Projects Painted my 1954 Chevy Bel Air in the garage (what not to do)

OK, I'm at the very end. I'll post a pic so people can see what the end result was. I still need to do some more cut and buff but it'll happen next fall/winter. For now I just want to get it back on the road.

As I noted in my original post I painted when it was too cold so the clear coat didn't flow perfectly. Yes, I was able to solve this by thinning and doing extra coats and doing extra cutting and buffing but what I learned is that it can make the time to cut and buff massively longer if you don't paint when it's the correct temperature. If I had to guess it added 80 hours to the job just to get the clear coat like glass. After I painted the car I found out that local machine shops in my area offer 2 day rentals of heated paint booths for very little money. Had I known, I would have gone that route. Painting in the garage is fun but the cost of materials to build a paint booth in my garage was almost the cost of renting the paint booth.

One more tip on what not to do. There was a suggestion in the thread to try using a razor blade to trim down the drips to make it easier to sand them. In hindsight, I would never recommend this to anyone. I'm sure it works for some but if someone is a novice I don't recommend this. Razor blades have a tendency to flex and when that happens they can cut the paint right down to the metal. That's what happened in my case so I have this new paint job with a few places where I tried to trim a drip and went right down to bare metal. What I found was that if I just used a very small piece of sand paper (1500) with water, and was patient, I could remove any drip. It just takes time and tons of patience. So razor blades may work for someone out there but think about the risk if it goes wrong. The risk is that you'll spend hours painting and you'll ruin your paint job in just a few minutes. My advice, don't do it. I have two panels that I will end up having to repaint at some point because I tried using this trick. Again, sure it works for some but I don't recommend it.

As always, thank you to the Hamb community for all your help and support. I couldn't have done this without knowing you were all there to support me. (and I do have yet another question that I'll post in a new thread)

 

Lots of respect for you to spend the extra 80 hrs and have an awesome result instead of having the " good enough" mentality.
Looks good on the pic.


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Looks great! Just a tip with the razor blade trick, take the blade and round the corners off on the concrete floor so just in case it bends or tilts one way, it will not scratch.


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Nice....

 

Very nice results.

 

Looks great from here considering all the problems you ran into...good thing you persevered..

if you can smell paint your mask is not secured...cover your hands over filters and test for leaks in mask every time you put it on.

 

Regarding the use of razor blades. Hold the blade at a 90 degree angle to the paint surface and drag it along the length of the drip, I would call it a run. A drip to me is what happens when a drop of paint falls from the paint gun onto the center of the hood and ruins your day. I have never sanded out a run with sandpaper and not have it where I can not see it after buffing it out.

I am a self proclaimed expert on removing flow checks from paint. I am currently working on my Mercury and removed one from the concave area on the door and worked out well.

I go through a lot of razor blades.

I like the tip about dulling the ends of the blade and will give that a try.

 

Yeah, just to clarify, I had runs. Some were pretty bad. I was only able to get a few of the smaller ones out completely and only with tons of sanding. Again, we added lots of clear so I could do extra sanding otherwise I don't think I would have been able to do it. As J'st noted, for some of the larger runs, even with a ton of sanding, you can still see them when you look close and the car is out in the sun. It sounds like you guys know the trick to using a razor blade which is cool. I don't think I'll try it again although it's clear that step works for some. 2w

 

Did it really take you 8 months to sand and buff it all out? Car looks great and there's a lot of satisfaction in being able to say that you painted it yourself. Congratulations.

 

Looks like a a really great job and nothing like a good friend helping out!