Sand man

Today Mike and Jordan gave the hood and trunk lid the High Performance Finish treatment, completing all the parts of the Chevelle painted thus far.

The first photo shows Mike (left) and Jordan wet sanding the hood. Wet sanding is a technique to remove the tiny, invisible, imperfections in the paint. No matter how good the painter, the paint will only go down so smooth. It is the nature of painting. A good painter can lay down the paint at least as smooth as, if not smoother, than the factory applied paint. Paint applied at this level looks very good, certainly good enough for the average daily driver. But on a car like this Chevelle very good is not good enough.

Wet sanding is a technique of using very fine grit sandpaper, first 1000 grit then 2000 grit, to carefully smooth the paint to perfection. Sandpaper this fine feels smooth to the touch, but there is enough abrasiveness that the sandpaper evens and smooths the surface of the paint. The water acts as a lubricant on the surface and prevents the sandpaper from removing too much paint because sanding through the clear coat would be … unfortunate.

As you would expect, no matter how fine the sandpaper, sanding the paint is going to dull the shine. So the next step, polishing, restores it. The second photo shows Mike using the high-speed polisher to polish out the fine scratches left by the sandpaper.

Polishing works just like the sandpaper. The polishing compounds smooth and level the paint, removing the imperfection, the sanding marks in this case, until the paint gleams. The effect of all this smoothing of the paint are razor sharp reflections in the paint.

The last two photos show some of the results of Mike’s work. The hood, fenders and trunk lid are all polished and ready to install on the car as soon as it is painted. The doors, not shown in these pictures, are also ready but are stored in the office.

Taking paint to the next level, the High Performance Finish level, is a dirty, tiring and time consuming job. But when a High Performance Finish is placed next to a regular paint job, even my own, it is easy to see that the High Performance Finish is a step above the everyday. The extra deep gloss and razor sharp reflections of the High Performance Finish … they speak far louder than words that this paint is something special.

A shining example

Now that the paint on the doors has dried, it is time to put some High Performance Finish magic on them. The first photo show one of the doors, painted yesterday, after Mike finished wet sanding it. Not a good look is it?

The second and third photo shows Mike working away at the door with the polisher. The polisher works like wet sanding, smoothing the paint and removing the fine scratches left by the wet sanding process. Starting with a polishing compound that is somewhat aggressive and ending with one that is very mild, the true beauty of the paint is slowly revealed.

The end result of all this sanding and polishing is shown in the fourth photo. Look carefully at the reflections of the building. Notice how crisp and sharp the edges are? That razor sharp crispness is the result of the wet sand and polish process.

While Mike labored away on the doors, I painted the tops of the hood and trunk. You can see the results of my handy-work in the last three photos. This completes the painting of the Chevelle parts, the fenders, doors, trunk lid and hood, leaving only the body to be painted.

Like the fenders and doors before them, the hood and trunk, then later the body of the car, will get the same wet sand and polish treatment to reveal the true beauty that is hidden in the paint. The beauty that is the High Performance Finish. 

Meanwhile …

Today … today was all about Hughes 1965 Chevelle with an all hands on deck flurry of activity.

The first photo shows the hood upside down on the paint stand. In the ’60′s GM painted the underside of their hoods black, regardless the color of the car. This hood will be done the same. This is a replacement hood, already rust proofed from the factory. All we have to do is paint it black.

The second and third photos show the hood and inner fenders after the application of the sealer. The sealer seals the primers below it, yes, even the factory primers, so the paint has a nice smooth base. Each paint color specifies one of seven available shade of gray. The grays range from very light, an almost white, to a near black. The sealer specified for use on the hood and fenders is a little to the lighter side of the middle.

The sealer not only seals the primers below it, it also provides a consistent color base so the paint doesn’t look mottled after being sprayed over various types of primer. The sealer also provides a smooth surface with good adhesion so the paint looks its best and lasts a long time without peeling.

The fourth and fifth photos show the hood and fenders after being painted black. The paint looks a little glossy in these photos but as it dries it will flatten out some to match what has been sprayed on the bulkhead of the car.

Meanwhile …

Picture number six shows Mike wet sanding the fenders that were painted yesterday. Sanding painted bodywork?!? Is he crazy?!? Maybe, but not for the reason you might think.

After a panel is painted the clear coat is not perfectly smooth. It may look perfectly smooth but it isn’t … it has microscopic ridges in the paint that muddle the reflections. If you look carefully at the last pictures in yesterdays post, paying careful attention to the edges of the reflection, you will notice the edges are ill defined and a bit blurry. Those blurred reflections are the result of the invisible flaws in the paint. Sure it shines, but just wait.

Wet sanding, like all the previous sanding steps, is about smoothing the surface and removing imperfections. By carefully sanding the surface of the paint with an ultra-fine grit sandpaper, we can sand out those invisible imperfections, making the surface of the paint perfectly smooth. It is the smoothness of the paint the defines the sharpness of the reflections.

The process of wet sanding is performed with the surface wet. Funny how the name just happened to work out like that. Anyway, the water acts as a lubricant so the sandpaper doesn’t dig in and remove too much paint. The sandpaper is so fine that it feels smooth to the touch but there is enough abrasiveness there that the sandpaper will remove the imperfections and leave the clear coat, the part of the paint that give the paint its depth and luster, ultra smooth. The water also washes away the sanding dust so the person doing the sanding can see if all the imperfections have been removed or if more sanding is required.

As you might imagine, no matter how fine the paper and no matter how lubricated the surface, if you are going to starting rubbing sandpaper over the surface of the paint you are going to mar the paint and dull the refection. And you know what? You would be right. That is where the next step comes in.

Picture seven shows Mike buffing the freshly sanded paint to bring up the gloss. Buffing performs the same function as wet sanding, but it works at a much finer level. Using polishing compounds and the buffer/polisher, Mike gradually works out the sanding marks left by the wet sanding process. Mike will go through several progressively finer compounds until he finally reaches the liquid like gloss that is the High Performance Finish. 

Pictures eight and nine show the same fenders, the same paint, as you saw in the booth yesterday, but look at the difference in the reflections. This is the difference in our regular workaday finish and the High Performance Finish. Sure, our everyday finish has a brilliant shine … a shine that looks pretty good … until you compare it to our High Performance Finish. Then the difference is clear. Only the High Performance Finish has those razor sharp reflections, and that can only be achieved by wet sanding.

Meanwhile …

While Mike worked away wet sanding the fenders and I was busy painting the hood and fender wells, Jordan was busy sanding on the trunk lid. You can see him working away, sanding with both hands in picture ten. We needed to get the underside of the trunk sanded before it could go into the booth for paint.

Unlike the underside of the hood, the underside of the trunk lid will be painted the same color as the body of the car. After the paint on the hood and fender wells had a chance to dry enough so we could move them out of the booth, the truck lid and doors would be moved into the booth for paint.

Meanwhile …

As Mike continued wet sanding and polishing the fenders, and the hood and fender wells finished drying outside the booth, the trunk lid and doors were place in the booth. The inside of the doors were painted yesterday so those areas were carefully masked to protect the painted areas from over-spray. Picture eleven shows the doors all taped up and ready for paint.

Picture twelve shows the base coat, the red in this case, going onto one of the doors. The base cost is sprayed on in several thin layers so the panel achieves full coverage, but without runs.

The Chevelle is being painted using a two stage paint system. That means the base coat, the color layer if you will, is sprayed on first. This layer has almost zero gloss. Its sole purpose is to provide the color for the finish. Where a single stage paint will dry to a glossy finish, pictures thirteen and fourteen shows how the base coat dries nearly flat.

It is picture fifteen, the application of the clear coat, where the magic happens in a two stage paint system. The clear coat not only provide a tough protective barrier for the base coat underneath, it is also the clear coat that provides the zip, zing and pow to the finish.

Look at the last two photos, numbers sixteen and seventeen and compare them to pictures thirteen and fourteen, the same panel before the clear coat has been applied. The difference is obvious. The panels have more depth, more luster, more …  pizzazz … after the clear coat.

If these panels were going on someone’s daily driver they would be ready to go after the clear coat had dried. And they would look good too, at least as good if not a little better than the factory paint. But these panels are not going on a daily driver, but rather they are going on someone’s pride and joy. As such, just like the fenders before them, they will be kicked up a notch, bumped up from merely looking great to looking fantastic.

A car like this, after all, deserves nothing less.

Grooming the Mustang

Yesterday I spent the afternoon with sandpaper, water, and a fair amount of elbow grease, making the hood on the Mustang look as good possible by performing the last sand and polish to make the finish a High Performance Finish.

The first two pictures show me wet sanding the hood to remove the tiny imperfection in the paint. All paint, fresh out of the booth, has imperfections no matter how careful or skillful the painter. The wet sanding process removes a tiny bit of clear to leave a perfectly smooth finish.

The water provides lubrication and prevents the sand paper from removing too much clear coat. It also washes away the sanding dust so I can tell if the paint is perfect or needs more sanding.

The next two pictures show me buffing the paint after the sanding is complete. As you can imagine, sanding your paint, no matter how fine the sandpaper and how lubricated the surface, is going to dull the paint.  The buffing process removes the sanding marks and brings up the shine.

By using progressively finer compounds, and a electric polisher, the sanding marks are removed and the true beauty of the High Performance Finish is reveled.

The final two pictures show the results of all the work. As you can see, the sanding and polishing leaves a mirror like gloss that is the hallmark of the High Performance Finish.

This completes the paint for the Mustang. Now all we have to do is to finish putting the car together, finish the wiring, install the motor, put in the interior … Hey … we’re nearly done!

Water, water everywhere … Nor any drop to drink

Friday we wet sanded and buffed the paint on the Mustang to bring the paint gloss up and give it that classic High Performance Finish shine.

Wet sanding is just exactly what it sounds like. We sand the paint of the car with ultra-fine sandpaper while the paint is kept wet. The water acts as a lubricate to prevent the sandpaper from removing too much paint and it also washes the sanding dust away so we can identify when an area is perfect and when it still needs more work.

As you can imagine, no matter how fine the sandpaper, wet or not, sanding the paint of your car is going to dull the finish. Therefore after the car is sanded, and all the imperfections are removed, the car is buffed with progressively finer polishing compounds until the luster is restored.

Wet sanding is a time-consuming and messy job, but it is absolutely necessary to make the paint look its very best, to produce the High Performance Finish that a car like this deserves.