The story:

Overall I am pleased with it and an excited about the result.

As with every other paint job I have done: "Expect the unexpected, be prepared" is probably the best rule to follow.

Monday...other than very few dirt nibs and insects, the reduced epoxy/sealer went down great, and was easy to
nib out.

Independence Day Tuesday was another story. I was a little concerned as the temps were supposed to hit 88F, a little higher than I had ever sprayed the product in before, and humidity was super high, 90%, and I was not sure what to expect with that. Overall I was confident the basecoat would not be all that super difficult and I had it figured out well enough as I'd sprayed the trunk and trunklid. Wrong on all counts. Got an early start in the shop at 5:30a to attempt to beat the heat and thought I had a chance of being done with base by noon, wrong again. Tacked off, masked for seam sealer. Started working on seam sealer. What I didn't know was the high humidity sped the seam sealer up so much, that I could hardly pull the tape fast enough as it set up too quick around the edges, and that caused alot of problems and clean up.

So, after all those slight messes were cleaned up (a couple hours at least) I cleaned up stringers and small amounts of stray seam sealer and started mixing base. Thankfully I'd seen it one time before and was prepared for the sight of opening the can and seeing what appeared to be Orange/Brown basecoat (something lighter floats to the top...binder maybe?). I was also prepared for the big sticky clumps of what seems to be aluminum at the bottom of the can. This A4 color has to be mixed until you can't stand it anymore which I did.

A half hour later I was ready to spray. The car looked like it would never be any more ready than it was. Fluid, fan, air pressure adjusted, check the fan pattern, hit it. Laid down the first wet coat, and it looked absolutely horrific in the areas I had just spent a ton of time on seam sealer. Great big streaks in the base, everywhere I had wiped the car down to clean up seam sealer. After I fixed it I figured out the solvents that I had wiped the car down with, even a half hour later, were still coming out...in spite of the car looking perfectly clean and dry.
Did not know what to make of that but got past it, waited 15 minutes or so and decided I would try to fix that before continuing. It was a little early for an orientation coat but I laid one down to preserve my sanity....it looked much better and could then see the end of that issue, and got my mind straight/felt better that I could fix anything that came along.

Why didn't the wipe down solvents fully evaporate in a half hour?
Because the humidity was about 93%. It didn't matter that my improvised booth fans were running full blast the whole time.
At that point I knew in my gut that this is also why the seam sealer sped up...it is actually designed to, it is a moisture cure product. I had just not experienced it first hand until that point. High humidity: Seam sealer speeds up, basecoat slows down.

By now I had been in the shop about an hour longer than I wanted to be, it was getting hotter, and was in the mid '80s.
It is no big deal but working in a non-breathable spray suit made it much more uncomfortable, adding to the difficulty.
Wasn't feeling good at all and just had to get past it. I know most guys working at home would probably not bother with the moon suit, but I found a couple cat hairs and clothing fibers in the very first item I sprayed, and after that went to the spray suit, $14 on amazon, and problem solved.

Waited 20 minutes (10 minute flash was adequate in low humidity, I took a guess at doubling it based on appearance).
Laid one more wet coat of base. Still looked good except a couple minor inconsistencies in pattern. Had coverage by that point.
If I was skimping on material I could have done orientation coat at that point and been done (as I had done 2 wet/1 dry in the trunk and it worked perfect.) Decided with wear and tear + UV exposure, a few more mils would be smart.
Laid down another wet coat, was getting physically tired at this point and it showed in the spray pattern...there were lots of inconsistencies and I wasn't too happy with it, it looked pretty bad. I then decided the first orientation coat
I had laid on earlier, though It repaired my bruised ego, wasn't exactly the effect I wanted. I then just followed intuition and started to experiment, raised the air pressure 5psi higher, started an orientation coat and it did exactly what I wanted it to do: Loved it.
laid down two orientation coats that way for insurance and it looked fantastic. I have read most pros lower the air pressure for orientation, but I didn't like it, that was not working for me at the time.

I understood my products and worked with them previously, but did not understand exactly how the products would perform in high humidity and that's really what caused the biggest struggle. What got me through it was staying flexible mentally, and also there is a confidence that comes with purchasing plenty of extra material, knowing you have way more than enough to repair any problem that comes if you just figure it out and learn, right there on the spot.
I learned, now I know, and I still prefer to work in lower temps and lower humidity!

Walked out of the shop 10 hours later at 3:30.
Near total exhaustion, could have went to sleep right then but
didn't want to mess up schedule too badly, but was in bed at 9p with the intention of laying clear the next morning.

In hindsight:
I am SO glad I did not use activated basecoat, which would have potentially risked trapping solvents.
Those same wipe down solvents that showed streaks, and the solvents in the base, could have been trapped underneath activated basecoat, caused huge problems later on
and could have wrecked the whole job. Instead I walked away, left the fans on all night and being air dry basecoat, I let as much of the solvents out as possible for 14 hours.

July 5th.....Woke on my own at 2:30am, thought "ridiculous, and that's what I get for going to bed too early.
Whoa there....It's clear coat day. Hit it."
I took my time getting ready with a small meal etc, I definitely took a few minutes to get psyched up for the job, and was out in the home shop at 4:00am. It was already ridiculously humid.
Again.
Insert F bomb.

After the base, clearcoat was much more fun with only a few exceptions.

Though I'd painted the GTX 31 years ago, my last paint job was my C body Polara, 17 years ago. My #1 biggest error on the Polara was being in a rush and taking instructions too literally. Not only did I wait the minimum time between base and clear, but
because of the horrible "spray it how you want it to look" instructions given, I laid the first coat of clear down way too wet, ran it, and "pulled" the metallics out of position. This was a major disappointment 17 years ago.
I still have the car, I like it, and it is a reminder of that particular failure.

"Every vehicle is a test vehicle, every day is a school day" are words I live by as a gearhead.

I was determined not to repeat that error on the GTX and the new strategy was successful.
I laid the first coat down a little on the dry side to lock down the metallics. The second coat went on very wet and the car looked fantastic at that point.

I really could have stopped there/production is 2 coats and works fine, but......this isn't production.
All along I had planned on adding plenty of extra material to work with for correction.
Initial plan was 3 coats, then decide whether to either flow coat later, or lay down more material.

After the third coat I decided I did not want to flow coat, and decided I would lay on more material and work with that instead.

Not surprisingly the more coats I added, the more errors and insects stacked up on me.

Insects were picked out with tweezers midstream during and after every coat, but I couldn't get them all, there are a couple that will be embedded there, or be sanded out later. On the fourth coat I created a few runs and sags. I'd previously deliberately ran it on test panels and knew how easy the product was to work with, so it was really not a worry and I didn't care too much as long as the metallics were still locked down, which they were.. I went over those areas with a little extra material to sand off later/ "repair coat" so to speak, and gave a short flash time. Near the end of the 5th coat I found one group of ugly drips low on the body that was still moving, I sat there and added a little material at a time until it ran completely off the panel on to the floor masking.....now it looks like glass, except for a small, easier to work with sag.

I neither demanded nor achieved perfection, but I did exceed the target of "really good".

I make it sound terrible don't I?
This is why I didn't want to say anything at first. Because the critic in me is dead wrong.
NGL: The car is stunning!
If it was someone else's project, I would be super impressed.
The color alone has more class than I do LOL.

The more chrome, stainless, and black is added to it, the more amazing it's gonna look.
It's going to take some effort to get there but we will make it. I'm stoked!

A4 silver is not an easy color to spray, especially in high humidity.......It really takes a ton of skill to make it look right....but when you do, it looks incredible.

The best is yet to come

If you took the time to read any of this, thanks for sticking with me.

Excellent work Rich, kudos to you !

The satisfaction that comes from an endeavour like this is priceless.

Well done

It's nice to slow down and just pick away at the little repairs now. NGL, there are many needed but all pretty minor in the grand scheme of things. Have knocked out several minor sags and dirt nibs.

at the previous paintjob/Polara, the whole job kicked my butt and I was fearful of making the problems worse, the result is I did not correct everything that needed it. The upside is, I can view all those errors today as a reminder of how the GTX would be different.

So I'm fixing everything that needs it, best as I can but am not going for a totally smooth show car appearance, as I want to keep as much material on the car as possible for future wear and tear.
I don't mind a little bit of texture here and there as it does not show badly on a silver, and I want to be able to polish it out multiple times without worry of running out of material.
Certain specs and insect marks I am choosing to leave alone/just don't care about them, and many of them won't be noticed by most people anyway.

I'm going to have to dismantle the homemade booth today.
The whole experience of conceptualizing, building, and working it it was pretty amazing. The plastic is going to be re-used for another spray structure at a buddy's place.

The job is overall quite clean for a garage job and I attribute it to the low budget homemade booth + the spray suit I wore + I actually ran in the house and took a shower right before basecoat, because I was concerned I'd sweat on the car, and that helped alot. The location of the dirt that did get into it seems directly related to the homemade booth setup. I've studied that topic for awhile now and there is a ton of good info online. Most of the dirt is on the tops of the fenders/maybe not too mysterious since that's where my air intakes from the outside are. The two side air intakes that go to the back of the shop (which is highly unclean at the moment), did not seem to pass hardly any dirt at all through the filters. I know the side intakes were functioning because I started out with only one 30x30 air intake, and found the plastic was getting pulled inward about 1 foot.......so I added a second air intake until it was very close to neutral, only slightly negative, plastic still pulled in but only a couple inches. 5 box fans below the door + one wall exhaust fan up high. There were multiple leaks in the booth, too time consuming to try to seal up the corners and so on, but the leakage areas did not seem to pass any dirt. Overall, for what I have in it, I was pretty impressed with the performance of the booth, after I added the second air intake it could evacuate clear coat fog in a little over a minute.

On a fun note:
This bad boy seemed to be having a great time, but then I came along with a pair of tweezers and ended the party.
But not before I got a funeral portrait. He was part of the job too, whether I like it or not LOL......

Learning how to make your paintung look good by painting it yourself has to be a hard row to hoe
I tried painting two large under the bed tool boxes on one of my car hauler trucks years ago, I bought all the good stuff at that time including a Binks #7 stray gun, I didn't know that each coat should be sprayed on heavy enough to shine but not thick enough to cause runs They look like they had been painted with low gloss or flat paint along with a couple of runs
No more painting large surfaces on cars or trucks, I'll take it to the better auto body shops locally to get good result for my projects
I do envy those that develop the talent and skills needed to be a good vehicle painter
I do paint all of my engines I build with spray cans with decent results

It's looking great, incredible to see your progress with it! You'll definitely always remember the moth that dive bombed the paint job, lol

Great job and post. It's great to see them come together and turning out like you plan

Link to super short video

Correction is going pretty well.
Most of the dirt is on the tops of fenders and tops of doors, because that's the side facing the outside air intake.
Pretty substantial dirt on the fenders especially. You can fly swat every insect you can find, there can be not a single one in sight, and the minute you start painting.......Here they come! They love it, I think it's an intoxicant for them and like party time.

Process is hand blocking 1500-2000-2500 with Durablock and Mirka powdered guide coat as a visual aid (messy but it works very well), Meguairs M110 on a wool pad at low speed very quicky gets this.

I'm OK with it having a little bit of texture, it does not really show very much on this color and keeps as much material on the car
as possible which is a good goal for a long haul vehicle. It's well past driver quality already and after I get the whole car
pretty close to this, I'm going to stop.

I'll give that a chance to age, and then if/when I (sorry) "take it to the next level" (so cliche) later on, I'll use a rigid block
and get it flatter. For now this will definitely work!

I'm a little bit stunned I was able to achieve this.

Looks great Rich. Will be cool to see it unmasked, and out in the sun. Pat yourself on the back, for a job well done. Not many can say they did it all themselves, and it's very rewarding.

Really turned out nice. It's been an incredible amount of woek. But the results justify it.
Doug

I appreciate everyone's comments....thank you.

As expected I'll be working on little corrections for awhile but nothing horrible, I am still very pleased overall.

This is without a doubt the nicest work I have ever done in the world of body and paint, and is
work that I only dreamed of being able to do in the past.

As the car looks better and better, the shop looks worse and worse. Powdered guide coat and water makes a huge mess but is helpful visually.
I want to wrap this up at least 80% so I can put the car back where it would normally be.
Not a full cut and buff, just removing the obvious errors and overspray dust, etc.

Here is another short video.

As I mentioned elsewhere, this is great work Rich!

T/Y.

Fixing errors seems to take forever, but it's all part of the game as a garage painter...either accept it, or don't do it....I accepted it before I even started....

Right now that's all I'm doing, and it'll go on for quite awhile before I think about putting anything back together....

Looking good for sure.

Thanks all.

I'm still picking away at the paint. When I'm not chasing dirt bumps I'm chasing tiny scratches, but often both.
Got it unmasked and probably .001% of the mess cleaned up.

Hats off to the guys who can take something like this, DA color sand and just bang out those kind of jobs.
I tried doing that for less than a minute and hated it, it all happens too fast......a novice like myself needs time to really look and see what's happening in the moment.
The upside is, I ended up liking the 1500 green film/DA paper alot better than the standard paper for hand sanding so that worked out.

So far everywhere I tried to rush the process didn't work at all, so....forget it....I will just take my time.

With the Menards temporary booth lights taken down, the color flop from the different K factor of the shop lights is really apparent.

Looks good Rich. Are you going to put the hood stripes back on? When I painted the Road Runner, I left the car on the rotisserie, and it made the job of wet sanding, and buffing WAY easier. You realize how big of land yachts these cars are after a day of wet sanding...

Thank you Jeff.

I wasn't planning on the hood stripes and was going with a black hood.
The hood is done in my homegrown approximation of Organisol.
https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/2893208/re-an-organisol-adventure.html

I may not use that hood/it's def not the best fitting one I've seen, but for the time being the tentative plan visually is probably best described as
"GTX with heavy 6 pack road runner influence"

If I go to an air grabber style of hood later at some point, then I would be more open to putting the stripes back on.

Also, because now that I have experienced the difficulty of silver metallic paint (and now understand fully why so many painters hate it)
the stripes would somewhat help hide any mismatch of the center of the hood. There would be a visual comparison area in the center of the cowl where mismatch could
easily be seen, but it could be overlooked by most.

Black hood with some kind of a scoop is best plan for now.

Also considering '68 GTX side stripes for later, to further confuse the issue and upset the purists, but that's pretty far in the distance and just something to mess around with.

I like having stuff to just mess around with and experiment. Probably the most fun part of the hobby for me.

99% of the time , only YOU know where the flaws are . Most people look at the whole car . It looks great and pat yourself on the back . This is a huge undertaking that most people don’t have the stamina to make it all the way through . AND people wonder why a paint job like yours usually starts at 10k or more .
Again, props for doing a great job

TY.

I've really been through alot with this thing.

Have to figure paint would be between 10 and 20 thousand, and all the sheetmetal replacement +fixing the sheetmetal /fabrication so it works and
things like the window reveal moldings fit properly + general bodywork would also be between 10 and 20 thousand.

I was prepared to farm most of it out, but it seemed everywhere I turned, that idea was not going to work.
Then Covid + my desire to learn and sell off some hoarded parts to partially fund it sealed the deal.

It has been a great experience overall with several failures turned around/learning opportunities, and also many successes outright that just worked.

Have several ideas for process improvement on the next big project (My '68 Charger), but that will probably be awhile from now.
A couple off the top of my head...
1. I really need to go to a polyester primer on the rougher panels, it will save tons of time. I wish I'd used it on the trunk lid, it probably would have given me a couple days back.
2. I really need to not seal with epoxy anymore and get past that whole idea, in fact I see no reason to seal with anything at all anymore on a bare metal complete.
3. There's more, there is always more....