Spinneyhill Posted December 31, 2018 Share Posted December 31, 2018 We put in an LED batten like that. Replaced 2x5200 lumens with one 5600 lumen LED. The difference is that the fluorescent tubes put light out all around themselves (360o), while the LEDs put it out over 180o only, i.e. downwards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted December 31, 2018 Author Share Posted December 31, 2018 (edited) 5 hours ago, Spinneyhill said: We put in an LED batten like that. Replaced 2x5200 lumens with one 5600 lumen LED. The difference is that the fluorescent tubes put light out all around themselves (360o), while the LEDs put it out over 180o only, i.e. downwards. OK, I didn't think about that but it makes total sense and explains why I felt like it was twice as bright. Edited December 31, 2018 by Luv2Wrench (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeke01 Posted December 31, 2018 Share Posted December 31, 2018 With my LED tubes the hot and ground are on the same side of the tube. The other tombstone does nothing more than hold that end of the tube up. The ballasts had to be removed to make the tubes work. I had some older fixtures in my basement retrofitted with LED and they were "plug and play". Now you couldn't give me a florescent light tube. How nice it is to turn the lights on in the dead of winter and have light! Zeke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted January 1, 2019 Author Share Posted January 1, 2019 6 hours ago, zeke01 said: With my LED tubes the hot and ground are on the same side of the tube. The other tombstone does nothing more than hold that end of the tube up. The ballasts had to be removed to make the tubes work. I had some older fixtures in my basement retrofitted with LED and they were "plug and play". Now you couldn't give me a florescent light tube. How nice it is to turn the lights on in the dead of winter and have light! Zeke Yep, the common tube is "single ended" and I've been waiting a bit for the double ended tubes to be more popular and come down in price. It has been a couple of days now and I'm still amazed at the amount of light these guys put out. I spent the day cleaning again because everything is noticeable and having a "hospital operation room" amount of clean white light begets having everything super clean. I almost welcome the old days of gloomy light where you couldn't see all the flaws. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted January 22, 2019 Author Share Posted January 22, 2019 (edited) I've been taking a little break to get some work done on the shop and play with some of my recent machine tool acquisitions. Last week my daughter added a new project for me as she changed lanes without making sure the lane wasn't occupied. I went to PullAPart and got a door. PullAPart if you are not familiar, is a newer style junkyard where the inventory is refreshed daily and cars don't stay around more than 60 days or so. The inventory is searchable online, the yards are very organized and clean. You walk out to the car you need and take the parts off. All parts are priced the same regardless of the make and they are priced low. I paid $45 for the door assembly which included handle, lock, airbag, side mirror, window and window mechanism. I had to go out there and take it off, but frankly I prefer it that way. Taking some part off a junked car is a great way to learn how to replace the part on your nice car. If you mess up removing the part, you can just go to the next car and try again. The door I found is silver so I'm stripping the paint, fixing a few dents and will be painting it white later this week or next. Edited January 22, 2019 by Luv2Wrench (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John S. Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 Luv2Wrench, my daughter gave me projects too. Ah, the joys of Fatherhood. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Zimmermann Posted January 23, 2019 Share Posted January 23, 2019 Ouch! Interesting solution you have in the US! Unknown here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted January 28, 2019 Author Share Posted January 28, 2019 (edited) Detour continues... got the paint stripped from the junkyard door. Went bare metal with 80 grit scratches on the exterior side. Interior side just got 80 grit scratches. Gave it two coats of SPI Epoxy Primer. I got the dent out to within 1/8" so I should be able to use the glazing filler to get things right. Once that's done it will be one more coat of epoxy primer but with this coat greatly reduced and only acting as a sealer coat. Then base coat and clear coat. Hope to be back on the MG in a week. Edited January 28, 2019 by Luv2Wrench (see edit history) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laughing Coyote Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 Look at it this way. It's giving you painting practice. Soooo......are you going to let her drive the MG when it's all finished? 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted January 28, 2019 Author Share Posted January 28, 2019 10 minutes ago, Laughing Coyote said: Look at it this way. It's giving you painting practice. Soooo......are you going to let her drive the MG when it's all finished? I was secretly thrilled when she had the accident. I realized it would give me the perfect opportunity to see if I could do the paint myself to a very high level. If this goes well I will most likely paint the MG. I've got some ideas for converting that half of the shop to a 16x12 paint booth and I think it will work very well. I think it will take about 2 hours to set up and take up minimal room when taken down. I'm essentially going to hang 4'x8' cardboard panels from a permanent structure I'll install along the ceiling. ULine sells 4'x8' cardboard panels that are white on one side. I think they're $7 a sheet and the distribution center is 10 miles north of me. I'll use positive ventilation which reduces the cost of the fans. I've got great lighting and I can cover the floor and top with plastic. It would be a pain to put up and take down on a routine basis but I don't see myself needing that. And NO, she's not driving the MG when it is finished. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chistech Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 (edited) I just cleaned up my garage big time. Going to inflate the paint booth inside the garage this week to see how it all fits. Seems like the shop where Gillie works is over run with work so they have no more room to paint my stuff. Will have to do it in my garage. Going to pick up another blower with more cfm than the blower that came with the booth. The supplied one works but it just works. A good description is marginal. You worked fast on that door. I’m starting to think I’m going to start doing more myself and will hopefully progress to doing some of the fine body work and paint work. Keep up the great work. Won’t be more than a few days and you’ll be back on the MG. Edited January 28, 2019 by chistech (see edit history) 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Zimmermann Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 I suppose the MG will have a solid color, not a metallic one. you can paint one element after the other which is not possible with a metallic paint. In the Cadillac forum, somebody painted a '56 Eldorado Biarritz one panel after the other with great results. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted February 4, 2019 Author Share Posted February 4, 2019 Applied some filler to the dent along the top and the front. Turned out to be a bigger area than I thought. As such a bit more primer got removed. I felt it best to put two more coats of epoxy primer back on. From there I could see where I need to sharpen the line at the top of the door and add a little glaze filler to fix a couple pin holes in the previous filler coat. After two fresh coats of epoxy primer it was 220 on the DA, 320 and 400 by hand. After that I mixed up more epoxy primer and reduced it 50% with urethane reducer. I shot a tack and wet coats of that. I should be able to shoot base tomorrow and hopefully clear it after that. Very, very pleased with how the reduced coat of epoxy primer laid down. If I can get the base and clear to lay down like that then I'll be thrilled. So... as I'm looking at this, I'm wondering if I should have used a gray or white primer. I'm going to give SPI a call tomorrow and see what they think. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laughing Coyote Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 Looks like you're on your way. Coming out nice. You should be able to paint the MG just fine. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted February 5, 2019 Author Share Posted February 5, 2019 Got the color on tonight. I sure hope it gets a lot whiter when the clear goes on because it is not really close to what it should be. Base was easy to shoot and covered well. I ended up doing 3 coats just in case I have to sand some junk out. I don't have a booth so there's all kind of trash that could get in there. As it is... I really didn't see much so it will be interesting to see what it looks like when I hit it with 800 tomorrow. I will not have time to clear tomorrow so that's scheduled for Wednesday. I've included a close up shot to show how flat the paint is laying down. I'm not pointing at anything in the paint, just using my finger so the camera would focus. The finish was flat enough that it wouldn't auto-focus, so that was a great sign. I'm using Sherwin Williams ATX line of base coat, so a decent paint but nothing really special. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laughing Coyote Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 Looks good. Base coats will have a satin to flat look after it flashes out. once it's sanded with 800 run over it with a tack cloth and clear it. If you get a few things in the clear you should be able to cut and buff it out ok. Just make sure you put enough clear on so you wont buff the clear out to the base coat. Nice even coats of clear and not real heavy ones or it will run. When I started to clear my fenders the first coat went on like a heavy over spray and wasn't very smooth. Then once it was all covered with the first coat I came back with a little heavier coat and you would see it start to lay down more and flow together. I think I did three nice coats. You have to watch it as you go. Nice even fluid motion. You're doing good so far it will come out just fine. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted February 6, 2019 Author Share Posted February 6, 2019 Talked to Sherwin Williams today and the bottom line is the paint is not going to work. The color isn't going to change much with clear so it wasn't going to match. It looked like it was either mixed wrong and/or the base itself couldn't handle that brilliant a white (Mercedes Arctic White). As such he mixed up a new batch using their Ultra 7000 line. Only downside to this is that it isn't compatible with the ATX base that I've already sprayed. I could clear that, scuff it and then spray the new base or I could seal it with the epoxy and the spray the base. A third option is to sand it back down to the epoxy primer, seal that and go from there... that's going to be my choice. It is just a door and it is pretty flat so it will not take that much time. I also missed a ding by the door handle so I can get that now. We put some of the new base on a the side mirror from the car and it matches very well so I'm excited about seeing the results. Lesson learned... have some way of checking the paint before leaving the store. I'm learning a lot and this is fantastic practice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Zimmermann Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 Welcome to the world of paint! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Macartney Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 If you have a section of the old door and take that to the paint shop they should be able to mix to the colour you require. They should have the equipment to put a machine on the panel and come up with a paint mix for the correct colour. Back in the 1990's Ford had a colour called Solar Gold it had a number of variants of shade. We had the car in for an accident repair job. We had no end of problems matching the paint to repair some side damage to the car. We then realised that the car had been involved in an accident before, and the front of the car was a different shade to the rear. In the end we prepared the side of the car and mixed up two of the matching shades of Solar Gold in two sperate spray guns and blended the two shades along the side of the car using the two spray guns! It is always best to spay out a sample of the paint first to see if the paint is going to match. The paint shop should be able to supply these thin metal sheets. Good luck, you will get there in the end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted February 6, 2019 Author Share Posted February 6, 2019 5 hours ago, Mike Macartney said: If you have a section of the old door and take that to the paint shop they should be able to mix to the colour you require. They should have the equipment to put a machine on the panel and come up with a paint mix for the correct colour. Back in the 1990's Ford had a colour called Solar Gold it had a number of variants of shade. We had the car in for an accident repair job. We had no end of problems matching the paint to repair some side damage to the car. We then realised that the car had been involved in an accident before, and the front of the car was a different shade to the rear. In the end we prepared the side of the car and mixed up two of the matching shades of Solar Gold in two sperate spray guns and blended the two shades along the side of the car using the two spray guns! It is always best to spay out a sample of the paint first to see if the paint is going to match. The paint shop should be able to supply these thin metal sheets. Good luck, you will get there in the end. Agreed, I thought that would be pretty easy to do. Unfortunately I called some custom paint shops and they all wanted to do the painting, none would sell just the paint. It should have been fairly simple but I think the guy made a mistake on the first mix. No biggie, I still think I'll get it done by next week. I'm learning a lot and having a good time! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laughing Coyote Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 2 hours ago, Luv2Wrench said: I'm learning a lot and having a good time! That's what it's all about. We have several automotive paint supply places around Tucson. The one company I use always goes over everything in detail and what to expect out of the products they sell. When they mixed my gallon of paint for the car the tint was off a bit from the first quart I used to paint the firewall. They told me to bring it back and they would see what went wrong. We figured out what the error was and adjusted it to the right match. He was willing to mix a new gallon for free if I wanted. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John S. Posted February 8, 2019 Share Posted February 8, 2019 Luv2Wrench, nice work on the door. John 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jp928 Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 Slightly off topic....friend with a red Mazda2 - wife dinged a door fatally. Went to Pullapart (Pickapart here in Oz), found a cheap door, but only in blue. Cheap so it will have to do, worry about painting it later. Within a week he saw another Mazda2 - blue, but with a Red door in the same position ! Managed to catch the owner, who readily agreed to a swap , if he did the work. Easy - 2 happy drivers. jp 26 Rover 9 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted February 10, 2019 Author Share Posted February 10, 2019 (edited) Stripped the door back down to metal with exception of where I did the bodywork, two coats of primer, touch-up bodywork, seal coat of primer, new base coat and cleared. Base coat went on great and was a fantastic match to the door mirror. Very happy with the color matching. Unfortunately I botched the clear coat. The test spray was fine and I had the gun dialed in well but the procedure for shooting this clear is a little different. They want the first coat to have the "look" of the last coat, ie; no dust coat to get started. As such I went just a tad slower and sprayed a full wet coat to start... and it ran. If I had shot with my normal pace it would have been fine so I really just kinda psyched myself out and screwed it up. The next two coats went on with little issue. I'll sand out the runs tomorrow and either buff that or shoot another coat. I learned three good lessons. 1) Trust yourself. 2) Need a better test panel for spray outs. 3) Need lights at hip height for horizontal panels. All in all I'm pretty excited. I think I can create a nice booth that will take at most a day to setup and less to take down. With that booth I'm confident I can get a show car worthy paint job. Edited February 10, 2019 by Luv2Wrench (see edit history) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laughing Coyote Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 Nice job. I too was a little nervous when I started to paint the fenders. I kept thinking. I hope I don't screw this up. It gets better the more you do it. If you sand out the runs, cut and buff you will be fine or sand and shoot it again works too. I guess it's time to start getting that paint booth ready to go. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Zimmermann Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 Only practice help to notice that the quantity of paint is the right one just before the run(s). And even with practice, I managed to do runs when the light is not optimal. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted February 10, 2019 Author Share Posted February 10, 2019 8 hours ago, Roger Zimmermann said: Only practice help to notice that the quantity of paint is the right one just before the run(s). And even with practice, I managed to do runs when the light is not optimal. It seems that it wasn't just pace, my overlap was off in the middle of the door. Instead of 50% I probably did close to 100% on one pass because I had a hard time seeing where I had been on the previous pass and that caused the issue. The runs are only on that one pass which, of course, happened to be in the middle of the door. Obviously more practice will help and I think having more light on the sides will help me see the overlap better. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Zimmermann Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 With the exception of a Citroën 2 Chevaux I sprayed during my stay at a body shop mid sixties (with mixed results), I never painted such a large part like your door. I only painted smaller parts or the ones which are not so important like the firewall or the inner side of the trunk lid. As you pointed, it's difficult without the appropriate light to see what you are spraying. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chistech Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 They're not runs, they're sags! At least that's what the body shop men call them. It does sound a little better anyway! Sand, sand, and then buff. Sag all gone. Dark colors are the worst and even my painter, who does it for a living, put a sag in one of my fenders and that's why he still has it. He has sanded it away, now he needs to buff it. It happens to everyone one time or another. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Macartney Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 Not liking to upset my painters - I put notes on like this! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted February 13, 2019 Author Share Posted February 13, 2019 (edited) Got the door sanded down and reasonably level on Monday and first available time to shoot it was today. First coat went great but the second and third didn't flow out as well. I didn't get any runs and there's plenty of clear so I should be able to get it flattened and cut/buff without issue. Another lesson learned is, at a bare minimum, get different cups for primer, base and clear. The clear was pretty aggressive and managed to loosen up some of the black epoxy primer hidden somewhere in the gun and reduce the effectiveness of the gun. I take great care to clean the gun and I thought it was clean, but the clear showed me it wasn't. I think that was the reason the last two coats (particularly the last) didn't flow out well. I was even having trouble getting the correct fan size. Going over the gun afterwards it was apparent that the cup was where the black was hiding as the cup looked "newer" when I was done spraying the clear. Still learning and still having fun. Below is the first coat, I'll post some pictures after I finish cut and buff. Edited February 13, 2019 by Luv2Wrench (see edit history) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laughing Coyote Posted February 14, 2019 Share Posted February 14, 2019 Looks pretty sweet to me. A cut and buff with make it even better. I had to do a super clean on my gun too before I did any painting and clear coating. I still had little black specs here and there that came out of my gun from years of painting ornamental iron. It just hides out in the gun waiting for the time you need to use it and want a job to come out nice. Then it just has to put crud in your paint or clear. Frustrating some times. You may have to buff that side of the car now so it matches the nice shiny door when it's hung and done. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted February 14, 2019 Author Share Posted February 14, 2019 2 minutes ago, Laughing Coyote said: Looks pretty sweet to me. A cut and buff with make it even better. I had to do a super clean on my gun too before I did any painting and clear coating. I still had little black specs here and there that came out of my gun from years of painting ornamental iron. It just hides out in the gun waiting for the time you need to use it and want a job to come out nice. Then it just has to put crud in your paint or clear. Frustrating some times. You may have to buff that side of the car now so it matches the nice shiny door when it's hung and done. Thanks Martin, the first coat did turn out pretty good. The other coats are not bad but they do have some texture. I probably will have to buff the whole car because you're right, the door isn't going to match. This is a 1998 car and the paint isn't in the greatest of conditions. If we have some nice weather next week (and it doesn't look like it) then I might do it then. Otherwise the car goes back with the daughter and who knows when I might see it again. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luv2Wrench Posted February 16, 2019 Author Share Posted February 16, 2019 (edited) Door is done! Very happy with how it turned out. Certainly exceeded expectations. Biggest issues were: 1) Runs. Didn't get those cut down enough either. The "run" is gone for sure, but there are a couple of vague distortions in the area the runs were in. Looks like it might be the panel itself, but I know that's were the runs were. 2) Clear removing old paint from gun. Multiple little black specs in the clear. I was able to sand/buff them out but if they had come out earlier in the clear coat process they wouldn't have come out. 3) Trash. Paint booth should fix this. Doesn't show now, but adds an extra step of sanding to get rid of things. 4) Orange peel in second/third coats. Definitely some issue with the clear drying in the gun or the black clogging it up. Will have to investigate this further. Again, no problem for the final product but it does add extra work. Now I need to put it on and buff the rest of the car.... Edited February 16, 2019 by Luv2Wrench (see edit history) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laughing Coyote Posted February 16, 2019 Share Posted February 16, 2019 Nice job! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Macartney Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 Well done. I also love the reflection of the window in the photos, very artistic. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Zimmermann Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 A comment to the point #1 from your report: by sanding the runs, you are sanding the surrounding surface too which makes almost impossible to have a perfect flat or even surface, unless you remove everything! #2: the spray gun should be after each use as clean as it was when new. It translate that way: 5 minutes spraying the the paint, 1/2 hour to clean the gun. This is why the rattle cans are so practical! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John S. Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 Luv2Wrench, the door looks great. Too you have to put it back on the car. John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John S. Posted February 17, 2019 Share Posted February 17, 2019 I meant to say'" too bad it has to go back on the car" 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chistech Posted February 22, 2019 Share Posted February 22, 2019 On 2/17/2019 at 1:16 PM, John S. said: I meant to say'" too bad it has to go back on the car" I felt the same way when I got my pistons from Ross Racing Pistons. I wanted to just put them on a trophy shelf they looked so good. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now