Facia Paint part II

[kkoncelik@xxxx]

WELL 
I finished again.

Both Josh and Richards cars are done for the second time. 
This time I used the DBU which is the base coat clear coat and its a lot more 
work
The paint shows a lot more of the defects in the facia. The DAU I used first 
covered everything vs this stuff that showed everything.

I used the SEM primer again only this time I thinned it with DT thinner. 
Much Much better. (thinned 3 parts primer 1 part reducer) The grey primer 
covered everything and you could not see anything through it. 

The paint is a DBU base with DRR thinner and I used 1 part paint to 1 1/2 
parts thinner. This sprayed very well in the gun. Again I am using an HVLP 
gun.

Just a note here
Both Josh and Richards facias belonged in the junkyard before we started. 
they were broken, warped, bent you name it they had seen it. Both had been 
repainted several times. Richards was in an accident before he got it and he 
repaired it. It has about as much bondo (actually flexible bumper repair 
kit) in it as it does the original so we had nothing to loose. Both in my 
opinion should have been replaced. But we are diehards and probably spent 
twice as much in time and labor as a new one would have cost. Both had deep 
sanding marks imbedded in the plastic from some earlier attempts.


Well in the first coat of paint all the defects jumped out. So I wet sanded 
the paint and reshot it . I did this three times on Richards and then gave 
up. We got about 80% of the defects out but the facia was just too bent up. 
It looks 100% better but it is not a concourse facia. It will last. The 
rear bumper only needed one coat of paint as did Josh's and they looks like 
new I did add a gloss reducer at about 15% but I didn't notice any loss of 
gloss. Don't waste your time if you are thinking about trying it. 

I then clearcoated the cars with clear and an activator. No problem here it 
just went on. The rear facia on Richards came out perfect and I mean perfect 
until MR Bug decided to land on the side in the clearcoat. Well we plucked 
him out and I shot a bit heavy to blend in the oops but I got a little heavy 
and got a sag but that will easily sand out but It made me upset that little 
Mr Bug flew into it.

Well they came out good but if I had my preference I would use the DAU. I 
think the paint is easier to spray even though it is heavier and you have to 
watch the heavy settling of the paint. 

If the car was metal I think it wouldn't make much difference or if the 
facias were clean.

Any way I took a few more pics of the facia that I stripped down totally to 
black.
That is the way to go. It came out best of the four facias but its a lot of 
work.

I still have to say if you do not paint and this is your first time Don't. 
It took me 4 hours to do 2 cars but I have been doing this for a while. 

I do like the DAU finish better it is a lower gloss and it has a different 
finish than the base coat clear coat. I did find out that once DAU is opened 
it goes bad in around 6 months and possibly less. The hardener is more date 
sensitive so it goes faster and that is where I got into trouble. So if you 
have any old DAU throw it away.

Hope this helps some of you do it yourselfers but my recommendation is to 
send it to someone who has a paint booth. This color is hard to paint. 

I am very pleased with these two cars considering the condition they were in. 
They came out great.

Well so much for this job

Next I will be refinishing mine. While it looks good I think I can do better 
but I will have to cut the gloss more.

Pictures are in the vault

Ken