Looks good Bakuryu!

Buddha, I gotta say you've come quite a ways! After seeing your first go round, I gotta admit... well, let's just say I had my doubts. But you've shown incredible perseverence, this new white coat looks great! Congrats and keep it up!

Thx, i'll post some pics of the third coat done and man o man, its looking very very NICE! and best of all little to none orange peel and virtually 0% Bubbles, i dont even have to huff and puff like i had to with the other paint.

Buddha - can you see a significant difference between the odorless mineral spirits and the "odored" mineral spirits? Especially in the amount of "orange peel"? I'm two coats into doing the lawn tractor and I don't feel as though I'm getting as smooth coats as I'm seeing from some of the other folks. I'm still using the odorless spirits and I'm beginning to wonder if it's worth the effort to track down some of the other kind. I had to take last week and the weekend off (out of town) but hope to pick it back up this weekend for coats 3 and 4.

I'm going to put my in to hopefully help some guys on previous posts that were looking for 1000 grit sandpaper and higher. I used to work at a plant that "converted" 50 and larger yard rolls of sandpaper of every type (silicon carbide,aluminum oxide,etc.) to name a few and that always had fairly good deals on sleeves of sandpaper. The name of the company is Industrial Abrasives. They're located in Reading Penn. Here's they're phone number. 610-378-1861 Sorry but I don't remember they're toll free number but I do believe that they may still have a website. They have a retail line and a wholesale line. Wendy handles almost all the retail and Sandy(believe it or not) handles the wholesale. They also sell the equivilent sp? of Scotchbrite pads. Anyway- give them a ring- I hope that they may be a cheaper alternative to 2 or 3 buck for 5 pieces of paper. For 20 bucks or so you get 50 pieces.
Mike -2Lane

I just checked out the website for industrial abrasives and here's some info:
50 pack of wet/dry silicon carbide (black)$16.00
that's for any grit 1000 and up - to 2000 if you
want that high.
Also, 100 pack of 600 grit wet/dry SC $27.00
up to 2000 grit also. I haven't bought sandpaper in along time so maybe I'm off base with the prices. I was just hoping that this can help.
Mike 2Lane

I wanted to ask a question. I recently jumped in and started this paint job even though some parts of my body aren't in top shape. I have a few dings here and there, but wanted my car at least 1 color since I finally have time over spring break. Over summer is when I planned on doing body work.
I have some rage gold as well as z-grip made by evercoat. Would it be best to sand it back down to bare metal? Or do you think the body filler would be fine on top of some of the enamel if i sand it a bit for the body filler to bite onto.

Bakuryu, I didn't want to mention it before, but since you're starting over... If I were you, I'd pull off the windshield washer spray nozzles. It should be an easy pull, and it'll make the sanding on that part of the car easier. If the paint's adhered already, you can just trim around it with a #11 Xacto knife blade. Also, you could repaint them black again using bumper trim paint. Just a suggestion.

Mark

Thanks for the compliment, Ricklandia. After the trunk lid, I have a rust free fender to practice on. By then, I should be ready to do the rest of the car!

For the record, I picked up several grits of wet sanding paper at my local Pep Boys - 400, 600, 800, 1000 and 1200 grit.
I am using Stop Rust Rustoleum and odorless mineral spirits. It dries rock hard the same day, I get zero bubbles, and ,little to no orange peel.
I will mention again, that I run a dehumidifier in my basement full time, so there is very little excess moisture in the air while I am doing this.

For the people interested in 100% mineral spirits, I just saw it at SEARS for $1.99 a qt. The can is in the painting area, it is blue and "E-Z" brand

ok... this paint is awesome.. like I mentioned before it started raining just after I put my second coat.. not hard.. just a light drizzle and the paint was dry enough that I could lightly blot out all of the rain drops.. as soon as I would finsih itd start raining again for a bit. Well, after about 6-7 hours in that type of weather the paint seemed dry enough so I put the car back together (I have to strip the lights, window sweeps and tape each time I paint )and when I woke up the next morning the car was swimming. It rained until about 2pm. On the way to work I was stuck behind a semi chucking all kinds of road debriss at me too .. The paint has a cool effect on the water because it creates giant water drops. On my way back home I picked up another quart of the tinted pastel (just intime too.. running very low on 3rd coat) and ended up getting home late..

Anyway.. the paint rocks..

The next thing I learned was NOT TO SAND IN THE DARK! haaa.... I thought I would feel my way through it.. I didn't miss a spot, I am sure, but I did gloss over parts I should have worked more- like where I got a drip or where I got medium amounts orange peel for laying the paint on too heavy. When I first started sanding I spent wayyyy to long in one spot and basically I think I sanding off both coats of paint.. d'oh! By the end I was a wet-sanding master. Next time I am going to sand in the daylight!

Put 3rd coat on today and I can still see through the paint. I think it is because I am putting it on a little too thin. I'll just finish this process with some extra coats.

It will probably be two more weeks before I finish this project because I still need to fix my ground effects and paint them and order my new hood, wing, car badges (damn things are expensive!) rims and tires..

I was getting a lot of compliments today while working on it in the aprtment complex. The kids seem to gravitate towards my wet paint, too. The other day I got offered a beer by some guy in a 95-ish camaro.. seems like the people around here are pretty cool about me making a mess haha.

Wetsanding is a little messy..

I have pictures of each step so far except after the 2nd coat.. I took pictures of it after I wet sanded it.

If I quit painting after the coats completely cover the orignal paint I would be happy and satisfied! Even without polishing. Unpolished the paint doesnt look so bad. However, I am going to follow through with this and if I have the chance I will probably do the 10 coats.

I don't have a problem with contamination outside. Even with all the dynamic elements present in doing this project outside my only real problem is that I seem to be sheeding. I got a few of my arm hairs in my paint. Oh- and my new enemy- POLLEN!

-Serpent

Im very excited about this topic. I've been doing my research and reading as many post as i can. I'm planning to turn my dark green Integra into a nice gloss White.

My questions is..for the wetsanding process, are you "hand" sanding everything? or using a sander?. or does it mater?

where do you guys get the foam rollers? i cant seem to find them anywhere...

the rollers are the small 4 inch ones

not the super big ones. theyre white and say ultra on them i believe