Time To Throw Some Paint At The Xm, You'd have to be bloody nuts !

No don't try and remove the plastic !!!! It's the plastic you sand, what your doing is removing the top layer of badly oxidised plastic.... If the actual foil beneath the plastic had corroded, your probably better off just sanding and painting the trim with black bumper paint !

I'll clearcoat them, otherwise the plastic will just deteriate in the sun again

seeya,
Shane L.

Inspired by Shane's efforts I took the trim off the back bumper on the black one yesterday. The black paint that had been applied was removed with cellulose thinners which also left an excellent finish on the plastic and left it slightly tacky so the surface appears to disolve slightly with thinners. Unfortunatly, the plastic surface had completely disintegrated in places so requires renewal. I gave it a coat of silver Hammerite and it certainly looks better than it did.

If your plastic is intact but just dull, try rubbing it with a cloth soaked in thinners, but briefly or it will probably disolve, but I would have thought it leaves an excellent surface for painting.

Peter.N.

Alrighty,

I'm about $620 poorer than I was this morning ..... The most I've ever spent on paint that I can recall....

We now have here:

2 x rolls of masking tape 25mm
2 x rolls of masking tape 18mm
1 x roll fineline plastic tape 13mm x 33m
1 x basecoat tack cloth
1 x normal tack cloth
4 x calibrated measuring cups
1 x 0.55 m x 33m of taped masking film with dispenser
1 x 1.8 x 33m " " " " " "" " "
1 x painting overalls with hood
2 x 1litre normal hardener
1 x 5litre normal reducer
1 x 4litre autothane clear
1 x 3litres cobra colour

Damn, I watched him mix it, not only did he add metalic, he also scooped perl into it .... I'm looking forward to 14 different "green" colours on this car :roflmao: :roflmao: (I'm serious here :disappr: ).

seeya,
Shane L.

Sadly, UV is less of a problem in our climate. Main problem here is corrosion of the foil due to damp and (I suspect) salt from winter gritting.
Is the foil layer accessable from the back of the trims or enclosed by plastic? I have not had one off to look. My worst ones are the short trims on the front wings. I am wondering if it is possible to replace the foil or paint the "inside" if foil is removable.

Robert.

Hi Guys,

well I just poured 1/2litre of primer onto them in about 2minutes flat.... Stunned when I found I'd used a whole pot of primer already with only 1coat :eek:

No runs, great finish ..... Amazing.





It's just a cheap Arnold gravity gun, it's the first time I've used the 2.0 tip in it.



I didn't think the heater would keep up with the blower fan blasting vast quantities of air in, but it did get toasty bloody warm in there with the jetfire running full bore.

Lessons learned.... I fitted the guage at the base of my gun that come with a little detail gun I bought for next to nothing. The with 80psi at the regulator, I'm losing a staggering 40psi between the gun and compressor when I pull the trigger fully in (I think the guage must be sus ....). The compressor easily keeps up even with the trigger fully pressed in.... Infact I turned it down on the gun to slow some of the cloud of overspray I was making.

The air fed mask running from a 1.5hp direct drive compressor *just* keeps up.... Though I did just find a huge air leak at one of the hose connecitons that wasn't there when I checked yesterday

The hoses immediatly tangle..... I'll need to do something about them.

I might give it a sand tomorow night, and if there isn't enough there (should be) I'll give it a second coat. I'm stunned at the material that went on very smoothly !



Better than acrylic laquer even applied from a 1.4tip !!

seeya,
Shane L.

Try a different strip..... Don't go near it with thinners this time.... Just wet and dry paper. Thinners is incredibly aggresive, it would probably disolve the plastic in the blink of an eye ??

The front panel (short) strips are corroded on this car too (maybe salt get slung onto them). However for some reason this car come with two new section of front guard strips when I purchased it

This car was in the UK for several years before it came to Australia. That's why I finding crazy sh!t like a rusty wiper motor, rusty frame under the front bumper etc...

seeya,
Shane L.

All set lets get to this !



I don't believe it ... The first bloody panel I was to paint, I made the floor around the hoses damp, I must have had water on the hose connection to the gun No probs, I'll do that one tomorrow night with the bumper I didn't paint

I poured so much base on the bonnet, I'm kinda concerned. We'll see if I have solvent pop on it tomorrow (I'll be far from surprised if I do !).



I think this is how you supposed to do the first coat... you can't see through it ... barely any coverage.




Absolutely perfect !! This is how we want them to look like ... This is how it's supposed to look with colour on I think !! :b2:

Alrighty then, clear .............



You can kinda see some of the cr@p I dropped into the bonnet in this piccie. The piccies are probably a bit blury 'cos I can't use the flash without huge feedback.




There was a bit of clear left over in the gun so I sprayed one of those plastic bumper trims... No idea if the clear will peal off.... but damn, they look far better than the new ones now !



The spoiler I knocked off (I had it sitting up on some screwdrivers wedged into place so I could paint both sides. Only one side is now painted ... Hmm....



Yeah, you can see the bumper I knocked off before I'd even finish painting the other bumper :clown:













Tomorrow night I'll hopefully get the bumper, nose cone and fiddly little sh!t done (ie: bumper strips etc.... I used 400ml of base doing this stuff tonight, mostly due to pouring so much onto the bonnet first time around. I'll not have enough with only 3.5litres if I keep that up !

seeya,
Shane L.

I would say 3.5L is cutting it a bit fine actually. I would have gone for 5.

5litres ?? Nah it's only the colour ... 2coats will probably give plenty of coverage on the cars body that's already green !

It's proper two pack paint... uretane with a base colour, and the clear over the top to seal and give shine. this is my first attempt at painting with it, the trash I put in the paint aside, it's looks amazing. The clear has gone on like glass ! (Even given my less than ideal application of base !).

seeya,
Shane L.

Ok last time I got quite a lot of sh1t in the paint....

So this time I thought I'd blow the base over it right after work ....









The base layed down perfectly .............. Except the mirror



Strange ?? I'll spot prime it, and paint it again with the rest of the cars body. Then after tea, and the kids were in bed.... Within the 8hour window for recoat I removed all the replaced all the masking film (I didn't do this yesterday as each coat was shot 10-15minutes after the last, so I thought we'd be fine)..... Well the final product speaks for itself................. Damn it !! Not grit or sh!t in any of the paint. The bloody base had blown off the masking film into the clear (I thought I'd be fine). This means I'll have to mask the whole damn car twice in one day. (that'll be fun ).









Gee's this stuffs brilliant.... It's layed down like glass !! I was amazed to find when I went to clean the gun, I had it's fluid valve wide open to get the paint down right :eek: No wonder I could hear the compressor was working more than usual when spraying !

Just gotta scuff, mask and shoot the body now ! (which should be less work than all this fiddly little sh!t !).

seeya,
Shane L.

That's going to be the best looking car in the southern hemisphere. I'd have said the world but I saw that silver XM at the CCC meet! (Hangs head in shame at his unwashed black one).

Thank you Shane, for also giving us a look at your workshop. Golly you're tidy, are they shadowboards you have your tools on?

Derek

Yeah there's crap everywhere in the little shed, up in the roof, hanging from all the walls... There just lumps of wood I've hammered nails into. I struggle with a tiny little work area. I have thrown up a 13 x 6metre shed up the back yard (I demo'd it offsite .... it's all second hand). However it has no floor or power and is full of dead cars and junk.

The best XM I'll be happy with "look acceptable enough for SWMBO to be happy with).

I'd love to repaint the mighty CX with these modern paints .... can't see that happening for a long time though

The XM's now filling the tiny little shed, and I've started scuffing all the panels ready for paint.

seeya
Shane L.

The trim along the roof would be impossible to tape along and look ok to me .... It's glued on... Pull it off. Above the plastic trim above the 'C' pillars .... Carefully cut it away, don't pull on it or it'll break ( )



You can lift out the window channel rubbers. They will split into 3peices along there length if your not careful.



I'll be able to mask down the top of both guards ... so that ones easy.



The rear doors and hatch have a body line I can mask down so I don't need to shoot all the openings (phew !). The front door openings will be taped completely so paint can't get to the door apertures.





The glue that was retaining the seal..... Damn it's hard to move .... I found in the end 2pack reducer and a screwdriver was the easiest way. Damn that's toxic sh!t, it even destroy nitrile gloves that are "chemical resistant" in the blink of an eye :eek:




Fine brushcutter line could be the go by the looks of this (if I can keep it in there). Combined with plastic fineline tape.



the seals at the tops of the windows look like they'll peal back !

Sean would be horrified if he could see his car now :joker: To sand sh!t out of the roof and everything "up high" I put the car on low and let the air out of the tires (gee's that made life easy, everything being at elbow height and all). then for the side panels, put air back into the tyres and lifted her up high onto some axle stands.

seeya
Shane L