I just replaced the right qtr panel on one of my D-150s and am getting ready to paint, may I ask your technique? In particular, the black coating prior to the primer and how did you paint it? I don't see a temp paint booth or spray gun.
The black coating is a sandable primer. I put a lighter shade guide coat over top of that and blocked it down, then I put a sealer primer over top of that before paint. Any body guys or painters or any sane people should probably skip the rest of this post..... I'll give them time to leave the room....
Its spray paint, rustoleum. Initially my plan was just to shoot the engine bay, make it look the best I could, then drag it to a body shop to paint the rest of the car. The engine bay turned out so good, I made a joke about doing the whole car that way. Well too many paint fumes later, that turned into reality. Now I certainly don't expect this to hold up like real automotive paint, but the car will only be outside for a few hours on a couple weekends thoughout the year, hopefully it will be a long time before it becomes a problem. I considered getting spray guns and using the summit or duplicolor paints, but with the added cost of dryers for my compressor, paint guns, mixing supplies, and a learning curve, I decided against it.
The steps I took after sanding if anyone is still interested: sandable primer and guidecoat, blocked with 320 grit. Primer sealer, wet sanded with 1000. Paint, 3 medium coats, then wet sanded with 1000. 1 medium coat of paint, allowed to tack, then 3 medium coats of clearcoat, wet sanded with 1000. 2 more coats of clear, wet 2000, then buffed and polished. All the wet sanding between coats was to keep orange peel down. All said and done, there is no fisheye, dust nibs or orange peel. There is a very nice shine and just a hint of wavyness in the large flat areas.
So what did I do today? More sanding!
Soon I will have the car back on the ground and purring (pun intended)
