Painting project

[David Brady]

Looks like a million bucks Don, way to go.

David Brady
'02 LXi, Smokey
NC

Don Bradner wrote:
>
> Our ongoing lengthy project list since we acquired Blue Thunder in
> January includes replacement of old operational equipment such as
> batteries, shocks, tires, and alternators; physical changes to agree
> with our wants, such as washer/dryer, bookcase/desk/office chair, and
> bay slideout trays; and cosmetic items.
>
> The latter is/was primarily paint. Several years in the Arizona sun
> had baked much of the clear coat off on both sides and the back. The
> front cap is fine, but has likely been repainted at some point. I did
> the worst single spot (blue on the back cap) before we left for a
> month of travels in early May, and the rest has been my most
> time-consuming project since we got back.
>
> I'm pretty much a neophyte when it comes to spray-painting, so this
> has been a learning experience with a lot of picking the brains at the
> local Dupont shop, where most of the guys have body-shop experience.
> The bulk of the labor, of course, is in surface prep and masking.
>
> I looked through the pictures I have on hand to find a couple that
> were illustrative of the problem and tried to take similar "after"
> pictures. The first one, http://tinyurl.com/2w53e2
> <http://tinyurl.com/2w53e2> was taken in February in Casa Grande. It
> is part of a telephoto shot, so there's quite a bit of
> fore-shortening, and the lighting was very flat which reduced
> contrast, but you can see the missing clear coat pretty well.
>
> Since the blue heats up more, it is much more affected than the
> stripes; in fact the side stripes below the bend are fine and were
> left alone. The area below the stripes (what do you call that piece,
> anyway? Looks designed to direct water flow from the roof outward) was
> a particular problem. It is a compound curve, making sanding with a
> block difficult. It was missing clear coat in oval patterns, with the
> areas over ribs still holding the coat. Trying to feather the edges
> didn't work well, as clearcoat kept peeling away, so it was
> essentially necessary to sand it all.
>
> The upper part of the gold and red stripes weren't as bad looking, but
> still had bad peeling. This picture: http://tinyurl.com/2w6ukx
> <http://tinyurl.com/2w6ukx> was taken in Phoenix by the inspector we
> hired pre-purchase.
>
> Here are the after links for roughly the same two views:
> http://tinyurl.com/2kjvqo <http://tinyurl.com/2kjvqo>
> http://tinyurl.com/2jv2lf <http://tinyurl.com/2jv2lf>
>
> I'm pretty happy with the results, although I did get a small,
> unpredicted, rain shower about an hour after I finished the other side
> late last week, and there are some pock marks in the paint on three
> panels. You can't really tell from the ground, so I'm waiting until it
> is cured a bit more to see what a bit of 1500-grit sanding and
> polishing does.
>
> Don Bradner
> 90 PT40 "Blue Thunder"
> Eureka, CA
>
>
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