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Painted the my '74 145 last night, using my 3.5 Hp belt-drive compressor and a 1 qt spray gun. Treated surface rust spots with a spot sandblaster, rust convertor, sanded smooth and puttied, primed. No major holes to deal with, a little rot aroud fron turn signal lights. Removed trim, roof rack, metal cap plugs in holes. Painted door frames last week, removed all carpets, spot blasted floors and rust converted. Masked rubber, glass, covered wheels. Chased up all the extra lights I could.
Pinned a 20x25 foot sheet of plastic in the garage over the car. Bought a gallon of Centari enamel, mid-temp reducer and a quart of gloss hardener.
Wiped down with Prep-sol, mixed 1/2 gallon paint at 8:3:1 paint:thinner:hardener in a fresh container, fired up the compressor and set to it. Air temp about 60 degrees. Used a 3M charcoal VOC mask.
Went pretty well. After a couple of initial clogs (old gun), I managed about a 6-8" stripe of gloss flow, making the roof and hood pretty easy to cover. Compressor regulator set at about 60 psi seemed best. I tried above that but seems to overspray too much and dusts. I have a water trap near the compressor, and a portable one on the gun. Lots of mist, hard to see.
Sprayed roof, hood, to get flow right, then did rockers(more dust down there), then moved from top down, to avoid touching new paint with hose or arm. Dumped remaining paint onto interior floor.
Looked OK this morning. Decent gloss over all, some overspray, no drips. Only a couple of thin spots. Will pick off bits tonight with colorsand 1000 grit, and use the rest of the paint for a second coat.
BTW the color is the original orange, not the red-orange, more like the color of the type in the "USERNAME" and "OPTIONS" fields in the posting form.
It should have plenty of paint on it when I'm done to last another couple of decades, I hope.
Seem I have to done one of these every ten years or so. Don't know if it's worth the trouble, and only saves a couple of hundred over Maaco. Maybe the paint is better quality.
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