EviLette Posted April 13, 2008 Report Share Posted April 13, 2008 I got the fender flare in yesterday, and i can't tell you how stoked I am about it. I almost was late to work this morning because i ran by oreilly to grab a couple cans of dupli-color. I got home tonight, and first thing I did was clean up and wetsand the flare. I did it all backward, started with an 800 grit, then decided that it really wasn't going to be enough for the paint to grab onto, so I went with the can's instructions and ran back over it with 400. That done, and the flare washed off and drying, I started construction of my ghetto paint booth. I live in a third floor apartment. I have no garage, and nobody who would loan me their garage (or basement) or any such place long enough for me to do this... So while i was on the phones today at work, while we were in the red and i was zoned out running a 21 CPT (call processing time, uber fast because I was on auto pilot) I came up with the idea of using some of the many boxes I have around my place to make a little booth. Since I'm in an apartment, I didn't want paint on ANYTHING other than what it was supposed to be on, so I was extra careful about constructing said booth. This is the flare after I sanded it down. Yes, I cut through some of the paint. Yes, I meant to. >.> I know nothing about painting, or anything like that... I'm just going with my gut on this lol... but there were a couple places where the paint was spidered, or there was a knick, and I wanted to be sure to get as many imperfections out of the base before I painted it. That included cutting into paint I guess. LOL. like I said, I'm a n00b. I haven't even read anything about painting. >.> (not like it matters, rattle can and all.) Looks like it might have been black before? Either that, or factory seals plastic with black paint/primer lol. My ghetto paint-booth half done. I laid the base piece of cardboard down, masking taped the wall around it, then taped it to the tape on the wall. I used cardboard boxes broken down to do the walls, as well. I duct taped around all of the corners (to fill in the gaps, then pinned them to the wall, and sealed everything in together with more tape. I assembled it in the corner of my bedroom, and the window is open in there.. size of the corner shop in relation to the fender. >.> I'm a nerd. More pix coming later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venom Posted April 13, 2008 Report Share Posted April 13, 2008 LOL I did the same thing when I lived in an apartment and needed to paint a set of wheels someone gave me. My only mistake was not taping the pieces of cardboard together because one piece apparantly moved on me and I got silver spray paint on the wall. Took me forever to get it to come off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremy Posted April 13, 2008 Report Share Posted April 13, 2008 I would have tried to do something outside so my apartment didn't smell like spray paint, but that is a pretty decent little idea you came up with Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MonteCarloChick Posted April 13, 2008 Report Share Posted April 13, 2008 lol nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pontiacmaniac94 Posted April 13, 2008 Report Share Posted April 13, 2008 you should probably put a fan by there as well so that way you can blow some of the fumes out the window.....it might get to be overpowering otherwise.... good luck on the painting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EviLette Posted April 13, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2008 Half of the wall in my bedroom is a huge window, I just left the window open and turned off my heater. The way the wind was blowing effectively sucked all the paint fumes (and heat) out of my room. After I scuffed the piece down and started painting, apparently one of the areas of cracked paint was worse than I saw. I don't know how it happened, but it showed up when i started painting it... so I'm gonna have to scuff out that area and blend it back in... but I"ve got paint on the fender plenty good to wetsand it out now. In between coats of paint I was working on my fog lights. All I need to do today is grab some silicone from oreillys, to seal the backs and probably the glass on them, and run one of the brackets over to my dad to straighten it out. He has a bench press (or clamp or w/e you call the big thing attached to the workbench that you use to HOLD stuff) so I can do that there... then get it painted with a quick coat of rustoleum and I should be good to go. This particular light is missing the spring loaded screw at the bottom of the light for aiming purposes, but I'm not overly concerned about it right now. Fog lights, GOGO! I will be pulling the other flares off the car that need paint. I figure since I'm working on it, I'll grab both pieces in front of the rear wheels, where the paint has faded off where it flares out. You know what place I'm talking about, every B4u Equipped GP does it, LOL! More pics coming soon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jake63 Posted April 13, 2008 Report Share Posted April 13, 2008 You could hit it with black rattle-can primer first to show imperfections. Make sure you pay attention to the time between coats on the can, usually 15-60 minutes, or if not it will be days. If you dont listen to this the paint will "alligator" on you and you will be forming new swear words that your neighbors may not appreciate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EviLette Posted April 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2008 Meh, my neighbors have heard it all from me. So far everything is coming together really well for the paint. I started the lower piece in front of the tire earlier. I have about 3 coats of clear on the top flare, wetsanded it, and now I'm going to put whole LOT of clear on it. >.> Same to the other panel, same steps. Good base coat, westanded, then shoot the clear. I'm not sanding every step though. >.> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian P Posted April 14, 2008 Report Share Posted April 14, 2008 add in a cardboard duct assembly with a box fan at the end and now we're talking showtime! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Addicted to eaton Posted April 14, 2008 Report Share Posted April 14, 2008 LOL looks pretty good Girl... ur pretty productive for a umm... Girl.. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EviLette Posted April 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2008 LOL looks pretty good Girl... ur pretty productive for a umm... Girl.. lol Me? nevah. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j_mezz Posted April 14, 2008 Report Share Posted April 14, 2008 Hi! You jumped right on them, atta girl! Saw your posts today and this weekend about the fog lights fighting you, hope the parts were what you expected though. The clamping thing you're refering to is a vice...I've got several...smoking, drinking,... Sounds like this advice is too late, but I usually like to throw down a coat or two of primer. It doesn't tend to run as much as color coat so it's easy to work with. It's also easier to sand and will give you a good idea of what your color coat will look like. That's my two cents, I'm by no means an expert and it looks like you're doing fine on your own! I'll be following your thread, good luck and keep the pictures comming! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MonteCarloDude Posted April 14, 2008 Report Share Posted April 14, 2008 LOL looks pretty good Girl... ur pretty productive for a umm... Girl.. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EviLette Posted April 15, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 15, 2008 Hi! You jumped right on them, atta girl! Saw your posts today and this weekend about the fog lights fighting you, hope the parts were what you expected though. The clamping thing you're refering to is a vice...I've got several...smoking, drinking,... Sounds like this advice is too late, but I usually like to throw down a coat or two of primer. It doesn't tend to run as much as color coat so it's easy to work with. It's also easier to sand and will give you a good idea of what your color coat will look like. That's my two cents, I'm by no means an expert and it looks like you're doing fine on your own! I'll be following your thread, good luck and keep the pictures comming! Heck yes I jumped right on it. I realized "vice" as soon as I was asking my dad about it.. and instead of him letting me bend them back into shape, he did it in like two minutes for me. I came home, shot the brackets witha quick coat of rustoleum, and voila! Everything else was pretty much ready to go together. The original lamp glass was a little yellow for my liking, I tried soaking it in bleach water for a while but it didn't help so I gave up on them... I used the guts (lamp, wiring, back, glass) from a set of "blazer" lights or w/e from walmart that I got several years ago, and mounted them into the factory housings. I used black silicone at the back of the housing to prevent moisture from getting in through that hole, and I siliconed around the glass as well to make sure the only place water could possibly get in or out was the drain hole in the bottom of the light itself. I had a hell of a time getting them hung on the car, especially given my lack of ratchet/sockets... it was all wrenches for me. I have got to do something about that. Those two panels on the passenger side of the car have been the bain of my existance with this car since I bought it. I absolutely love the car, but its hard to really say "I have a beautiful car" when one side looks like ass... so its been driving me nuts, I've been self-conscious about it for years... and I've had the motivation to fix the problem, just not that one flare... so when it came in, I was ready to start on it. I was just mad that i had to wait to get the paint a day, or it might already be done On the bright side, I haven't had to sand down a single run. Maybe I should go into auto body repair. I'm soo exicted about getting everything put back together. I should have louvers here in a few days for my hood... then my front valence.. and the body is fixideded. I'm sooooo freaking happy about it, I'm even being nice to the callers at work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jake63 Posted April 15, 2008 Report Share Posted April 15, 2008 Glad to see your current mood has changed from hate to love. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GtipGary Posted April 16, 2008 Report Share Posted April 16, 2008 Ive worked in a bodyshop as a painter for the past three years... trust me its not something you want to get into! All those fumes make you pretty nutty (explains me perfectly haha). I cant comment on the thread tho... only thing i can say is that if it looks good MAD props for making do with what you got!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EviLette Posted April 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2008 It WILL look good. It won't look as good as a "real" paint job, though, because spray cans just don't do a fine enough mist to do it properly. I'm making up for it by wetsanding... every little pit is getting wetsanded out of the color before the clear goes on, even if it means I have to blend in and touch up the color. I just finished wetsanding off the first piece I've got totally done, which is the top piece flare (over wheel). I went to 1000 grit paper (3m) and I'm going to see how it looks tomorrow after I buff it out. if it has an orange peel look, I'll sand it some more I guess. But I think it will look okay. Now, I'm just having nightmares that I used metallic black instead of just gloss black. And that's a lie! I love working on cars, I"m already nutty. I love the smell of paint.. and of grease... so yeah... IDK. I really think I was supposed to be a boy. >.> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GtipGary Posted April 16, 2008 Report Share Posted April 16, 2008 Haha NICE! Well good luck... and if you have any questions or need help with something P.M. me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian P Posted April 16, 2008 Report Share Posted April 16, 2008 use Rustoleum clearcoat (or another enamel clear) instead of the dull lacquer clear given by duplicolor and others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EviLette Posted April 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2008 use Rustoleum clearcoat (or another enamel clear) instead of the dull lacquer clear given by duplicolor and others. Too late! I'm done smelling paint in my apartment. The final piece is getting wetsanded and going back on the car TODAY! (My apartment is a complete wreck from this massive project going on right now... and im tired of triping over everything, and my cats dragging everything out.) The only loss is that I'm gonna have to go buy some compound for pulling wetsand. It occured to me yesterday that I don't have any. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GtipGary Posted April 16, 2008 Report Share Posted April 16, 2008 What grit did you wetsand with??? cause its gonna take A LOT of elbow grease to get those sand scratches out without a buffer... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian P Posted April 16, 2008 Report Share Posted April 16, 2008 use Rustoleum clearcoat (or another enamel clear) instead of the dull lacquer clear given by duplicolor and others. Too late! I'm done smelling paint in my apartment. The final piece is getting wetsanded and going back on the car TODAY! (My apartment is a complete wreck from this massive project going on right now... and im tired of triping over everything, and my cats dragging everything out.) The only loss is that I'm gonna have to go buy some compound for pulling wetsand. It occured to me yesterday that I don't have any. If you used lacquer clear, you could still add an enamel clear over that. Enamel is a shit load glossier and more durable than the lacquer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EviLette Posted April 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 17, 2008 What grit did you wetsand with??? cause its gonna take A LOT of elbow grease to get those sand scratches out without a buffer... I scuffed down with 400, sanded the color with 800, and did the clear with 1000. Also... I guess it's a good thing I have a buffer. Project is done guys. At least, these two panels. And now, for the pix. Right after I got the pieces mounted back onto the car. Yes, the car is dirty. Immediately after that, I took it to the car wash. Starting the polish. I have one piece done, just getting the first bit of compound on the other. Final job, after car had been waxed. I think it turned out pretty damn well, tbh. Remember, it was this before.. so maybe it just looks that much better. Soo... whatcha think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Addicted to eaton Posted April 17, 2008 Report Share Posted April 17, 2008 I think it looks fucking awesome GREAT JOB!!!!!!!! Thats well fucking amazing. im proud of u girl. lol! you did way better than i think i ever could have. WOW i mean damn... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jake63 Posted April 17, 2008 Report Share Posted April 17, 2008 What a difference! It was worth all the inconvenience, huh? Car looks awesome, great job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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