Reviving my 86 2R

A little history on my car. I bought it from the original owner (Tulare, CA) in 1999 with 8k miles. It still smelled new. I enjoyed the heck out of it, and it now has 62kish miles on it. Life got in the way (as it does) and the car had to spend time outside in AZ and CA, and the paint went down the tubes. All of the rubber seals equally failed, and its been mostly parked for the last several years waiting for my attention. The interior is nearly perfect, though. This past summer I finally was able to get things started, and completely rebuilt the brakes. Next thing I knew...
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Well, the paint has begun...Well the prep has been really going on and off for the last 6 months. The car is disassembled, the body has been sanded and prepped. Fenders, hood, and chassis have been primed, blocked, primed, blocked, sealed, based and cleared. Next in the "booth" will be the doors, hatch and bumpers (probably in two weeks). Somewhere along the line there will be cutting and buffing to make it look like I knew what I was doing. Then all of the little parts will be painted and installed, along with new weatherstripping, seals, etc. I'm sure I'm still 6 months from calling it complete, but we'll see how it goes.

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NICE!! And red too.

Nice work, did you leave the door molding on or remove it with intensions of reinstalling it and what are you using to reinstall the other moldings?

I did remove everything. I think 3M trim tape will do the job to put it back on.

I heard the door trim will shrink significantly if you take it off. Is that true?

I was able to keep the metal backing attached, so I think I’ll be alright.

So, I started this as a father/son project. My son and his wife moved here for six months as he finished school on-line, and last weekend he left for the Navy (I was Air Force for 22 years, but I've forgiven him ;)). I've never painted with anything other than a rattle can, before. I'm blessed with the shop space in Texas, so we built a paint booth (6mil plastic sheeting, exhaust fan, lighting). He did a bit of painting the last couple of years, and I watched a lot of youtube videos, so now I'm an expert...

As you can see from the photos, I decided if I'm putting all the effort into doing this, I'm not going to cut corners. Now, I'm not going concours, either, so at some point you have to say enough. The engine bay will get cleaned up, but not repainted. I want a great looking car that I can go to a car show with and be proud of what I've done. And I'm not going to break the bank doing it.

For those interested, I'm shooting Nason high file primer, sealer, and 2R base coat. I'm finishing it off with Dupont Cromax clear coat. I was warned to stay away from the Nason clear (longevity), so I invested more than double into the Cromax, because frankly, I don't want to do this again, at least not on this car!

I'm using the $30 Harbor Freight spray gun for primer and sealer, and the Harbor Freight Spyder HTE gun for base and clear ($160 with coupon). I had issues with orange peal in the primer, but got better with experience. I paid for that in elbow grease (sanding). The Spyder gun did an awesome job with the base and clear. It looks great. inevitably there is dust in the clear, and minor orange peal in places, but I believe it will all work itself out with wet sanding and buffing. Either that, or there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth...

I plan on cutting and buffing the car/hood/fenders next, then I can push them out of the booth and get to the doors/hatch/bumpers and small parts. Based on recommendations, I'll be shooting the gray parts with SEM rattle can, so I get the correct sheen. I plan on masking and sanding over the clear that I shot over the red on the body parts, then rattle canning.

As I look at my collection of parts, I can't in good conscience put anything back on the car without a good cleaning and some fresh paint. I'm starting a list of the right colors for the small parts.

I have a big box of new rubber and plastic from various suppliers (I priced shopped a lot). Most is Daniel Carpenter. I'll be reusing most anything that is reusable, again to keep the cost down. Luckily, I don't have any broken or missing that isn't available or reproduced (knock on wood). Of course, as I said that I remembered my air conditioning compressor...

At the end of the day, I think I'll be into the paint job for $1500 or so, plus, of course, a few hundred hours of labor. I enjoy it, though. I can only imagine I would pay $7-8k if I dropped it off somewhere reputable. Figure another $12-$1500 in parts. I think it will be a fair return on my investment.

Very cool and nice job! :like4r:

Thanks for sharing all of that info.

Thanks, Rodster. I haven't made much progress the last month. I broke down and started wet sanding the fenders. The dust nubs and orange peel came out pretty easily. I'm testing how much I want to do by hand vs using a DA. I appreciate any questions or suggestions.

My initial thought is to use the DA with an interface pad and 1500 grit. I'm thinking I won't overdue it with this, and follow up with block sanding the areas that need it. It almost felt fast and more precise to me (and I'm deathly afraid of burning through somewhere). Then I'll finish up with the DA and finer grits. I've seen a 50/50 mix of folks that go 2000/3000 grit, and folks that go straight to 3000 grit after 1500. Any thoughts?

After the 3000, I'll use a rotary with Meguiars 105 buffing compound, and finish up with 205 polishing compound. I am brand new to this, so any experience / suggestions is appreciated.

I initially planned on cutting/buffing the parts I painted before moving on to the doors/hatch/bumpers, but I'm having second thoughts. It seems it may me easier to assemble the car (minus trim) before I cut/buff. Thoughts?

I'm installing my new 60 gal air compressor this week, so I may be priming parts this weekend, and getting back on track.

Baby steps. I’ve got my Land Cruiser out of the shop, so I’m hoping to finish painting this month.

Noice!!

looking really good!!!