1970 s2 0453R Reassembly

[BDA]

More goodness, D'man!! Are you planning on driving it? It would be a shame to get dings in that paint!

[dakazman]

 BDA, I will be driving it to shows. Ok maybe not, I will give that job to my daughters. Lol.
I learned how to blend the clear so touch ups won’t be a problem. I’m still repainting the left inner engine wing section by the gas filler because of two blisters.
Certified, I did read you wanted black, trust me you made a great decision. I wish I went white ...
Dakazman

[Certified Lotus]

Dave, I’ve had two black Lotus’ and currently have two black audi’s And a black Toyota Tacoma. I don’t find black cars to be that much harder to keep clean, you just need to keep them washed......all the time 

[dakazman]

 It’s not the washing or upkeep but the amount of defects that stay hidden or less obvious with other colors . The other thing must be the electrical charge I’m generating is causing debris sticking to the finish. Mainly dog and cat hair, it seems it’s that time of the season for it. Not to mention everything is blooming and covers everything in green powder.
The other item is fresh paint should not have a car cover on it according to the manufacturer. No wax either for I believe 6 months but I’ll check the spec sheet again on that.
Dakazman

[Certified Lotus]

I think I posted early in your build blog I was amazed you were painting with out a booth. Even a temp one. The only time I attempted spraying body parts my friend and I built a temp paint booth to keep all the stuff that floats in the air off the fresh paint. Worked pretty well.

[dakazman]

Yes you did mention it but the paint defects I’m talking about are small scratches I induced by being agresive in my paper grit choice , moisture in the air compressor line getting past two water separators. The other defect as I call it are just waves in the glass mold at certain views. Similar to a water spot on a mirror. Yes they are small and hard to photograph. The glaze will probably hide them but that makes the panel repair of a burn thru more difficult to break surface for adheasion of more paint.
 The specs on Cromax clearcoat wax is 120 days so some pieces are ready for glaze and wax now😀👍👍. So I will start on those sections to test my process and materials.
Dakazman

[Rosco5000]

Dave you wet sanding and polishing stamina is very immense. The hard work is paying off. I have a question about paint thickness. How many base coats and how many clear coats did you paint on the car?  Will you have enough clear coat depth to polish in the future? As you mention burning through in a few spots?  I really want to build up the knowledge so I feel comfortable when I go to paint my first car.  It will happen soon!
Cheers,
Ross

[dakazman]

Rosco, great question. The paint color thickness depends on a lot of different factors of that particular paint translucent paints get darker with every layer and that would look disastrous on a car . Solid colors don’t need to be thick only cover the correct primer or sealer. Prime/ seal / sanding level after complete. The base coat only needs to cover the primers. The base is normally dry in minutes and must be cleared in 15- 30 minutes. You only sand out base coat if you run it. All other particles come off with a tac cloth. Now that you have the base on the first coat of clear is just a light coating.  It Will become tacky and hold the next layers (coats) of clear  waiting the recommended time between coats
Is very important, to soon the next layer causes white bubbles to form between layers. Waiting to long or not applying another coat  will give you less to work with (sand out orange peel)  but once lightly sanded you can add another coat of clear . However you can only polish and finish the last layers of clear without blending additives. There are tips on you tube for how to blend a panel and polish out but they recommend repaint of panel.
    Now that I’ve rambled on I hope I answer you . There are also single stage painting instructions .
That I won’t start talking about here.
Dakazman

[Rosco5000]

Thanks for the info!  That is helpful. It’s a start, I need to build up some courage and motivation then it will be painting time.
Ross

[dakazman]

Ross , you can do it !
   Do a small test piece, the engine storage compartment go instance .  Sand down, do not use strippers, they stay in the fiberglass and tear their head later. Prime with a good epoxy primer and sand that to a mirror finish, then seal. Then paint  , then finish. Watch painting and finishing videos.
Dakazman
Dave Kaz

[dakazman]

 Raining here , so I got a break from painting my house exterior.😁😁
So with some spare time I finally finished my engine cover , and one door glazed and waxed.

I have some parts ordered for the door windows so going around finding parts for that . Need a little more window trim polishing before installing that.
Dakazman

[Certified Lotus]

Dave, how did you polish you window frames?

[dakazman]

Certified, they were first sanded down taking off the what was left of the anodized finish. First with 180 grit wet all the way to 2000 . The aluminum was then rebuffed with red and then white rouge.
The aluminum sealer was hand buffed .
Dave

[Sandyman]

Dave, we both have 70 S2's yours is a R code mine is a Q code 7001.020044Q. What is the build date of yours

[Certified Lotus]

Nice work as always Dave.