World's slowest Fiero/Quad 4 Swap (Page 10/51)
Quad Raider JAN 21, 01:01 PM
I went over to the shop Saturday with the idea that I'd color sand one more time with 1500 grit, wash the car then buff it. I ended up sanding the whole car twice, then again on Sunday. In the process I discovered three small places where I burned through the paint.

After fixing the burns, I looked over the whole car again and could tell I've made great progress in removing the orange peel. I think I'll try one more round of sanding to remove all of it, then I'll try buffing.

Quad Raider JAN 21, 08:18 PM
Here's what the car looks like now.



Taking sandpaper to newly applied paint was really counter-intuitive, but now I've lost track of how many times I've sanded the whole car. It's been at least five. Since I'd never done it before, I didn't know how much pressure to put on the sanding block or even how to tell when I was done. I will sand the car one more time, really concentrating on each small area as I go.

The places I burned through are all edges: the edge of the passenger side front fender, the corner of the drivers side headlight door and the base of the B pillar on the drivers side.

When I finished the first day of color sanding, I stopped at the grocery store on the way home. "Did you kill a Smurf?" the cashier asked me.



I had tried to think of a name for my car for eight years. I think Smurf Murder is perfect. The custom license tag would be SMRFMDR

[This message has been edited by Quad Raider (edited 01-21-2019).]

Quad Raider JAN 21, 08:23 PM
Here's a little project that frugal Fiero owners will like. Instead of spending money on a holder for the spray gun, I made this.

The rotor is from one of the other cars in the family. I bolted a piece of all-thread to it to make a rack to hold parts for painting but didn't use it and it was just sitting around the garage. The plastic part is from the radiator fan mount for my Beretta GTZ.



When I parted out the car to get it ready to go to the recycler, I saved that fan mount because I knew it would be good for something. I cut the other two arms off of it and opened up the center hole and the paint gun fits perfectly.

[This message has been edited by Quad Raider (edited 01-21-2019).]

Quad Raider JAN 29, 09:11 PM
This happened Sunday.



That's the piston and fan from my air compressor. It's a Campbell Hausfeld that I bought in 2001. I haven't been able to find replacement parts, probably because it's so old.
Quad Raider FEB 03, 08:24 AM
I'm still considering what to do about my broken air compressor. In the meantime, I've been color-sanding the car. I think I've finally learned how to do it so yesterday I started at the front of the car and focused on sanding until the orange peel was gone. I finished the left half of the front fascia and the left front fender. Probably won't get over to the shop again until tomorrow.
Quad Raider FEB 03, 08:38 AM
I made a trip to the salvage yesterday and something caught my eye. It's this non-functional hood scoop on a 2001 Mercury Cougar.



It was attached to the car with some screws and a couple speed nuts so it was easy to remove and the yard charged me only $8.

It wasn't until I got back to the shop that I realized the overall shape of it looks almost exactly like the Pontiac logo. It also looks good on the hood.





I searched the forum to see if anyone else has ever used one of these and didn't find anything.

I'm considering two options. One would be to cut out the top end out of it (the part that faces the windshield) but keep it otherwise intact, the other would be to cut out the top end of it, then cut out the concave inner section, flip it over and reattach it and sand the whole thing smooth.

One downside is that the hole in the hood would be relatively small because the front of the extractor would be so narrow up there.
Zeb FEB 26, 04:23 PM
Nice work, incredible patience.

About that scoop you found. At first I wasn't sure, but you may be onto something.

How would it look as a roof scoop? Might be too long, but if it fits it could lend a McLaren-ish air to the car. Pop it up there, let's see how it looks!
Quad Raider FEB 26, 05:22 PM
Thank you.

It won't fit on my roof since I converted my car to a sunroof. I probably won't get over the to the shop to check it out any further for at least a few days.
Quad Raider FEB 26, 09:43 PM
Got over to the shop tonight. Here's what the scoop looks like on the roof:
Quad Raider FEB 26, 09:47 PM
As you can see from the previous picture, I'm still not finished with the paint job. I rattle-canned the scoop and look how good it looks compared to the rest of the car.

I've probably color sanded the whole car at least ten times. The first six or seven times I didn't know what I was doing so they don't really count. Once I got the knack of it, and switched from 1500 to 800 grit paper, I made real progress.

Now I'm trying to learn how to buff the car.



I can still see some faint orange peel, but as you can see I'm not getting the fabulous shine I was hoping for. I don't know if I'm using the wrong compound, the wrong buffing pad or if Rust-oleum just won't buff out.

It's also possible I need to do the car with 1500 and 2,000-grit paper, THEN try buffing. Any advice would be welcome.

Regardless, every time I look at the car two thoughts come to mind: one, I'm so glad it's all one color (and a color of my choosing) -- two, DAMN, what a great looking car.

[This message has been edited by Quad Raider (edited 02-26-2019).]