,
…like windows or other body parts. This works much better than using simple masking tape.
I mentioned earlier that Iwrin put in a lot of detailed work outside the paint itself. Anywhere he saw the most minor dent, he fixed it and grinded it out to a smooth finish. My T-top here previously had a couple of small dents from a hood-flying-up-and-smacking-the-winshield mishap. Yeah, that was fun. And, not only did that happen two days after I had that previous hood (a Seibon TS-style) painted, but it’s the hood I’ve been using for the past five years, cracks and all. So, you can imagine how excited I was now for going back to a hood that was all in one piece.
On the passenger-rear side of the hatch, we used to be able to see “Supra” ever so faintly through the paint, which was a result of the removed badge. That has since been smoothened out as well.
Here’s one of the last phases of the actual painting. At this point I was getting extremely excited. I had forgotten how electric this blue was when this fresh. All DuPont products were used to spray the Estoril Blue paint (BMW color code 335), and the black used on the splitters is GM color code 8555 Factory Pack GM Black.
When asked about the process, Irwin replied, “In the preparation process, I broke the car down to fix all the dents that needed pulled. The body was worked, then primed with 2k primer, and then 320 dry sand the whole car in preparation for the spray. That’s with a block, no DA [orbital or palm sander] to make sure that we could get her as straight as possible.”
He continues, “We then sealed the car in Gray, followed with three coats of base coat and then three coats of clear. Once done, we masked all of the crevices and proceeded to wet sand the car. I start out with 800 grit, followed by 1000, then 1500, then 2000, and finally 3000 on a DA with foam interface pad (pictured). I compound the whole vehicle with a white foam pad No.1 3M, then polish the vehicle with No.2 3M black foam pad, and then blue pad the whole car with ultrafine 3M. That’s just a gist of what it takes to do a vehicle of this caliber.”
