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Old 10-24-2017, 11:55 PM   #5
izzy_Britton
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Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Nor-Cal
Posts: 632
Re: Project: Delongdium - The Plastic Clad 03 Avalanch

Because this is going to my 18 year old who has never before had a drivers license I did not see a whole lot of sense in making the body perfect. The truck was hit in the right front and there are multiple shopping kart dings here and there. I chose to do what I call a collision repair, not a restoration. Having replaced the panels that needed it and then fixing my miss laid sledge hammer blow, I really didnt want to paint any more than was necessary. RED is expensive. I knew that replacing the fender meant that a blend of the passenger front door was necessary, so I planned on that. I also planned on blending the driver fender, but I had no intention of painting, blending, or clearing the driver front door. I figured if the paint was not an exact match, the only place it would show would be at the top of the driver fender where it meets the door. Again, an 18 year olds truck, there WILL be flaws. However as my luck would have it, while prepping the driver side fender i burned thru the paint, primer/e-coat, right down to the bare metal. Now i had to prime and fix the edge of the fender to cover the bare metal and as Murphy seems to have had a hand in my prep work, in the process of fixing the fender i also burned thru the paint, primer/e-coat of the drivers door meaning that NOW I get to paint and blend the drivers door to match, resulting in both fenders, both doors and the hood being painted to match.

After squirting a little more red than I would have thought was necessary and a lot more clear than I would have ever imagined was necessary, the poor truck is at the very least all the same color (kinda).





As mentioned, Murphy had a hand in the prep and paint work of this truck over this past weekend. I primed the truck and blocked it all out, everything looked good. I masked it all off and wax and grease remover'd it, and everything looked good. I mixed up my Red base dumped it in my brand spanking new gun and it just as quickly ran on to the ground, one of the seals in the needle failed and cause a huge leak. After cleaning up my mess and cleaning up a new disposable harbor freight gun, I sprayed the first coat of red and noticed right away that there was a good sized noticeable dent in the top of the driver side fender that either was new or that i have completely overlooked since I didn't block out that fender (scuff and shoot after fixing small bare metal spot) . Oh well too late now, red went all over the place including the dent. Everything looked pretty good. I started mixing up my clear and noticed right away that I had considerably less Clear Activator than I should have had. Upon investigation I realized that I had accidentally used the clear activator in place of the primer hardener. WOOPS! Well the primer hardened and I was able to block sand it ok, and then there was no adverse reaction when I sprayed the Red base coat down so I have my fingers crossed that one day the boy isn't driving along and a gust of wind just blow all my fresh paint completely off of the truck. Pretty sure that wont happen, but Murphy is involved.

While spraying clear, I had a compete duplication of the weekend when i painted the insides of the fender and hood. Once again every bug in the county had a suicide mission to get stuck in my clear. Between each coat I had to dig the bugs out with a razor blade and then douche the void created by said digging with more clear. Since I only have a small shop and do not have a paint booth, i was also plagued with an excess of dirt in the clear. This week will be spend nibbing and sanding bugs and dirt that i couldnt remove with a razor blade on paint day and saturday or sunday if the weather holds i will spend the day buffing the entire truck, and starting reassembly shortly after that.

more to come next week, unless Murphy rears his evil head and I have a major malfunction that is worthy of photographing and commenting upon. with 3 fairly heavy coats of clear I do not expect that wet sanding this whore will be much of a problem.
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WHO_DCTC - Wifes 05 Z-71 Build - Now defunct as she decided she wants an Escalade too
Cream Puff - LS'd Square - Slow going on the back burner
Tripple Threat - 3 Wrecks for the price of one build thread
Project Delongdium - Step-Sons Plastic Clad 2003 Avalanche - DONE and Delivered.
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