Painting my 450

[nvr2old]

Your tail section looks waaayy better, Pete, but, as much as I know you don't wanna put any more body filler on it, it might save you time in the long run to put on one more thin skim coat over the remaining low spots, especially on the left side. Those low spots will be difficult to fill even with high-fill primer, or, it will take a LOT, and that's expensive stuff. A thin coat to finish it would save you the time and $$. Just sayin'...

[pete]

Hmmmm just checked the weather forecast for this week...

Monday: Shower, possible storm. Min 15 Max 27
Tuesday: Fine. Min 13 Max 26
Wednesday: Mostly fine, possible shower. Min 13 Max 25
Thursday: Showers. Min 14 Max 25
Friday: Showers. Min 16 Max 22

As long as it doesn't actually storm on Monday or it at least storms late in the avo' I think I'll be ok, but it looks like I won't have that day leeway to start on Tuesday and finish on Thursday...

[pete]

Well no water separator in the mail today, so expecting to have to duck out on Monday and buy another one dammit... although they're predicting thundery rain (whatever that is) so I may not get the primer on yet...

Anyway, not progress as such tonight, but a bit more prep. type stuff out of the way, I got the lights positioned.



And it seems to light the area up quite nicely:



Hopefully they're far apart enough that walking in there won't cast a shadow over the bits I'm painting...

[pete]

So seeing as sanding and trying to clean up took what time I had left this avo, I didn't get to start on the "booth" until tonight, but I did get some of it sorted.

The most important thing in my garage is that there is some lattice and open brickwork that lets dust and wind in, and I really want to cut as much of that out as possible.

The house mate brought me home some cardboard yesterday so I covered both of those up tonight:



Here's one of the flood lights I'll be using, and I got a second one today as well. It's actually a bit better than how this photo shows and with two it should be pretty good light I think:



And I got the sides of the "booth" hung up tonight, which is basically just two plastic drop sheets so far:



Obviously I have to do a floor and ceiling yet and I have another couple of drop sheets there for that. I won't be able to do the ceiling until the house mate's back on Sunday so he can give me a hand as that will be a little difficult by myself.

On another note, I sent the water separator back on Tuesday as it was faulty and I haven't heard back from them yet, so I have a feeling I'm going to have to go and pay more to buy another one locally. If they express post it back tomorrow I *might* get it Monday, but I wouldn't count on it, especially seeing as my R/R has been sitting in the post office since the 29th September and once again they didn't put a card in our PO Box to tell us it was there...

[pete]

I win! (I think)



It's not perfect, but I believe it's now in fit shape for the high build primer. There's nothing left there that makes me think I need more filler and another sand so I'm definitely happy with that

If you look closely you'll see the sides aren't perfectly symmetrical either, but that adds character right? Not that I can do much about that without actually starting from scratch again...

I got to use the finishing sander today which made that soooooooooo much easier.

Anyway, decided to pick up a proper gun stand today which will make things easier in particular with the strainer holder:



I also grabbed some 18mm masking tape given that the stripes will be 22mm apart and so the 25mm will be too wide and I also got some rope for hanging the bits while painting. I had some here but not sure what happened to it:



I gave the garage as good a sweep out as I can today but there's still body filler dust all over the shop. Definitely have some more cleaning to do before getting the primer on on Monday.

The most frustrating part of that is I left the sheet off the bike I've had over it while sanding today, so it's now covered in the body filler dust too...

[pete]

That's looking good, Pete.
It should come out pretty flash.

Cheers Leigh, I hope so!

If all goes to plan I should know by about 2 or 3 this avo... although I probably won't get back on here until tonight as usual...

That's looking good, Pete.
It should come out pretty flash.

[pete]

Pete, I should have jumped in sooner, the best way to get the ratio of hardener to filler is a golf ball sized piece of filler and a pea sized piece of hardener-every apprentice gets told this when they start body work here, spraying is the perfect way to become a master criminal-after a few jobs like yours you have no finger prints,remember the trick I told you about with the rattle cans? one of the first jobs I was given was rub all the spatter off the entire bodyshell of an estate car-by hand with wet and dry 600 grit (it took me 4 days of 8-5 to finish it) so yeah I get the so over sanding comment :0.keep it up you are getting there,oh take the tape over the end of the tank, make sure it is stuck down and spray just a little bit into the underside at both ends that way it won't blow out over the main maroon on either side of the tape.Johnny

All good Johnny, does me good to learn some of these things for myself too

After hearing about that estate car... guess I got nothing to complain about hey? haha that sounds painful!

Cool on the tape, although that tape there is the reverse of how I'll be masking. I just laid those lines down to work out the proper locations for the stripes so I can make the templates up. I still have to do a template for the front of the tank and the top rear of the tank to make sure I don't lay the lines crooked going over the end there.

Pete, I should have jumped in sooner, the best way to get the ratio of hardener to filler is a golf ball sized piece of filler and a pea sized piece of hardener-every apprentice gets told this when they start body work here, spraying is the perfect way to become a master criminal-after a few jobs like yours you have no finger prints,remember the trick I told you about with the rattle cans? one of the first jobs I was given was rub all the spatter off the entire bodyshell of an estate car-by hand with wet and dry 600 grit (it took me 4 days of 8-5 to finish it) so yeah I get the so over sanding comment :0.keep it up you are getting there,oh take the tape over the end of the tank, make sure it is stuck down and spray just a little bit into the underside at both ends that way it won't blow out over the main maroon on either side of the tape.Johnny

[pete]

I believe I have won at last!!!

I still have sanding to do, but it looks now like it will sand out really well and will be a good smooth base all over for primer and paint...

I even started off on the right foot by getting the last of the body filler mixed up in what seemed to be the correct ratio as it didn't go hard until after I was finished with it:



And I sanded as much as I could stand by hand after it hardened:



The low spots that are left are fine, I haven't sanded anywhere near enough yet. Essentially I layered the whole tail piece, so there is lots of extra body filler that has to come off yet.

Fortunately, I'm working from home for a few hours in the morning then taking the rest of the time I'm owed so I should be able to get the finishing sander out and do the rest with that.

While waiting for it to harden, I made a start on the template for the stripes so I can lay the masking out with confidence that the stripes will be straight and centred.

I cut a piece of cardboard for the rear which will slot around the tank mounting tab and marked the centre of the tank:



Then I measured the stripes I laid down with masking tape and got a 22mm gap between with each stripe being 25mm wide:



And these are the temporary stripes I'm working off:



I also hope I'll have enough time tomorrow to clean out the body filler dust from the garage and start hanging drop sheets for the painting on Monday.

[pete]

It's getting there, Pete. Sanding is a pain, but it's 95% of paint work. Too bad you're not able to get some 36 grit on it, that would cut it right back for you. 60 and 80 grits are mainly used to remove 36 grit sand scratches, but it'll get you there sooner or later.

Thanks Larry, at least the end is in sight now and looking at the photos again this morning side by side with the previous ones there is a huge difference in the low spots, and I know I have more high spots to get down so it's definitely much closer.

Unfortunately I've been getting my paper from the local auto store for convenience so they don't go lower than 60. If I had a good hardware store locally that would be better but it's a bit of a marathon time wasting effort to get to a half decent one.

Hopefully some more sanding and a final layer of body filler just on the real low spots (there aren't many now) will be all it needs...

I'm not worried about it being perfect as there's the high build primer to go on yet, but I still want to get it as smooth as possible first because I don't expect the primer to build it up like body filler does.

[nvr2old]

It's getting there, Pete. Sanding is a pain, but it's 95% of paint work. Too bad you're not able to get some 36 grit on it, that would cut it right back for you. 60 and 80 grits are mainly used to remove 36 grit sand scratches, but it'll get you there sooner or later.

[pete]

I am sooooooooooo over sanding... and I've got more to go!!!!

Got the second layer of body filler on tonight, guess what happened when I was still putting it on:



Too much hardener dammit!!! One extreme to the other... got the right side done, back and most of the top done, left side done, then as I went to finish the top and check the rest it was going hard, so I'm guessing I'll need a third layer after I finish sanding.

So onto the sanding... man my arm is so over it, will have to finish that off tomorrow night as there are still lots of high spots to come down. It is really starting to take shape though all the same:



Generally speaking it's coming along well, and I think the surface will be 80 - 90% once I've finished sanding this particular layer.

[pete]

That tail looks much better, Pete. Make sure before you add the last coat of filler to sand the low spots, too. The new filler won't adhere worth a crap to un-sanded filler. You can do that by hand, just scuff all the low spots so it has some tooth to it for the next application.

Thanks Larry, will definitely be doing that! My arm cried enough at that point last night before I could touch the low parts... I really wish I could use that finishing sander but I would'nt be alive to type this if I did...

[nvr2old]

That tail looks much better, Pete. Make sure before you add the last coat of filler to sand the low spots, too. The new filler won't adhere worth a crap to un-sanded filler. You can do that by hand, just scuff all the low spots so it has some tooth to it for the next application.