Author Topic: The DEMONX 1970 vert project Pt2 (Read 98086 times)

demonx · « **Reply #40 on:** November 10, 2009, 04:28:56 PM »

Quote from: Thunder Kiss link=topic=7212.msg1045936294#msg1045936294

Does your insurance policy cover you for 1 free windscreen per year?

Yeah it does. Thats how I got this one. It's how I'll be getting it replaced when the cars on the road also.

demonx · « **Reply #41 on:** January 13, 2010, 06:13:09 PM »

Have not made an update for a while.

I've been on holidays and getting stuck into the body of this thing. Lots more sanding and paint prep.

Today I sandblasted the inside metal skin on the drivers door and shot a couple coats of PPG Epoxy sealer on the thing (just the door).

Since I've been struggling so much to get this thing done I've decided to break down the body work into sections so I can manage them in smaller projects. I've bought all the red in one hit so as the color will be continuous over the various spray sessions, but it will be getting done part by part, panel by panel over x amount of months.

Baby steps to keep me motivated.

silver1 · « **Reply #42 on:** January 13, 2010, 10:49:48 PM »

I would edge out all you're panels and body[paint the insides only] then fit and align all the panels then give it a final rub and paint the outer all at once.Odds are you'll chip panels while aligning them and you may even find they didn't fit as good as you first thought and you will get an even peel in the outer paint finnish.Just my opinion.

demonx · « **Reply #43 on:** January 14, 2010, 12:06:34 AM »

I was going to do similar process, however in reguards to the even peel comment, I'd find any peel unacceptable. I'll be rubbing the clear coat back to 2000 grit so I have zero peel!

Door painting process I had in mind:

Paint the inside of the door off the car up to the colour and clear coat stage
Mask off the inside of the door & attach back onto the car
Finish the outside body work on the door skin so it lines up to the body
Remove door and paint jams etc
Paint the door skin and install later on after rest of car is painted.

It's a bit of extra stuffing around, but it means I can get into the hard to reach sport and make sure they're all taken car of.

demonx · « **Reply #44 on:** January 18, 2010, 07:12:23 PM »

Spent a bit of time yesterday and today messing around with the inner skin of the drivers door.

Heres a few pics:

Epoxy - 2 coats

Primer - 3 coats

I sanded the primer back with 320 and then 600 ready for color and then decided I wasn't going to be happy with the appearence of the factory seams etc, so I then used PPG A661 PE Stopper (A filler specific for fibreglass body work) to neaten up the messy factory look.

I then reprimed and sanded back to 600 before shooting the PPG Viper Red - 3 coats
The color doesnt turn out real great in this mobile phone pic. I'll have to take some more in sunlight once the paints cured

Waited an hour after the last layer of red and masked off the black section, shot 2 layers of PPG Black and 3 layers of PPG 800 clear with a mattening agent in it so the black area will have a satin look.

Tomorrow I'll unmask this and tape off the black area to shoot 3 coats of 800 gloss over the red.

Thunder Kiss · « **Reply #45 on:** January 18, 2010, 07:48:57 PM »

Looks good. What did you end up doing at the upper rear top corners of the doors? You know, the bit that is usually broken on a lot of C3s?

demonx · « **Reply #46 on:** January 18, 2010, 09:21:32 PM »

Quote from: Thunder Kiss link=topic=7212.msg1045936666#msg1045936666

Looks good. What did you end up doing at the upper rear top corners of the doors? You know, the bit that is usually broken on a lot of C3s?

Yeah - that little tab is a common break point in C3 verts - it's a bad design caused by the weatherstrip rubbing against the door all the time. I thought about it for a while and a used a file to take it back to a neat enough point and then shaped it slightly. Hopefully when the door and the weatherstrip meet they are better friends this time.

silver1 · « **Reply #47 on:** January 19, 2010, 02:28:53 PM »

looking good mate

demonx · « **Reply #48 on:** January 20, 2010, 01:26:32 PM »

Heres a couple of slightly better pics, still taken with a mobile phone though. I cant quite seem to get the phone to take a decent pic of this color! Even outside inte sunlight the clear just shone crazy and I could not get a pic of it. It'd be better on a cloudy day I think.

You can also see the replacement VIN sticker I purchased and had typed up on an old 70's typewriter. It looks exactly like the one I scraped off. I put this new sticker straight onto the base coat and squeezed it down as hard as I could (not with my fingers) then sprayed three layers of D800 clear - I hope it stays intack without a problem.

This pic you can see the normal corvette red how dull it is next to the Viper Red.

You can also see how much difference there is from yesterdays pic (see a few posts back) and todays pic where the clear over the Black has cured a bit more. I was worried that I did not put enough mattening agent into the black part of the clear, but today it does look satin whereas yesterday it still looked like it has full gloss to it. Maybe it's just the full gloss is now sprayed next to it and I can see the difference?? Who knows!

I know inner door pics aren't all that exciting, but if you've ever sanded one of these things back and taken the time to do body work etc, even to see a tiny bit of color is pretty exciting right now!

demonx · « **Reply #49 on:** January 22, 2010, 02:34:34 PM »

The curse of this Vette continues.

Today I had a Mobile Sodablasting guy come to finish off doing the parts of the body that I put in the "too hard basket" ... I've just had enough of getting all the layers of crap off so I figured I'd take the easy way out..

Anyway, he's going at it for an hour and a half and guess what - the car broke his sodablaster! ... YES ... this really happened. The car grabbed the nozzle, when he tried to wriggle it out it snapped the join where the gun screws together.

I asked him what it'll cost to buy a new one and he said you cannot get them anymore and he'll have to pay for one to be machined. I was up the house when it happened so I didnt see it where it got caught but he said it got jammed and I inspected the gun myself, he wasn't joking! It snapped in two.

Anyway - he got the rear end done for me to get working and I said I'll give him a call in a few months when I'm ready for him to come out and finish the front. He didn't charge me full price for the time he was there today and he said when I go back to him, as the job didn't get finished he won't charge me labor he'll only charge me for the soda bags used. This guy is definitely going to get my return business. I'm impressed.

Long story short - This car is evil.

On a side note - after he'd done the door jams I was able to inspect them better as there was so much built up paint and crap in there I couldn't tell what was what.

I'll have to repair all the bonding seams. I just spent the the last couple hours digging silicone out of the water drains that some knob jockey had squirted what seemeed like a tube down each side. Yeah - that was a fun job. Some people just shouldn't own cars.

Heres what they look like now:

And heres a pic I saved as a reference of what I want them to look like when I'm finished:

That'll keep me busy for a while...

gtc · « **Reply #50 on:** January 22, 2010, 03:09:58 PM »

Quote from: demonx link=topic=7212.msg1045936684#msg1045936684

He didn't charge me full price for the time he was there today and he said when I go back to him, as the job didn't get finished he won't charge me labor he'll only charge me for the soda bags used.

That guy must really like Vettes!

Your work to date is impressive. It should be a stunner when finished. Keep up the great work!

demonx · « **Reply #51 on:** January 25, 2010, 07:20:01 PM »

After ising a heat gun and paint scraper to get the most of the factory seam bonding crap out and then a sandblaster ta make sure I got the last of it, I have managed to redo all the seams with this panel adhesive made specific for this kind of job.

At first glance it looks just like silicone, but I can tell you that it sucks to work with. I bought a version you put in a gun and I figured thats be easy but I ended out using a paint scraper to spread it properly and even then it still looks messy as you can see from the photo.

Lucky this stuff is sandable so I can tidy up the mess ater the 24hr cure time. After that I'll be trying to tidy up the whole section more by shooting it with epoxy to seal it all, doing some light filler work to smooth it out, seal it with epoxy again and then prep the whole area for paint.

Also dissmantled the door hinges today. Will have to install new bushes as a couple of them were cracked. While I'm at it I'll also replace the pins and springs. I cannot find a place that sell the rollers though so I may have to try lube them up as they are all seized.

demonx · « **Reply #52 on:** February 06, 2010, 05:48:42 PM »

The curse of this damn car continues.

A while back I dropped off a heap of parts to get sodablasted. Cost me $450

The last couple weeks I've been doing all the prep work getting ready to paint them and sandblasting some other stuff.

I've probably spent about 40 hours over the last fortnight on these parts plus the $450 cost of the sodablasting plus probably $200 worth of paint etc. All down the drain.

I thought I was leaving no room for error.

Heres the process I used:

a) Completely strip surface clean of any previous coating via soda and sand blast
b) Airhose all dust away at 125psi
c) Prepsol all surfaces for double safety
d) 2 layers PPG epoxy primer at 40psi with 15 minutes before the second coat
e) Wait an hour then 2 layers PPG prima primer at 40psi with about 20 minutes before second coat
f) Let sit over night
g) Sand all parts back to 600 grit
h) Airhose all dust away wearing nitrile gloves so as not to get body oil on surface
i) Spray first layer of PPG Deltron Red

All looked like it went perfect until I went back into the spray room for the second coat 15 minutes later and saw this:

I cut through the paint witha razor blade to try find out what part of the process has destroyed my day. It appears the epoxy layer has been the downfall. No idea why as I've done test sprays using epoxy sealer and found it to be WAY better than any other I've tried and pretty much fool proof.

I am very p#issed off and have no idea what went wrong. I really dont want to have to hand sand inside those damn eggcrate grills again as that was a f**king chore.

Fourteen pieces I sprayed in this batch all are destroyed, so I cannot pinpoint exactly what has happened. I cannot see how anything could have contaminated the layers. I am completely dumbfounded right now. Common sense would tell me that there was some contaminant in between the epoxy layers - but it'd be damn near impossible.

gtc · « **Reply #53 on:** February 06, 2010, 08:38:39 PM »

What a major setback after all of that work. Given that you seem to be following strict instructions to the letter, I'm wondering what the climate conditions were at the time and if that's a factor.

silver1 · « **Reply #54 on:** February 06, 2010, 08:58:25 PM »

you have a reaction problem with something you have used .PPG is not highly regarded amongst painters I know.

gtc · « **Reply #55 on:** February 07, 2010, 10:04:36 PM »

You have a U2U message.

Scott · « **Reply #56 on:** February 15, 2010, 10:01:41 PM »

I feel for you mate. Nothing worse than all that prep time wasted. Hopefully you get to the bottom of it all/

demonx · « **Reply #57 on:** February 16, 2010, 06:24:15 AM »

Yeah - After a phone conversation with Stewart (a nsw club member) I reckon we threw out a few ideas that chances are where contributing factors.

I just have to be a bit more careful next time on a few points I may have been not quite so strict on. EG: I was using hardner and thinner rated at 15*-25* when the temp was probably 35* ... little things like that open up all kind of doors. I've used them before on hotter days and never had the trouble but it still doesnt rule it out. The possibility of a Prepsol cleaner contamination and I'm still trying to sort out my ventilation problem as the fans are just too damn expensive.

More updates to come.

P.S. Thanks Stewart for all your help the other night. I am most greatful.

demonx · « **Reply #58 on:** February 16, 2010, 06:02:33 PM »

The other half mentioned to me the other night that for my birthday next month she'll spring for a set of rear bumpers for me!!!!

I did a bit of research and decided I'm better off getting the old scummy ones repaired and rechromed.

I dropped them off today at Cruiser hot rod and smash repairs. $350 for them to straighten out all the bumper mounts that are squashed from a rear end smash. Straighten and repair the dings in the bumper and then rechrome.

This is the same place that I got to rechrome the windshield corver pieces and they came back pretty good.

Heres the before pics I snapped with my mobile onthe boot of my car before I dropped them off:

In a week he said they'll call me and i can try fit the bumpers after they repair/restraighten the mounts just to make sure they line up on my car correctly - then I can drop them back off and they'll be chromed.

I will post aftrer pics when they're finished.

gtc · « **Reply #59 on:** February 16, 2010, 10:19:45 PM »

Quote from: demonx link=topic=7212.msg1045936838#msg1045936838

I dropped them off today at Cruiser hot rod and smash repairs. $350 for them to straighten out all the bumper mounts that are squashed from a rear end smash. Straighten and repair the dings in the bumper and then rechrome.

Are they copper and nickel plating before chroming?