Today was very productive. I spent about 4.5 hours sanding today. I worked on the car until the sun went down and then worked on the spoiler and rocker panels in the side yard where there is light. I got about half of the spots on the car sanded down. I'm pretty happy with how the rockers came out. I was able to sand them down really nicely. The spoiler did not come out so well. There were small imperfections all over the surface where I kept sanding until they were gone and ended up sanding through all the primer. I primered the spoiler near the end and I suspect that the imperfections were from the foam roller deteriorating or the primer hardening before it was applied. Regardless, it looks like I'll need another coat of primer there.

I didn't get any pictures of the car as I worked until it was dark but I took a picture of the finished fuel door which I primered and sanded off the car.

It rained Saturday but I was able to get a few hours of work in Sunday.

Here's some pictures of the completed parts from over the weekend.

The rear fascia scratch I sanded down seemed just a tad low so I had added more primer to that area. Here's a picture of it sanded down even.



Same deal with a scratch on the right rear quarter panel. It didn't follow the curve of the panel so I had added more primer and sanded that even.



I had forgotten to primer a place where there was SMC showing just above the rub strip on the right rear quarter. I primed and sanded that down as well.



I also finished up the upper front rocker panels. I got everything nice and smooth. Originally these parts weren't primered from the factory. Seems like Pontiac sprayed paint right over the plastic and thus it wasn't adhering. I'm hoping this will keep the paint on nicely.



So Sunday I sanded down the primer application #2. Monday I put on another layer of primer (application #3). I added a touch more to the fenders, a scratch repair on the left rear quarter, the tear repair on the rear fascia, the front fascia right lip, and reapplied to the spoiler and the rockers as well. So slowly I'm getting these areas where I want them. Hopefully this will be the final primer layer. The primer hardened really fast today and I ended up having to rush a few spots so hopefully those came out ok. I'm running low on primer now. I only have about 8 fl oz of primer left out of the quart I bought. So if I need to do more than one more application I'll probably have to buy another quart.

Tomorrow I'm going to sand on those areas and we'll see how everything looks.

I'm doing this same project on a blue 87 that I bought to fix and sell.
Never painted anything before and figured it would be great practice before painting my 88' GT.
Very interesting so far.
I've yanked a couple bad panels off mine to replace,and almost have the back half sanded down.
I'm going heavy though,and knocking everything out with 80.
Waiting on some Evercoat,and will be picking up some bumper repair.
Have most area's prepped for repair,going to do all the repair's at once then starting smoothing.
I'm also shaving the antenna,as it doesn't have one and fixing alot of the stuff your messing with.
This has been very informative.
I'm leaning towards doing it the roger garrison way,mainly because it's cheaper and maybe easier if your not as skilled?
I like prime/sand/prime/sand etc.. till you get it right. Then my only worry is how the paint lays down.
I'm trying to make this car look good on a low budget and it's practice.
If it's bad I can either retry or just lower price


Keep updating,we're reading

Factory uses a special process to paint their plastic bumpers. No primer is usually used at all. Color goes right on the cover. If they do have a primer, they use waterbourne latex primer. Late Chrysler and Ford stuff Ive fixed was just paint on bare plastic. Place here in Ohio used to do most of the urathane bumpers years ago for all the manufacturers. They werent painted at all, they were vat dipped in a special 'vinyl' coating rather than paint. They would do a run of like 2000 Pontiacs in blue, then switch to another make or color. Then they shipped them to final assembly plants where they were matched up to the right color cars on the line. Thats why back then, bumper almost never matched the body color exactly.

Quick update. I did my third primer coat on Saturday. I am pretty happy with how the rockers turned out. The spoiler ended up a bit thick with a lot of brush lines I'm going to have to sand out. I'll post pictures as I finish the pieces. By the way I puchased an aerosol device that allows you to spray any liquid you have from a bottle you fill. It did not work as advertised and just sprayed beads of primer not an even spray so junked it after a few minutes of fiddling with it. I believe the primer is too thick to spray. It was only $7 so I thought I'd give it a try.

Ive tried them too, but like spray cans material has to be excessively thin. I use them now to spray week killer or solvent. Some use an air canister and others have like a tire valve to pressurize from your compressor. Neither work worth a crap.

Finished yet? I thought you said your paint job would be easier than mine.

Hey guys haven't been able to get much done between the constant rain out here and the early sunsets and Christmas. I've really only put in a few hours here and there for the whole month of Dec.

I had to reprime the gas door because a few spots bubbled up. I think it was from that first primer snafu. No other problem areas showed up elsewhere so I feel good about the rest of the primer. The rear bumper is done which was the trickiest area for me. The spoiler and rockers need a bit more sanding even though I've done 4 coats of primer now. When the car is wet after a nice rain, the sanded down paint looks amazing so I'm thinking if that's any reflection of how the paint will look when applied, I will be happy. I should be able to get on this more in January and hopefully get it all finished up.

[This message has been edited by reinhart (edited 12-28-2010).]

Quick update. We're starting to get an hour extra sunlight so have had more time to get back on this project. I was fed up with all the primer issues I've been having with the 2K urethane primer so I got some lacquer primer. I've finished the spoiler and it looks great and is just as sandable as the 2K was and only took a few hours to apply and sand even. I wish I had gone this route first. Anyway, I plan to let everything that I lacquer prime with sit for a few weeks before I paint so I don't think there will be any paint issues with using a different type of primer.

I cant give any advice at all about how the laquer primer will work over the 2K. I do know the other way around dont work at all. Anything Ive gotten in with catalyzed primer, I sand it completely off before putting on the laquer one. Good luck though.

[This message has been edited by rogergarrison (edited 02-06-2011).]

There shouldn't be any problem with lacquer primer over cured catalyzed primer. I've never had a problem with it and I'll spot prime small items with lacquer after spraying a 2 part primer. I'm using PPG as my base 2 part primer then a touch of lacquer for spot priming afterwards....

Mark

Ill keep that in mind Mark. Thanks.

Still reading
Need more updates
My paint/body project got pushed behind the wife's new engine,then new transmission and now my engine swap maybe.
Poor little 87 sitting out in the snow,..

BUMP

Sorry for not posting for a while. Have kind of put the project on hold with some other things going on. I got some new tires and changed the brakes last weekend but haven't spent a ton of time on the paint project. I hope to have another update and the finished update (with pictures) soon.