Before and after

BeforeHood peeling in the passenger side corner of the hood by the windshield. Door peeling on the passenger side.
Chips along the edge of the hard top.
Hood peeling all over the place.

After

Hard top and mirrors are done

I took some time to do a quick wet sand, cut and polish.

It looks pretty good. I have some scratches from the edge of the wet sand paper. Regardless, its shiny and will pass the 50/50 rule with ease. Heck it would pass a 5 foot/ 5 miles per hour rule.

Some photos from my phone. Sorry if they are a little blurry.

Hard top polished and ready to go. Considering what it looked like, it looks pretty good. The gel coat along the bottom edge was all chipped and tore up.The pillar in this photo looks messed up. I assure you it isn't.
The mirrors, polisher, compount, and the hard top in the background.
More shine.
Some precautions for that which has already been painted.

Hard top and mirrors

Tonight, I prepared the hardtop and mirrors for paint. Tomorrow evening I should be wipe them clean, tack cloth, mix up some paint and spray. By weeks end the hard top and mirrors should be on the car.

In the meantime I am going to do some shopping for the following things. Driver gear, fire system/extinguisher, transponder. I am also going to do some track day shopping. It should provide a good venue for shaking down the car and getting my feet wet on the track.

Painted and Decaled

Friday, I did a little more wet sanding.

Saturday, I eagerly awaited my polisher to show up. I killed time mowing and string trimming. The polisher arrived early in the afternoon. I used Meguiar's meidum cut cleaner for the first one over of the car. I followed that up with Meguiar's Ultra fine Finishing Polish.

In retrospect, I should have probably done another once over with the finishing polish.

This morning to keep myself from doing any more cutting or polishing, I decided to pull the car out and start placing the required decals. Plus I needed to move the hard top to the make-shift paint booth.

The paint obviously has its flaws. I understand why paint booths have lighting on the side. It makes it easy to see how much paint is laid down on the sides. Avoiding runs. I have a few runs. There is still some texture to the paint. There is varying texture on the car. Regardless, its down right sparkly for a 20 year old race car.

I took the car out today on the new tires. The car handles like a dream. Oversteer is predictable and correctable. The car transitions between over and understeer based on weight transfer. Before it goes to the track I will double check the alignment and reset.

Post painting

After letting the paint cure for over 24 hours, I removed the rest of the masking tape that I missed.

I also started the wet sanding process. From the previous post you can see that there was a fair amount of orange peel. This is pretty easily rectified by wet sanding. Granted many new cars have orange peel, but this is more than I usually notice.

I started with 1500 grit wet sand paper. I probably could have started with 1200 for a light first pass. Instead, I did one pretty heavy pass with 1500 on Monday evening. Then Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, I proceded to use 2000 grit.

The photos below show how basically the wet sanding process produces a dull surface. However it takes the high spots off the paint texture. I used a spray bottle for wetting the surface. I rinsed with a garden sprayer. Come Saturday, it should be much shinier.

Remember that nasty water spot/fish eye cluster from the water that dropped off one of the connectors. Well it is much less noticeable now.


I could have easily wet sanded further. However being a novice at painting, I was concerned about the thickness of the paint I laid down or should I say the potential lack of thickness. I want to make sure I have paint to polish.

Another area which I could have likely sanded further. Oh well, its a race car.


My spray bottle full of water with a couple drops of dish soap.

Yikes, it practically looks like it did before I painted. With the exception of the clear coat failure, the fully exposed base coat, and minus a couple dents.

Painted!

So, I got the car painted today. I am less happy with these photos than i am the paint. The paint, for my first attempt at painting a car, is not all that bad. I still need to wet sand, that will take care of some of the surface imperfections and paint texture.

Tack Cloth, essential prep.		Wax and Grease remover, more essential prep	Bag full of Summit Racing Stickers to cover what I mess up.
In-line pressure regulator and disposable dessicant filter.		Paint Strainer, always strain before putting paint in your gun.	Cheap spray guns, HVLP is nice. I actually dig the little detail gun.
A little cheap insurance against fish-eyes. Works great except if you dump water or silicone on your surface (ask me how I know).		You must add this to make your paint harden.	Dexter Style paint booth. I positively pressurize the booth with a box fan, blowing through a good furnace filter. Air exits through another filter.
Viper Red paint. The closest I will ever get to a viper.		Look at the shine!	Die flies, mwhahaha. I really did not want one doing the back-stroke in my new paint. So I put these up about a week ago. By the way. Flies make little groaning noises when they get trapped. Kinda weird.
The booth.		Umm, yeah, I am glad I wore this.	This is a crap photo. The color is off.
This is what happens when water drops on your paint as painting. I had a leaky connection before the moisture filter by the gun. Dropped on hood. Then got covered in paint and pushed out by the paint and air. (Place summit sticker here)

More paint prep

The entire car is scuff. I washed the car real quick with a basic detergent. I am in the process of masking the car. The windows are masked. I am in the process of masking the engine bay. I still need to do the door jambs, etc. I am exhausted at this point, so this is all I am writing.

Paint Prep

I started paint prep today. I started scuffing the paint. This is fun but scary at the same time. Taking the leap from a mostly painted car to sanding it off is quite the interesting experience. I placed a small amount of filler in some shallow dents, etc. So far so good.

The CAS back in place. My fat chubby hands do not squeeze between the engine and the firewall too well. While I struggled to get this back in for about 30 minutes. Two days later when helping a friend put his back in it took him 30 seconds. To my defense he does have small carnie hands.

Hmm where does this go again?

Yep, I fit in there. Barely.

Getting out is pretty fun.

Hood release and scuffed bumper.

Wrapping things up

So the first order of business this evening was to replace the CAS o-ring. I did so following this directions. http://www.miata.net/garage/cas_oring.html

I ordered a pack of 25 CAS o-rings. Cost about $11 total from Mcmaster-Carr. The material I opted for was Viton. The durability and hardness is similar to the buta-n ones. However they have a greater chemical and oil resistance.

I spoke with a Tire vendor today. I am going to call a couple local places and see what I can work out with a local one.

I have started body work. I am by no means an expert or even that knowledgeable about body work. I bought a book and have done some research online. So this is a learning/money saving opportunity.