OK, I'm starting to get the itch to do cosmetic to the newer (dark blue) Bird, even though the clearcoat is trashed and there are millions of other things I could be doing. Since that paint is shot, as I've mentioned elsewhere in the forum, I am considering having it repainted (when I can afford it) in Deep Jewel Green w/ Pewter two-tone from the bumper strip down.
We-ell, I'm also considering painting the grille to match.. at least, I'd like to put the deep jewel green over the chromed parts, and maybe flat black on the insides of the holes. (or pewter, I don't know yet) I already have one friend telling me either I can't do it, or it'll come out py.. and he's pretty good at painting stuff like this, so I tend to give him credit when he says something like that. However, I sure would like to see how a bit of that color looks on the car..
So what gives? I see argent (right? the dull grayish) paint over the chrome on the headlight surrounds on my '86.. I painted over the argent with flat black.. but never on exposed chrome. (I know the argent is painted over some of the chrome because I accidentally rubbed off the argent around the edges and there was chrome underneath)
Can this grille be painted with this spray paint with just some standard sand-and-clean prep work? Is primer a necessity here? Should I try and strip the chrome off completely and paint on the plastic underneath, instead? I'm not terribly worried about ruining it, because I guess I can always find another grille in some junkyard somewhere.. but I'd like to try and do it pretty close to right the first time.
I did the body painting on the light blue Bird without much prep, and it came out pretty good.. but that's a different situation where I don't expect it to stay that way too long. The doors will have to be replaced due to the rust, and that's when I'll be looking to do it better. With this grille, if I do well this time around, I'll just leave it that way.. unless the Dupli-Color "color-matched" truck and SUV paint I have (the inspiration for all this) isn't really color-matched.. heh.
that chrome should sand right off id think. you should just about be able to se it off. if it turns out like sh@ then ive got a chrome grill in nice shape id hook ya up with. (i assume you mean to do this with an 87-88). i was thinking of doung a similar paint scheme with a silver or drey metallic lower and or maby some sort of "boss" mustang scheme. anyway this is the green i was going to use...
(http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/11/web/599000-599999/599075_14_full.jpg)
if the chrome has no blotches, it woujld be hard to peel off.. however if you sand it enough to take the top layer off. paint should go on it pretty good. I did 2 grilles that way already and neither of them chipped.
How far should I go with sanding this? I have from 60 to 220 grit, and maybe some 400, 600, and 800 around here somewhere. Also have some scotch-brite pad clones, and 0000 steel wool. (mind you, one of my wrists is really screwed up right now.. this might get a little awkward if it gets really involved) Also have 120 and 240 for the Firestorm's sander attachment.
Well start out rough, and then work your way up to fine grit. 60 is good to start with, then the 220, and finer. I shouldn't take much effort. Just take your time.
I just did this last weekend (although used a fairly-reflective metallic silver) and so far the paint has no problems sticking. I just used what I had laying around - 60 grit and then 220 grit. Afterwards, used some primer to get the thing somewhat flat (the chrome bubbled in a couple spots) and sanded it. Sprayed the paint and it stuck without problems. It turned out good until SOMEONE decided to fertilize the lawn at the time I was waiting for the paint to dry and got some stuck in the paint. Due to weather, and the fact that it still looks better than the chrome finish it had beforehand since I was picking the little bits of fertilizer out of the paint, I've left it alone. I'm going to repaint it this weekend and then clearcoat it.
So yeah, somewhere around 150 grit or smoother would be a good roughness to paint over, primer or not. Just don't get ahead of yourself and keep loading it down with paint...drips set everything back. I'd recommend clearcoating over whatever you do, especially since its on the front of the car. It'll both make the paint look better, and you can sand/use rubbing compound over it without dulling the finish. Rock chips are easy to take care of too ;)
Just got done sanding it. Probably not the greatest job of sanding, but I'll see how the primer comes out.
Krap.. I would appear to be all out of primer.
Oh well, guess I'm due for another trip to Wally-World tomorrow.
I think I'm just going to try it painted all-green, and not mess around with colors inside the holes. I hated taping up the '86 'Bird's grille.. although, admittedly, that had a hell of a lot more holes to it. :p
I don't know what compels me to take on this stuff when I'm exhausted. Probably the same idiotic drive that would occasionally compel me to work until midnight for no extra money on a 9-6 job I once had. Wasn't asked to, I'd just stay and do stuff like give the bathroom a good cleaning. It's things like that that make me tend to avoid working for other people. If I'm going to go overboard, I'd rather do it for myself. :p
Anyway, back to the topic: There was a little bubbling of the chrome.. but it seems to have come out OK otherwise. I just used 60 and 150. If it looks rough after the primer tomorrow I might slap a 240 (or whatever it was) pad on the Firestorm and use that.
Shame302: Back of a Mustang, eh? Yeah, I like that color.. but I think Deep Jewel Green is a little darker than that. (or maybe it IS that color and I'm just a :wtf:.. lol) It was a mid-90s Ranger color, or so I've read.
This particular pewter paint seems to vary wildly depending on the light. Sometimes it looks pale gray, and sometimes it's almost gold.
OK, I painted it. Used the whole spray paint can, in fact. (it was about 80-90% full) No runs.. just a few imperfections.. but those look like they could be either grains of sand or tiny bubbles. I think it came out well.. but I'll have to wait until tomorrow to take pics of it. Can't get good enough light to take a good picture with my py digital camera.
Most of the imperfections are in the "only I will notice them" category, I think. Couple of them will be hidden by the Bird emblem.
how well did you wash it off when you sanded it? Did you clean it with any laquer thinner or anything? The imperfections could be from grease from hands or just like you said grains of sand.
I just wiped it off with a damp towel and a dry towel after sanding.
I'm pretty sure the imperfections are either grains of sand or bubbles. I was pretty good about not holding it on areas that were to be painted. I went kinda heavy with the paint.. not heavy enough to run, but close.
I'll try and take some pics before I have to leave this morning.
I just can't seem to get a good color shot with this camera.. but this'll give you some idea of how it looks. It's a little dusty.. it sat in the bedroom here overnight, so it was covered in dust and cat hair.
Looks good. Different, but good. Is it clearcoated?
Also, wiping the primer with denatured alcohol after sanding works well to get all the left over dust off. Just make sure the primer's completely dry or it'll tend to make the primer ball up.
Today's the day for me to repaint mine since it can sit inside to dry over the weekend. The paint I use takes longer to dry but has given me good results in the past (same slow drying paint I used on the flat blacks around the car - makes the finish really robust). I don't know of any slow drying clearcoat though...
No, it isn't clearcoated yet.
ouch, did you tighten the emblem on? It'll put a mark in the paint which will be easy to see once there's a layer of clearcoat over it
I put it back on and tightened it just enough to keep it from moving around. I'm not too worried about it.
I tend to be a perfectionist...it'd bug me to no end :shoothead
If something like that bothered me, there wouldn't still be a scratch inside one of the holes. I'm a perfectionist up to a point. If I let my perfectionism take over, I'd NEVER be happy with anything I do.
looks like it isn't going to get as warm today as it was supposed to. I'll have to just paint and hope it doesn't crack like last time I painted around this time of year
Have any problems with orange peel?
Orange peel? You mean the stuff all over my back yard twice a year when both trees start to drop? :D
Peeling on the grille? Not that I've noticed.. but since I took that picture, I've driven to Tampa and back, (about 90-100 miles each way) and taken a nap. I really haven't made time to check it out again.
"orange peel" is a term used when paint doesn't have a perfectly flat surface as it resembles an orange's peel. There's always a little amount, but it can get bad with certain application methods and temperatures. If using a spraycan, it helps to let it soak in hot water which both makes it spray a little thinner, and take a little while longer to dry (spread out a little more evenly). Light coats are needed though as it'd be more likely to run.
http://66.34.72.138/howto/paint/orange-peel-1.jpg
that's a severe case but it gives the general idea. Ignoring the bubbles in their paint job, look at the overall texture. The bottom half of the light's reflection resembles the texture of an orange.
Clearcoat helps hide that though (without touching the paint itself - needed for metallics and such) as you can sand it smooth and from an angle, you only see the top surface, not the paint below ;)
The paint is a little uneven, but it's not bad. I tended to go with tons of light passes over it, let it sit for 10-15 minutes, then re-coat it with lots more light (quick) passes. Remember, I used almost an entire can just on that one grille. It's on there thick.
I've never had good luck with clearcoat.. but I used to suck at spray painting in general. Might do better this time around.. or, I may ask that friend to give it a shot. He's still better than I am at painting.
heh, yeah
I need to get a sprayer and learn how to get a great finish on paint so I can paint my car on the cheap.
I wouldn't mind being able to paint the whole car myself. I can get a compressor, and I could probably fashion a tent in my front yard. (no neighbors to annoy, that's a plus) I'm just not experienced enough to do it yet. Spray paint experience doth not equal whole car painting experience.. heh.
Looks real good!! :ies:
Thanks. I got a lot of practice with Dupli-Color when I treated the rust on the '86 and painted it over with a close color to the existing color. I used to be awful at spray painting.. but now I'm actually (just barely) a little confident about my ability to paint something.
From what I've heard and read, its easier to get a decent finish with both a decent sprayer and higher quality paint than is in cans. Plus, the catalyst in many paints that helps it dry sooner is always helpful. Cans just don't have what it takes to get an excellent finish, be it the paint quality, spray pattern, or air pressure.
Ever use the spraycans that have a vertical spray pattern? Its basically a vertical line instead of a huge circle. Results were very good for a spraycan - good coverage and I didn't have a single spot of orange peel...but because it was a different looking nozzle, once I pointed it the wrong direction and it came back spraying in my face :wtf:
These Dupli-Color cans have adjustable patterns on them. You can spray vertical or horizontal.
wait, what? you can adjust them? Didn't know
Yep, spin the nozzle around with your fingernail. It even says so somewhere on the can. :p
people actually read instructions?! :p
For general use, I just use Krylon paint. I haven't found the $0.99/cans at walmarts here but they've been known to be that cheap in other areas. Surprisingly, it comes from the same company as duplicolor (addresses are exactly the same). They even use the same cans (besides the label), caps, and nozzles.
...and it looks like I'll have to use a spaceheater and sand/paint my grill tomorrow. It turned out good until I went into the garage a couple hours after spraying primer. It was cracked in a couple spots. It can be hard to paint in shady areas when under 60ºF
okay, I give up on metallic paints all together. It looked good up until the point it was time to clearcoat it. Now the paint just looks light grey.
Wonder if I can find a paint similar to body color since obviously thats my only choice other than spending $35 on a new grill or removing all the paint and trying to keep the metal coating under the chrome
There's no way in hell I'd use any spray paint pretending to be a particular metal. (chrome, gold-plating, whatever) I've tried them in the past, and they were awful.. plus I've seen others around here commenting negatively on them.
Yeah, I'd say try color-matching it to the body.. which is what I'm doing, more or less.. the body just hasn't been painted that color yet. :D
I was just going with a reflective metallic (which it is) but it doesn't appear to like clearcoat. My guess is that its something about the paint and the oxygen surrounding it. If you take off the top layer of the paint after it dries, the stuff underneath is just horrid. I was hoping that letting it dry reflective and clearcoating over would work but I guess I was wrong
Well, I finally clear-coated it today.
- Only clearcoat I could find at the time was some 500 deg. engine stuff.. doesn't seem to be a problem here.
- There was a mark on the grille from the Bird emblem, but it's not a big problem.
- Had a little bit more orange peel with this one.
- I sprayed it 3 different times within about 20 minutes. Very light first coat, then I did the other two coats until they *just* started turning milky on me.
I'm satisfied with the results.
Unrelated to the grille painting.. but I wanted to post a pic of this somewhere.
The blue is Dupli-Color 500 degree Ford Blue. I taped off the exposed metal of the Ford logo and the 5.0 Liter EFI stuff and painted that in Wal-Mart flat black, with 2 coats of 500 degree clearcoat over it. It's not meant to look perfect, just improved.
Painted over a bunch of hoses and connections.. but I intend to replace all that stuff, anyway.. the vacuum lines are falling apart.
you can fix any problem with clearcoat easily with rubbing compound and if you want it perfectly flat, sand with a sanding block and then use rubbing compound. Looks good though. Now if only the rest of the car looked like the grill does in the picture... :p
On the intake, I like the "color" it comes from the factory with. I've always liked the look of metal more than paint. Looks good though. I've really gotta take the upper intake off my car and replace the pcv hose soon. I'm down to 13mpg. 15 a month ago. 18 before that (all city)
OK, so I still just have the grille as the only green on the car.. and no significant amount of the pewter on the outside. But, behold, pewter!
Y'know, I missed your reply before this got buried. I should probably stop relying on the newest post function on the main index. :p
The clearcoat on the car's trashed.. that's why I'm going to repaint it, eventually. On the spots where it isn't trashed, the blue looks pretty good.
I messed up on the clearcoat on that trim picture up there.. it fell over into my hand and I got a fingertip smudge just below the lock button hole. However, shooting just a little bit more clearcoat on there and letting it dry flat, you can barely tell. I like clearcoat. :D
As for the manifold: I can appreciate the look of the manifold the way it was.. but I also like to see the old Ford colors. Ford red w/ a green car would've looked a little too holiday-ish.. so Ford blue it was. I'll probably do the engine as a mix of Ford blue and gloss black.. just like that manifold.
your pewter door lock trim looks better than my aluminum plates I made for my car
(http://img118.exs.cx/img118/8206/MVC-664S1.jpg)
oh, my comment on clearcoat was just for spraying the stuff for the first time. Old/aged clearcoat doesn't have as deep a shine as newer stuff does so fixing whats already on the car is near impossible.
I take it pewter's a color
:D
Why, yes.. it's the color of this helmet:
are u talking about painting over the chrome tpuppies on the car?
We were originally talking about painting over the chrome on the grille, which I did.