it off.  But eventually my facemask started getting covered with overspray so I still had that obstruction.  It was tough and tomorrow will be a new day, starting with repairs.  I'll make an entry on my paintbooth as well.

I have full protection head to toe--also important for keeping your painting clean.  Keep your paint suit clean and all times and store in a plastic bag.  The booties are attached to the suit so I hang them out of the bag.  I fear the full-faced respirator isn't enough, as I'm not confident in its filter effectively capturing all the bad things.

Panels scuffed and ready for base coat.

Base coat on the bottom of the hood completed.  This will sit overnight until it gets cleared tomorrow.

Just two coats, I was happy with the outcome.  No peel, smooth and consistent coat with no mottling or stripes.

My paint came in, and Rosemary's first drive

My first gallon of basecoat came in today.  Viper GTS blue, a beautiful eye-catching, show metallic.  This is ProSpray.

Second on the agenda, a few weekends ago Rosemary took the car out for a lap around the yard, and no holds barred!  While she isn't that excited about the car, I think this put something in her because she thought it was 'awesome,' and later told me 'it felt really powerful.'  Unfortunately that bit was not caught on film.

First drive!

I can't believe I forgot to post this...I took my first 'drive' this past Friday (May 31).  Pretty exciting.  It had a small backfire in this first drive.  I did a single lap around the front yard which was a very redneck affair, to put it eloquently.  I devised a 'gas tank' out of a 20 oz plastic pop bottle that was zip tied to the outside of the fender skirt, and drilled/cut a hole in the lid so I could squeeze the rubber fuel line through into the bottle.  It actually works quite well, but the fuel gets consumed unbelievably fast.  I also couldn't get the seat in (for some reason the bolts don't line up with the holes in the seat pan now...) so I sit on my left foot.  Aaand I had some masking paper still stuck on the back that looks horrendous.

Enough talk, here's the video of the FIRST time this car moved under its own power

The vacuum advance was disconnected in this video (I forgot to reconnect it), which may have been contributing to the backfire.  I advance the timing more as well, this time by vacuum rather than by timing light.  After taking it out on another drive, the backfire was gone and the car was really responsive when I got on the pedal.

Wet sanding primer

Since I finally got the engine going, I switched gears back to Summer Mode, which means countless hours of body work, sanding, and spraying.  This is the final summer for it however.

I am getting my panels ready for the sealer (reduced epoxy) before base coat and clear coat go on.  The hang up for me however--I only have two panels that are actually in 2k primer.  All the rest have Slick Sand--the poly primer--and I don't dare wet sand that.  I first attempted dry sanding these with 400 and literally spent HOURS sanding my hood.  What I've decided I'll do in this case is spray two wet coats of epoxy, then wet sand that to 600 for the metallic basecoat.  The epoxy will go over the 220 scratches on the Slick Sand and should fill them in.

But on to wet sanding...

Start with a good quality sandpaper (3M) rated for wet or dry.  The panel will be sitting in its final block, which should be 180-220. For wet sanding, P400 grit is the best choice if sanding prior to seal coat.  If you're not doing a sealer and going straight to a [metallic] base, after 400, go up to 600.  Jumping from the 220 to 600 is a large jump and the 600 will take a long time removing the 220 scratches. 

Spray guide coat on the panel.  This helps you to see the scratches you need to remove.  Tear a sheet of paper in thirds and soak it in warm water with a little bit of dish soap for at least 15 minutes.  Get some water and dishsoap in a spray bottle as well.  Using a BLOCK for wet or dry sanding (I like the Durablocks for this purpose) take one of the strips of paper and begin sanding in a cross hatch pattern until the scratches are removed.  Rotate through the different strips frequently and don't let the paper become clogged.  It helps to unclog it by spraying it with the squirt bottle.  Also spray the panel frequently to wash it and keep it wet.  You can use a squeegee to remove the wet dust but I don't have one, so I wipe frequently with a wet paper towel.  Don't overuse the sandpaper; change it frequently so it is always cutting quickly and not just polishing the panel.

Once everything is adequately sanded, wipe it down and blow the panel off with air, then blow it dry.  Inspect closely to see any missed scratches and resand missed areas as needed.

Nothing fancy.  My sanding blocks float in the water with the sandpaper in it somewhere.  Change the water once it starts to get kind of skanky like this.

Wet sanding is nice because the paper lasts longer and there's no dust...but it makes a whole other type of mess.  My guide coated fender is starting to look like a disaster zone while I'm wet sanding the top, but everything comes together once the entire panel is sanded.

The top of the fender in p400.  A few sand-through spots but the fender is straight to the flattened hand.