Chapter II -- Paint the "Less Visible" Parts
Well, the rainy season hit, seriously. I have waited many days to get two dry days in a
row. I am using Anchor industrial paints on the underbody and engine bay and it is more
forgiving than automotive paint. The epoxy primer allows for top coating within 48 hours
but I felt like that stretches things a bit. It also allows for higher temperature and
humidity but, again, I didn't want to push things too much. Meanwhile, Dan has been trying
to salvage the wiring harness and I have helped him off-and-on with that. We hung the
curtains for the spray booth and installed the exhaust fan but still had to wait.
Finally, the weather forecasts all seemed to expect the same two dry days a full week ahead. Well those days finally came and they were dry. At least the first one was so, I got some primer on the underbody and the engine bay. At last there is no more red paint on my yellow car. Yes. That is the wing that got all the welding and new parts. Now, if the weather will just hold for one more day I will get some yellow paint on it.
The weather did hold for the second dry day and I took advantage of it. I got the yellow
paint on, three coats of it in fact. This is the catalyzed industrial enamel from
Anchor Paint, a great Oklahoma company.
I had painted a small part with the actual automotive paint and Anchor used it to mix a
near perfect match. This is very good paint at about one-third the cost. I started with a
fairly light "tack coat" then followed with two more full wet coats. Since I
don't plan to do any color sanding, that should be more than enough paint to protect it for
a very long time. This stuff is really tough, even without the urethane catalyst conversion.
I feel now like that much work over two consecutive days is a bit much for an old phart.
Then again, it is now the third day and the rain is here with the storms to follow shortly.
Good thing I did it when I did.
I'll let it harden for a few days then get it off the rotisserie and back on solid jack
stands. First when it comes off is a little touch up in areas that were not accessible.
Then we can start assembling some of those bits that Dan has been working on. Also, I
safely can get inside and begin prepping the interior for paint. Most of this is covered
in upholstery, carpets or panels so not really visible. I intend to use the same Anchor
paint for that too.
Change of Plan - Paint the Interior While Still on Rotisserie
Well, it did not take much thinking to realize it would be much easier to strip and paint
the interior on the rotisserie than crawling around inside. So, I spent the better part of
the next week sanding the rattle can primer off the inside, including the footwells and the
boot. This turned out to be a bigger job than anticipated. Getting into the footwells was a
challenge and, of course, that's where most of the rust was found. Inside the rear wings
was not easy either, mostly due to the structural stuff visible in the photos. For some
reason, I failed to get any pictures of the stripped version. Except for the floor areas
which were mainly bare, the rest tended to still have original yellow paint under that
primer.
Finally by Friday afternoon, the sanding and stripping was done so I cleaned up all the
major mess and prepared for primer, as soon as I could get a dry day. Saturday was to be a
dry day but Storms were expected Sunday, then dry again Monday and maybe Tuesday. Fortunately,
the Anchor epoxy primer allows a 48 hour top coating window. I elected to prime Saturday and
top coat Monday. All went well with the primer until I ran out of paint with about 4 square
feet under the nearside wing in the boot. Fortunately, I remembered having a quart of PPG
white epoxy at home. It was 20 years old but still seemed to be good so I retrieved it,
mixed about 3 ounces of it and finished the job. The structural piece in the boot is the
area where I used the PPG primer.
Well it did rain a lot Sunday morning. It looked for a while like I might be able to do the
painting in the afternoon but the humidity stayed really high until too late to start. I
did get everything ready to go though then started mixing paint as early as practical Monday
morning. I did have to wait for the temperature to come up enough to lower the humidity to
an acceptable level. So here it is after three good coats of paint. With that done now it
can finally come off the rotisserie. I will probably install the brake line and fuel line
that run under the floor first though.
