Page 4

Now it is time to get this multi-colored car into one solid color; BLACK!!  But first I have to do the prep work to get it ready for its new paint job!  This process took about 2 weeks.  It was pretty fun to do, but out of everything so far, not my favorite part.

Page 4: Prepping for The Paint Job

I moved my car around back for the purpose of stripping the paint off the bumpers, I didn't want any of that spray getting on my family's cars.  I got the opportunity to take my car over to my buddy Kirk's house and spend the afternoon sanding, grinding and 'Bondo'ing my car.  THANKS KIRK.  I took my car home and did some more sanding for myself, with the help from my bro and dad.  Kirk was able to fill the holes from the ground effects on the doors.  He used this neat putty stuff and gooped that on the back of the hole for reinforcement for bondo on the front of they hole.  Kirk said he has never done that to a hole that big, so we don't know how that is going to turn out.  for the lower holes on the door, I am just going to put some chrome molding over those to conceal them.  I found alot of surface rust and paint chips to sand down flush when I looked it over at home.  Lots of work to be done prepping a car for paint.  I plan to yet take off the spoiler and sand underneath that for paint as well.

My dad and I went out to Maaco to get an estimate on the paint job, and to get some instructions on what to do in getting my car prepared for paint.  They told my dad and me to strip the paint off of the bumpers.  Since the bumper covers are fiberglass and very flexible there were some nice cracks in the paint.  They told us that this isn't an ideal surface to put paint over.  So my dad and I went to PPG and got some paint stripper spray specifically designed for fiberglass.  This stuff works wonders, but it only strips one layer at a time, and there are NUMEROUS coats of paint on the black cover and the rear bumper.  The first spraying on the nose just took off the clear coat.  The rear bumper came off like a dream, you can see where we scraped up to on the top left picture.

Well I was able to plug the holes in the doors with some "JB weld" and bondo over that.  I have never done that before, so I hope it works.  I left the bottom holes in the door and will just cover those with some body molding or a chrome door strip.  I had to take the back window out in order to reach the great deal of surface rust in the crevaces.  After that task was done, we put window back in and took the spoiler off and grinded the rust off the bottom of that.  My car is coming along nicely.   I have inspected the car thoroughly and found many small rust spots and low ares in the paint that will needed to be leveled with bondo.  I have also found that there is a lot of surface rust inside the back cabin underneath the plastic covering, that will need to be covered with some rubberizer.

Now the car is beginning to look like it is ready to go.  I took the liberty to undercoat alot of spots on my car; under the wheel wells, spare tire compartment, inside of the front fendors, etc.  Bill helped me out alot with this process.  It makes for a neater, newer look. Lots of masking, and patients and of course, rubberizer.  After I took off the parts, ex. headlamps, screws, bolts, etc. I put them in paper sacks and labled them so I wouldn't lose or misplace them.  SUCH A LIFE SAVER.  By now I am beginning to get used to laying on the dead itchy grass :)  The front nose peice is a little rough due to the stripping.  I will take some sandpaper to it to smooth out the roughness.  Be careful when sanding on fiberglass.  If you produce enough heat from the fricion of sanding you'll warp you fiberglass, possibly perminately.

Now it is Wednesday, September 8th, roughly 8 am and Dad and I are getting ready to take my car over to Maaco to get it's new coat of paint!!!!   Imagine my excitement!!  I was just all smiles. It took roughly 2-3 weeks to prep it for paint.  Roughly 1year and a few days from the original day of purchase.  I put the gas cap, and spoiler in the car for them to shoot.  I didnt want to leave these items on the car, because of the bad lines it would leave from painting.  The only parts that wont be painted are the door frames, and the inside of the door, and around the hatch.  No problem, I will just buy some automotive spray paint and shoot it myself. This is the last site I ever had of my Muti-colored Dream Car!!!

On to the finished product!

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