How to install Steel Fender Flares on a 914:, Got a visit from one of our Canadian 914 guys this weeked Options

[Root_Werks]

I got home Saturday just around noonish and notice this hanging out at my house:

[charliew]

I guess I missed it did you guys try some flared rockers to see how they lined up to start with? The curves of the flares and fenders are the easy parts. It's the almost flat areas that are tough. It takes good lighting and the experience to know how to use the angles of the lighting to pick up the very long minute waves. You can't stand back and look too much, always be looking and feeling for waves. On the last guide coat I like to put water on the surface to get it as shiney as possible to check the surfaces. If you are going to remove all the orange peel it will show every wave you miss on the final guide coat. Also the darker the color the more the waves will show up. I close my eyes when I am trying to determine where a small imperfection in the surface is and start with long sweeps of my hand till I feel something then keeping it centered in the sweeps get them shorter and shorter till I can either see or mark the spot. The closer you can get the filler to perfect the less guide coats you will need and the less shrinkage you will see in a coupla years. Also the final finish of the filler should be about 220 grit so as to not have deep scratches to fill with the primer as that can also shrink and show up when the hot solvents sink in from the top coats. If you try to level spots with clear they will usually shrink and show up later. If you use a lot of top coat it will take several months to get fully dry. Try to put a dent in it where it won't show with your fingernail (under a fender lip) a few months down the road and see how far it dents. Usually the dent will come out over time.

When the last coat of clear is on and wet you will know how good of a job you did and whether you might need to leave a little orange peel or not when you are leveling and buffing. If you don't have a real good setup to paint top coats you might want to use some fisheye eliminator. It prevents small oil specks from making pimples in the paint. Urethanes being sortof like plastic don't melt into each other as each coat goes on. If you get through and see a dryspot that looks rough and will need extra leveling you can use some ppg blending solvent to melt the paint down. Be careful and just dust it on and see how it goes, you can add more but too much and it will run or sag. It looks like magic but it will help level overspray or dryspots really well.

When you are color sanding if you go through the clear you can put some more on that spot and use the blending solvent on the edge of the new clear to melt the little overspray drops in before you resand it. Be sure and use a tack rag as the blending solvent also has clear it it.

When you sand clear between coats to remove nibs or lint, some clears will lift or wrinkle if they are not fully dry especially on the edge where you sand through. Clear is a weak paint and will delaminate easily if you leave to smooth of a surface for it to adhere to I use 400 or a gray scotchbrite pad to scuff the surface real well. It will try to seperate where you are bolting something on it or flexing it.

Also something I try to remember when I am spraying top coats is that they are highly prone to attract dust as the electrostatic charge is always there. I have used a jumper cable connected to the underside of the body to try and ground the body to stop it as much as possible. I'm not sure that it helps because of the multiple coats and the filler but I do it anyway.