Ghia trim out time

Today was trim out day for the Ghia We had these panels ready for paint for a little while now but just havent had a chance to get the sprayed. Today that happened. We spent the morning prepping them and this afternoon we were able to get them into the booth and painted. The owner picked this very classy looking Nissan color which I think will look very nice. She has also decided to lower the front end just a bit which I think is a great idea. We have all of those parts on order and they should arrive in a few days. Once those are here we will rebuild the front end . We still have a little custom work to do to the dash then the body will be ready for primer. We will need to mate the body back to the chassis before we prime it but after the front end is built. Enjoy these painted parts in the meantime.

Prime time

Here you can see we have the Mazda all ready for paint. We finished up the body work today and primed it. After blocking out the primer and prepping the rest of the panels for paint we washed it and have it in the booth for tomorrow, paint day.

Porsche gets a fresh coat

This Porsche was dropped off a couple of weeks ago to get a new paint job. The body was in great shape so there wasnt much work to do it. We did have to repair about a million rock chips that were on the front end but thats about it. We then sanded the rest of the car to prep it for paint. After a good sanding and a good bath we started masking off the areas that we didnt want to paint. Today we put it into the booth and started prepping it for paint. Once the body was nice and clean Paul started painting.  A coat of urethane sealer was sprayed first. Once that was dry, 3-4 coats of color was sprayed. Once that is dry we will spray the clear. We painted the hood yesterday and do have a couple of pictures of that for your viewing pleasure. We will post pictures of the body with clear tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Camry’s done

This is the Camry that came in to get that left rear door fixed up. After a few days in the shop its ready to roll again.

Clearly, its better

This FJ belongs to the C in JMC. We purchased it last weekend and as you can see its in pretty good shape. But,  and yes thats a big BUT, the roofs on these FJ’s are not clear coated. Well, being that paint is my thing, I thought I would buff it up nice and shiny and put a good coat of polish on there for her to keep that top nice. Thats when tragedy struck. As soon as the buffer hit the paint, it took all of the white off on the ridges of the roof. Sigh. I wasn’t really ready to paint the roof on here but I couldn’t just leave it like that either. Plus, the rack was faded a little and could use some sprucing up. Off to the shop it went. We removed the rack then sanded the roof. Next we masked off the rest of the vehicle and then into the booth. After a few coats of white base coat, I followed that with 2 coats of PPG high solids clear. The next day it was time to paint the rack. Here we used an eggshell black to bring it back to life. The paint on the rest of the vehicle was in nice shape so I had the local car wash guys clay bar it for me then I followed that with a few buffing compounds and a couple coats of hand polish. A whole lot of sweat, not blood and no tears later here is the finished product. The paint really looks deep and has a great gloss now. The roof now will need nothing but a coat of polish twice a year for the rest of its life. I know the wife missed it while it was gone, but its looking great now.

Hold my keys

We have a Camaro that has been vandalized in the shop this week. Here you can see we have already sanded out the scratches and repaired the areas that needed it. We have it masked off and read for primer that will go in the morning. Sometimes there just isnt enough hours in the day.  Once we get primer on here and its dry enough to sand, we will block all these areas out and get it ready for paint on Friday.

Fine ’69

We are just about to wrap up this Mach 1. We had a storm come through a few weeks ago that damaged a few panels on this Mustang so we took care of that for the customer and while it was here we went ahead and buffed the rest of the car to get him ready for the upcoming show season. We also wired up sequential LED turn indicators that mount in the hood scoop for him.  We are waiting on a new hood molding to come in which will be the final piece for this hot rod. It will be ready to go once that part comes in.

Its white again

The Camry had its turn in the booth today. As you can see things turned out very well. We all jumped on it this morning. Masking off the areas that were not getting painted and prepping the ones that did get painted. Paul then sealed the new panels, sprayed three coats of the base coat white, then three coats of the pearl mid coat, then wrapped all that up with 2 coats of PPG’s high solids clear. Tomorrow we will start the reassembly process. We hope to be getting this one back to the owner on Friday.

Time to shine

The Cobra had some time in the booth this afternoon, or at least parts of it did. We like to paint cars apart then re-assemble them once its all complete. This way we can paint all of the edges of the parts and it also greatly reduces the chance of peeling paint because of the difficulty in sanding the gaps between parts. So you can see the bumpers, bottom of the hood, mirrors and side scoops are all black and nice and shiny. We also were able to get the car tapped up and it will go in the booth tomorrow morning for its time to shine.

Ready for the booth

 The ’86 is now ready for the booth. Paul finished sanding it today and we had time to wash it all up to get a nice clean job. Before we left today, we also cleaned the booth and did a filter change. Tomorrow this one will get masked off and we will start the painting process.