O.K. so long story short, some local guys come in a month back and want to know if we can powder coat a WHOLE car . NHRA drag car (inside only). We can and while inquiring the owner informs the guys we also do paint, body and resto werk. Guys are interested, come to me to see if I'm interested, Yeah sure I say. Car shows up the following week and now we are told that Mazda and BASF are sponsering the car. Cool. 2 days go by, boss and young punk kid are prepping it for coating when we find out NOW the car is going to SEMA in BASF's booth AND they want to use it in their 2008 calander. UBER COOL!! Up until now I had suggested we let the snot nosed kid do the car to see if he is what he claims to be (more on that later ), well now that has to change. 3 weeks to get a car ready for that kind of attention + plus an inexperienced kid means I( have to step in with him. Week goes by, NOW the car is also going to be in BASF's both at the NOPI nat's. SHIT only 2 weeks left!!

Pic 1 as it arrived (after a little cleaning)

Maze of matel

Nudder

Now that we're down to 2 weeks they brought the nose over. OH SH#T time. Nose needed a LOT of werk. I spent 3 whole days re-werking the glass and trying to get 2 layers of fiberglass smooth. She's a flexxy girl

Oops forgot a pic of the interior after coating

3/4 shot

hind quarter

So here's where things get ugly with junior. I realize by this point the kid is a piece of poo. We roll the car into the booth to primeit. As I am blowing,wiping tack ragging I feel a hump.....dammit.....hump....dammit.....dip....werthless POS kid. I end up spending 4 hours in the booth redoing EVERY panel I let him werk on. All this after I specifically asked him ' are the doors completely done?" ....'Yeah" ....."Is the spot on the roof done?" ......"Yeah"etc. etc. THEN the brat gets pissy with the boss because I won't let him prime the car. Boss says it's my call, he didn't get his part right tough sh#t. ......Kid cusses out the owner/boss and quits. FINALLY !!!

Got blocked and primed ONCE, due to the 3rd week having now passed

Spent some serious time on the scoop. I'm pretty proud of it though

Rear

This is where the paint gets interesting. As part of the sponsership BASF got to choose the paiont for the car. Their choice.....a new paint that they are pushing on the custom crowd. Part of the Charizzma line, they now have cnadies with HEAVY flake. Not just ordinary flake but actual crushed glass. And it is HEAVY. This is the base coat for the particular color they chose. The base will later be changed by demand of the rep they sent out

So I've now got it based and ready for the rep to run throught the candy coat......He shows up.....jamb the 2 front doors.....go to cut in the jambs on the car.......gun won't spray.........gun still won't spray Go empty gun, clean gun.....tip is COMPLETELY clogged with the freakin flake! SOOoooo we step up to a 1.4 tip. Sprays fine BUT we have to continually emty the gun, restir the candy and refill the gun because the flake is so heavy it sinks immediately to the bottom of the cup. Phone calls begin. Rep calls H.Q. and tells them to stop sales until it can be re-formulated. He ands up shooting the whole car body so if there is a f-up I don't get blamed for it. 6 HOURS LATER the car is coverd. Went through the gallon he sent over plus another half gallon. That's unreduced. 3 freeking gallons of this paint to cover the car!!

Das scoop

Der hiney

CLeard, wet sanded with 1000 grit and re-cleard. Now you can see the flake. Pics do it NO justice. This stuff is WILD in the sun!!

Fianl wet sanding with 2500 and buffed. Like I said the pictures really don't tell the story

So now for the kick in th crotch part. The guys who are buildiong the car' s shop is on the other row of buildings so they decide to just push it around on the dolly it has been on. BAD IDEA ! We make it to and into their shop up until the rear wheels of the dolly hit the 1/4 inch step up from the asphalt to the concrete........Car goes boom....on the ground......molded in bumper goes CRACK















Guess what I'm doing Monday.........

End result of the paint fiasco...BASF is changing the grond coat to a darker blue so the candy will be a closer match and they will be re-evaluating thier recommendation of a 1.3 fluid tip Prolly should be a 1.5

Oh BTW last year these guys were running a rotary and making a 7.23 pass. This year they have gone to a piston driven turbo unit and are expecteing to run a 6.80 ! Turbo looks like it came off of a semi More pics to come as the assembly (and repairs )begins. I DREAD trying to blend this paint

holy crap, this is an awesome thread. thanks for sharing!!

WOW! That's a fantastic job! And I thought I was having problems with "solvent pop" painting my teener.

2 things to check on .

Correct temp reducer and ample time between coats. What happens is coat #1 doesn't have enough time to evaporate before coat #2 is applied therefore the solvents are evaporating THROUGH the second coat

Your air flow = if you don't have enough air flowing through your booth/painting area the solvents won't be drawn away from the paint when they evaporate

Another posibility is that you don't have solvent pop you actually have fish eyes which is caused by foreign material on the underlying surface. Armor All is a BIG no no around paint booths. I have also seen it happen from the large kerosene heaters not burning cleanly, car wax not being completely removed, etc.

WOW! What a job. You are PAINT KING!

At the first body shop I worked at, years ago, 2 of the painters had a war.
Painter #2 sprayed WD-40 in the airhose of Painter #1's booth. Crazy fisheyes everywhere. Painter #2 bragged about it to the wrong guy and got fired finally.
I wasn't involved, I was a lowly prep-boy at that time, I only got to paint wheels and bumpers on the huge electric company trucks, but not too many fisheyes on my stuff.

Great work and on a deadline to boot...

how many hours do you have into it?

God only knows....I'll have to sit down and add it all up but basically 4 weeks at 40 hours per There were several 12-13 hour days plus Sat. and Sun. last weekend so I figure it averages out to 4-40 hour weeks+one 30 ? hour week for the powder coating. When it got near the end I had some help blocking, wet sanding and buffing from the guys who are actually assembling the car as well as an old timer in the shiop that used to do collision werk. The bill is supposedly a little OVER $10,000 just for the paint and body. Powder coating was another $3000.00 Unfortunately I get a very very small portion of that

If I had been painter #1....painter #2 would have at least 1 knife wound....at least...........

REally, really nice. Flake reminds me of a 76 vette I saw when I was a teener - painted silver with the largest freaking metalflake I had ever seen - and up to this day the ONLY one. It looked as though the dude put reynolds aluminum foil through a hand cranked coffee grinder and then added it to the clear coat only-- it was the wildest thing I ever saw

Good job dude.

Very nice job.

Nice of you to stop in and say hi holmes! I may be heading your way in a couple of months. for some vacation/ job nosing.Not real sure yet how far down I'm going. But I'll definitely be in Fla.

Let me know dude - even if you do not make it all the way down, it would give me the excuse I have been looking for to get the hell outta here. Even for just a night of alcohol consumption - still got my number??

Thought I'd share a little update vid of the car. My heart DROPPED when I saw this. I literally felt sick to my stomach for a few minutes afterward.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PvstvMVZqVo

Another vid with good shots of the whole car and some completed runs.


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bve93EyPMj0


I'm gpnna go take some nerve pills now

I had a gun cup with a flipper in the bottom of the cup. The flipper had a magnet on the bottom. The outside of the cup had a air driven motor with a magnet on it. You connected the motor to the gun regulator. the outside magnet drove the magnetic flipper inside the cup while you were painting. This would keep the flake in suspension. The flipper was removable from the cup for cleaning. That's why the magnets. Tell BASF you need one. They work. Hmmm... wonder where that is now. I think I got it from the Sherwin Williams rep.