[FALL] Dragon Overhaul!! [Pics included]

looks good bro!

I am starting to feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, almost like all I do is work in the garage anymore. Worked on getting the car sanded and prepped until 330 this morning and now I am heading out to re-shoot. Here are a couple pics of the trunk with the backside painted. Turned out awesome.

The decals are ghosted in.

Just laid the 2nd coat of clear and now I am getting ready for the 3rd. ALMOST DONE!!

Almost done 9 hours ago....finished yet?

Yeah, she is done. Turned out much better this time.

I am just heading out to the garage in a few to get everything back together.

Something is wrong with the hood. I have no idea what happened, but it looks like the primer is showing through, which is pretty much impossible as there is about 7 coats of paint on there that I have not even touched yet. ????

I am going to keep wetsanding until I hit the paint or get rid of whatever it is that is showing through.

No biggie if I have to redo the hood as it is pretty straight forward.

wow mike that sucks. painting is a pain. to many things to go wrong.

I found out that something ended up in the clear. I have no idea what the hell it is, but I sanded until I hit paint and that took about 10 minutes of hard sanding to make it there. Looks like primer, but I did not end up primering before the last go round, I just used the existing clear as my base. I guess I will be reshooting again tomorrow. Might have to add a few more things to the list.

For the most part I am very happy with how the paint/clear turned out this time. The trunk, wing, mirrors, and hood are the only things that kind of turned out kinda crappy (the mirrors actually turned out really good, but they have huge runs in them and I cannot get them out without exposing the paint). The rest of the car looks golden!

Going to try and have it all fixed up and wetsanded before the car show this coming weekend.

Forgot to mention this will be the 4th time I have sanded/painted/cleared the hood in 2 weeks.

have you used a razor blade bent into a v to shave off the runs in the clear? you can wet sand it after that and you prolly wouldnt notice. it looks sweet thought.

Looks good Mikey!

I did use the razor blade when getting rid of the runs and it worked great. I could not believe how good the method worked. It really saves alot of time and clear as compared to just sanding.

I am just going to wetsand the rest of the car for now and do all the painting I have to do all at once. Hopefully be good to go by the weekend.

I think my NEMESIS of this project is going to be the mirrors. No matter what I do they never turn out correct and have huge runs which break off when blading, exposing the paint. I really hope the next round goes better than the first 2.

lookz GREATT mike!!

Thanks Nate.

I am having a really hard time motivating myself to get out and wetsand the whole thing. What a bummer.

Looks like I should have the car ready for this weekend. Started to wetsand the drivers side tonight and it went really well surprisingly. There really is minimal orange peel and it only took about 30 minutes to do from the door all the way to the taillight. I am guessing the car will take about 6 hours from start to finish. Should not be a problem.

Almost done with the detailing of the car. All that I have left is a 2000 grit, cut and a buff. Should be all ready for tomorrow night.

Well I ended up getting some buffing and polishing done yesterday and the paint looks great. All I have done is the hood right now, but plan to have the car done before the weekend. Deck season has been quite the bummer this year, so I have plenty of time to spend with the car.

I also sheered off one of my hood pin latches which I ended up gluing. I will have to use filler and then paint which I did not want to do, but if it saves me $100 not having to buy new ones, then so be it.

Looking Good Mike.

lookin good mikey. you have a ton of hours rapped up in it.

I am guessing about 200 thus far. Without the repainting I bet it would be about 40 less.

yeah, thats about what I figured

Thanks Billy

i want your car, lol...

No Billy......, No.

Did a triple stage buff on the drivers front fender and rear quarter today and it looks pretty good. Hoping to have the majority of it done by the weekend.

lol.

Wow, total lack of motivation today. Hoping to get something done tomorrow.

I agree, you should get it done, lololol

Well Drew and I rocked out the entire passenger side last night (wet sanding) and now all I have to do is polish it and it will be good to go. Wet sanding the roof and rear bumper is all that is left. Should be done by the end of the day.

crap man!! so you wanna paint my car next?

Sure, why not. Pretty good at it now.

2 doors and a fender is all I have left to polish for today. Need the weather to get better so I can move to the center of the garage and finish.

Car is pretty much near completion. I have had some good feedback from everyone and I appreciate it. Pondering on building a shop out at the house for working on cars, but mainly for painting. Really want to take it to the next level as I love painting. Might have a job painting UPS trucks just need to pursue it.

Thanks to everyone for the compliments.

Just got the trunk and wing painted and first coat of clear. Goes so much faster when you have the science of it down. Pretty sure it is going to be the best looking part of the car. We will see.

Just went and checked on everything and it turned out great. Really hoping the runs come out without any problems, as I am on my 4th round of trunk/wing and I am not ready for a round 5.

^^^ damn son looking fresh mr. card!

Did you paint the lever on your hood pins?! That looks good dude!

Yes, I painted the lever. I broke one off last weekend polishing so I had to glue it back together. Since there was a mark I figured I would just paint it.

Being that I have a new SATA Jet I am going to start re-spraying piece by piece until the car is amazing. Have the gun all setup and it works like a champ. More than likely start with the hood, sunroof, and trunk. Should only have to scuff it up and reclear for the most part, but on the top of the wing I will have to paint again, ARG!!

Here are a few pics of the hood. Painted and cleared 2 days ago and today I wet sanded, buffed, and polished. I really like how it turned out.

finally worked out for ya?

Yup, got it all figured out now. Just wish I would have known what I know now before I started to clear the other day. Pretty sure it would have turned out in the 90 percentile of being perfect.

that turn out pimp mike

Really pissed off the first 3 coats of clear had tons of orange peel, but that is my own fault. I think from here on out things are going to be turning out pretty amazing. Yours will be the first of the beautiful work.

Just went for a little run in the car. Man I love the power she has and all the looks I get when driving. This 8 year old kid at the Shepherd Store was all jacked when he got out of his car. Makes me happy.

glad to see you make the children happy. I know how it feels, my car seems to only attract young girls and children. The girls think its cute and the children ask me if it has NOS.... I guess i have been blind to how Fast and Furious i am.....

looks good Mike. Makes me think i should order up the front lip i want for my car and just have you paint it for me. Being on the front of the car I don't need it 100% since it will always get minor flaws and it looks like your skills are getting better and better so maybe I will pick one up when I get some extra cash and hit you up.

Very nice work!! Might have to have you do some painting for me...Drag car needs a whole respray and new one will need fenders hood bumper and lip...haha..Just what you wanted a bunch of people asking you to paint there cars