Album Index for Album 0028: Painted Side Sills

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Size Caption
86046
What's wrong with this picture?  The black side sills make the car look nose heavy.  Check out the Racing Beat Type II Nose section to see what led up to this state of affairs.
109996
The only real dent in my car...a present from the previous owner.  It's plenty shallow enough to fill and isn't very visible from the side of the car at all.
80789
Sanding off the old paint and the anti-chip coating is a PAIN!  Use a power sander if you have one.
75577
I just took it down to the paint underneath since I used a sealer.
103104
Here it is well sanded.  
92517
The masking process is simple, but use FRESH masking tape from an auto body supplier, not K-mart.  Use masking paper, NOT newspaper.  Don't leave the masking tape on for any longer than you must and never leave it in the sun to dry out.  Peel it off back over itself, not pulling straight out.  Hmm...that's all I can think of.
55194
Finish sanding is with 400 grit and I also lightly sanded up the body sides since I'll have to blend the paint in and reshoot clear over this section.
81904
Here it is ready to shoot the primer/sealer.  I didn't use surfacer, because the sanded finish was very smooth with no need to fill.
54599
Here's the sealer I used.  It's part of the DuPont system.
78779
The sealer is shot on both to deal with any incompatibilites between types of paint, but in my case to hold out any black color bleeding through.
116041
Shooting the base coat is simple, but with metallics you need to practice.
72152
It's not as difficult to shoot two-part paints as it is enamel, but hey, I managed to get a slight run anyway! ;-)  This is so small the next coats hid it, but any bigger and you have to let it harden and sand it off....NOT fun.
91058
Base coat on.
35690
Base coat is on the rockers, now I just need to blend it into the sides.
39407
What you do is thin the basecoat paint with blender 200%.  Then shoot a coat of overlap.  This is the first pass.  Later you thin more and overlap out.  Three blend passes is plenty in my case since the paints were darned close to begin with.
72138
Lookin' good!
83450
Shoot on the clear coats, let it harden 24hrs, sand with 2000grit, rub with Meguiar's Fine Cut, follow with Meguiar's Swirl Remover, follow with 3M Hand Glaze...
75772
I'm very happy with the lowered effect the painted sills impart.
84648
Go back and look at the first picture in this set....  Look at this, then look at the next shot.
54934
Hakuna now sports an RB Type II nose, painted side sills, and a factory spoiler.  Email me if you need more info to do your own....