Nicole

Very beautiful!

Fabio421

Great color and the paint job looks top notch as well. I think there was a 928 color that was similar to that. Forest Green I think. Rixter would know. Speaking of Rixter, has anyone heard from him lately?

Iwanna928

That is simply stunning!

S4ordie

Beautiful "Luck-o-the-Irish" green I call it. Very good job. Congratulate your friend on a fine respray.

Podguy

Water base as I understand it refers to the base coat. Here in parts of california only water base can be used. For some reason the other base coats are too toxic for the environment. Base coats have always been easy to apply but I understand the water base coats are more difficult - I have not tried them. But here is the kicker. They are clear coated with the same catalyized clears which are pretty toxic. So I am basically thinking this is more corporate environmentalism like R134a over R12 and a way to use laws to sell inferior products. But what do I know?

Color sanding is done on the clear coat. When the clear is applied there is always some chance of getting some bits of dirt or some air in the paint leaving what one might call orange peal or even god forbid a run. Giving credit to clear coats they do apply nicely and tend to flow out hiding many sins.

In order to get a flat surface and thus a high shine - you know like a mirror - the top coat can be sanded with fine sand paper - generally wet or dry paper used with water. Hand sanding works best for this. Generally 600 grit is used to start followed by finer grades of 800, 1200, 1500 and 2000. This is followed by compound buffing. It is best to wait a couple of months before color sanding. Too often it done too soon after the paint. For the best results a couple of months is about right.

Done right the finish gains depth and looks like glass. The better the painter the less the amount of sanding. Often partial color sanding is done by a shop to cover up mistakes in the final coat.

Great looking job, I like the green. I am considering using the 94 Porsche Amazon Metallic Green on one of my cars.

dogleg

i will pass that on to him,cheers for all the comments.

gbgastowers

What are the complications that can be caused by inhaling some of the clear coat fumes? When we repainted my car we had 3M respirators but there was still a lot of fumes due to our homemade air exhaust system. Gunar

Erik N

Liver and brain damage are possible complications of solvent inhalation. And eventual death, but we all have that coming anyway

I used to work with a guy who was a lifetime automotive painter. The guy had a hard time following conversations and his thought process was pretty slow. But boy could he lay down a perfect coat of finish!

I read an article in a trade journal that said 40% of the fumes you absorb when spraying without a respirator are through you eyes alone! And anyone who has ever sprayed with goggles on knows how tough that can be.

I have no experience w/ waterbased automotive paint, but when the woodworking industry switched to them, it took about 8 years for the stuff to become decent. The first and second generation clearcoat material was just plain terrible, especially over a dark color.

In my experience, there is no substitute for solvent-borne finishes. If someone wanted to do a DIY paint job, I would recommend the toxic stuff.

When I shot my car, there was a lot of orange-peel. When I eventually sanded it down and buffed it out, it took 3 full days.

That Ferrarri Irish green looks fantastic! The clear looks pretty smooth, too. Very nice.

Chuck Schreiber

Dogleg,

The car looks beautiful!!

Fitting color for where you live!

Now you need one in Guiness Brown!!

dogleg

all very true!!

dogleg

erik n...i think your right about the quality of the water based paints.he has mentioned that the quality is only coming good in the last few years and we in ireland have had the water based stuff for the last 10 years!..............................love the ferrari irish green discription

Podguy

Instead of a respirator there are now fresh air systems - either using ambient air or picking up and filtering the air from the compressor. The posiitve pressure pushes away the fumes. Hobby Aire makes a good home unit. It is also recommended to use a shoot suit and full face respirator. That gives an idea of how toxic the stuff is.

The new HVLP guns are great. I remember in the old days painting a car in a booth and after there was a thin film of color all over everything. That was with a huge fan venting the place too.

With the HVLP guns the paint is sprayed with far less pressure, more material is put on the job and not in the air and it is easier to control the flow. Even with older paint systems the HVLP guns greatly improve the job.

Erik N

Another advantage of HVLP systems (at least the AccuSpray gun I have) is that it has a progressive trigger. You can pull the trigger partway, and get only heated air out of the nozzle, no finish at all until you squeeze more. This is useful for "flashing off" areas where you accidentally laid too thick of a coat before it runs.

Podguy

Erik,

What mechicism provides the heat? Is that a function of the compressor?

Thanks

Erik N

Yes, it is a turbine-type compressor. It runs air thru the system at all times, and it would get quite hot. On large spray jobs in the summer I would actually run the hose through a bucket of ice water to keep it cool. If I accidentally overlapped a line of finish too badly, I would pop the gun off it's quick-release to get a huge hair-dryer-like amount of hot air to flash the finish surface.