1986 Toyota MR2 - get kicked into the weeds.

[Sweetpea]

Aug 11, 2021 22:40:07 GMT blackpopracing said:

Did you panel wipe the fuel door? the contamination is in the door rather than the paint if the wing is good. A good flatting after a wash with soapy water will be ok for another coat.

What air pressure are you using on the big gun? is it gravity feed and an HVLP gun? If so then try it at around 25psi, it wont blow the little bits around as much.

As a little test, after a couple of days try to wipe the epoxy off with thinners on your test panel, see how you manage.......

Starting at the end...
I really want to know how well the epoxy resists thinners. I'd have done it at the time but didn't have a sacrificial panel. I'll be doing that at the weekend and will report back although I'm guessing you already know the answer.
More interestingly, I've taken the decision to not use 2K Isocyanate paints which means the clear has to be a single pack product. Probably UPOL 2085. I know everybody says nothing is as good as 2K paints so I'm treating it as an experiment. It'll be fascinating...

The fuel flap was panel wiped. It was sanded and wiped at same time as the wing. It's really odd. The most likely cause I've thought of is this...
I hung the flap over the top of the wing and painted the wing first. I wonder if I touched it with my hair. I would like to point out that I do wash my hair occasionally and don't consider myself to be a skanky old git. But after a day running around it might have transferred enough grease to cause problems? Maybe? But I got it on both sides without realising. Is that possible? Who knows.

The gun is a Devilbiss FLG5. It's gravity fed but not an HVLP. My poor little compressor won't cope with that. I was running about 8 bar in the line and then dropping that to about 2 bar (about 30 PSI) at the gun. It has a 1.8mm fluid tip in it for the primer. Essentially they are all figures I'd got from the web.
It seemed to be spraying pretty well (to my totally uneducated eye) so I'll admit I didn't play with the pressure at all.

Aug 12, 2021 11:28:29 GMT dabhand said:

Aug 11, 2021 20:49:19 GMT Sweetpea said:

Next thing of note is the black primer that replacement panels come covered with. I always wondered if it was any good or if you should take it off. Well it would seem to be pretty good. It’s not a solvent paint and it’s well stuck. That’s good news.

Isn't it electroplated or something, think I read it somewhere ?
Could be wrong though.

I really like the gazebo idea for a spray booth, I've been thinking of something like that but inside my garage to stop any overspray. Will have to sort some sort of extraction though.
For use in the garden it probably isn't much of an issue is it ?

Hi dabhand !

The car would have been E coated (electrostaticly charged and submerged in a paint tank) when it was built. That's an olive green colour that you can see in some of the photos.
The replacement wing has a black primer on it as it's a Toyota replacement. However it'd already had a fairly decent life before I got it. It was originally fitted to a later model red car and painted at least twice before it was scrapped and the wing cut off again. I bought it and did a load of rust repairs ready to fit to my car.


I had thought of using a gazebo and then saw somebody on here doing the same so I knew it was a plausible idea. I'm trying to remember who it was, I think it was Darkspeed but apologies if I've got that wrong.

For my circumstances it's the best option. I can't get the car in the garage (it's full of stuff) and there is an unbelievable amount of dust and curse word in there which would be all in the paint. The ultimate plan is to build it over the bit of the car I want to work on. Or if it's stuff I can take off the car, I can set up in the back garden.
I'm imposing some restrictions on myself though. I won't use isocyanate paint. My little compressor won't cope with an air fed mask and the gun, and I'd never seal the tent up. But that means I can use a decent respirator with chemical cartridges on it and I don't have to be quite as worried about spray fumes, filters and my elderly neighbours.

I think if I wanted to go down the isocyanate route I'd be looking at a much bigger compressor and a proper inflatable spray booth. But I don't have room to store these things and it'd probably be over the top for a scrap car that only cost me £80.


James

[blackpopracing]

Gun settings are pretty spot on.
For little bits try turning the air pressure down a bit more - it may not spray as well but it wont blow them around as much.

You probably had some contamination on the fuel flap that the panel wipe did not remove. It's a degreaser, but not a de-siliconer. Any WD40 action near it at any time?

Yes, once epoxy primer has gone off properly not a lot will touch it.

[Darkspeed]

Aug 12, 2021 21:00:20 GMT Sweetpea said:

I had thought of using a gazebo and then saw somebody on here doing the same so I knew it was a plausible idea. I'm trying to remember who it was, I think it was Darkspeed but apologies if I've got that wrong.

Not me personally - Ginetta cohort spraying his G15 in a Gazebo - just one of many who have done similar no doubt.

[Sweetpea]

Them's the photos! Thanks DS.

Looking at those photos I would say this...
My tent is black because it'll have to do duties as an actual gazebo, and because white wasn't an option. But it does block the light out. White would be a much better option if you are thinking of using it as a spray tent.

[Darkspeed]

It also helps to have a car that is just the next size up from a Little Tikes Coupe

[Darkspeed]

If not seen already I found this Trev Blog video interesting in view of recent posts

[Sweetpea]

Aug 20, 2021 18:32:06 GMT Darkspeed said:

If not seen already I found this Trev Blog video interesting in view of recent posts

I had seen that as it happens but I'm glad you posted it 'cos I watched it again. I'd forgotten he said that the thinners in 2K also caused the problem.
I think somebody at work but me onto Trev. The van he built was a stunning piece of work.

James

[Sweetpea]

In a previous post I tried to remove various paints with thinners. The one I hadn’t tried was the epoxy primer I was using.
Well…





With a damn good scrubbing all I could do is knock the shine off it. Good. I’d have been disappointed if it’d wiped off.
I can’t remember if I said but this is Lechler 29107 Epoxy primer.

Back in car land I wasn’t sure I’d got the profile of the of the arch quite right in places. The problem was that I couldn’t tell without a consistent colour on it. So it got painted with my now favourite epoxy and I drew a line which should be the corner of the lip.





And, it’s not terrible but it’s not right. But it was easy to reprofile the filler until it was right.
So it’s now a case of painting…





And sanding…





And so on, etc, ad infinitum.

Remember this is the first time I’ve done this since I was a small child and I wasn’t that good at it then. The problem I’m having is that I could keep messing about with this for all eternity. When do you stop? I know the answer is ‘when it’s right’.
Hope you are ok with a thread that becomes like watching paint dry. Literally.


I had a discussion with my chosen paint supplier, Express Paints, this week. I have to say there were very helpful. I admitted that I was on a learning journey and they were understanding and supportive of my foolishness.
Anyway, my car is paint code 204 - Black Metallic - and needs a clear coat on it. It was only used for a few years before being replaced with 202 which is a standard black. The black cars seem to be rare anyway. Apparently it was a very expensive option although I’ve never seen anything to confirm that. There aren’t many panels on my car that haven’t been painted but I’m pretty sure the roof and probably the engine cover are original. I can’t see any metallic in it.
The nice chap at Express Paints looked up the formulation while I was on the phone. He told me that it does have silver in it but it’s very fine and there is very little of it. He reckoned that you’d only ever see it in a very strong light. We actually talked about dropping the silver but, as it’s not a common colour, I want to keep it.
The point of all this? The black paint is on its way.



Life is conspiring to stuff up any real progress on the car. I want to get on but don’t have the time. I’m also falling out of love with it a bit ‘cos it’s been dragging on.
So I did something pointless.

The volume control on the Alpine radio was horribly crackly. Even the on / off switch was barely working.





I found a tin of switch cleaner and squirted some into the segments of the ‘monster control that does everything’.





There’s a lot of it isn’t there.
That one device does…

On / Off
Volume
Front / Rear
Left / Right
And turns the tape over if you press it.

I cleaned the capstans while I was in there but I think it’ll need a proper clean and new pinch rollers and belts at some point. (If I can find them.)

And then I spent an hour or so sitting in the wreckage of the cabin listening to tapes.





It was very cathartic.

James

[blackpopracing]

Told you Lechler epoxy is good

[jimi]

Genesis and Fleetwood Mac 👍😎

[Sweetpea]

Aug 24, 2021 21:32:58 GMT jimi said:

Genesis and Fleetwood Mac 👍😎

Hey Jimi,

Depending on what you read first this might be a very interesting post or some sort of deja vu...
For everybody else that's a sort of 'in joke' but without any humour!

Yup, also a cassette single (they really were a thing) of Heart's 'There's the girl' and I've rediscovered Brush Hornsby's 'Mandolin Rain'.
That sent me thinking about Don Henley's 'End of Innocence' which clearly has Bruce playing on it. He has a very distinctive piano sound and style. Wonder how he got the sound. Probably a marmite thing - I guess you love his sound or hate it.

[jimi]

I read your reply on the MK1 Club first, I missed Fleetwood Mac when I posted there

[Sweetpea]

Sometime around 1300 Friar William of Ockham had…

Ok, so… Just to be clear… When I say “sometime around 1300” I actually mean the year 1300. I’m not talking about lunchtime. Although as William of Ockham was a friar I’m assuming he worked in a chip shop.

As I was saying…

Sometime around the year 1300 Friar William of Ockham had just finished cooking the latest batch of fish and chips to sell to the good people of Surrey. He looked to the laptop at his side. (He had to use his laptop because, being 700 years ago, nobody had gotten round to inventing the tablet yet.)
He was quickly checking his favourite automotive website, Retro Rides (despite the fact that automobiles were not due to be invented for another 600 or so years) when he noticed this…





“Good heavens!” he cried, “This can’t possibly be true?” he thought, “Most likely the computer can’t count”.
Then he uttered the catchy statement that made him famous. “Entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity”.

Ok, not very catchy and not very famous. But we know the phrase as something along the lines of ’The simplest explanation is probably true”. Otherwise known as Occam’s razor.

So the most likely explanation is that the Retro Rides computer just can’t count. Either that or you lot look at this thread a few times and I cause a huge number of hits checking to see if anybody has read it yet. Yeah, that’s definitely possible.

Whatever the truth of that totally idiotic number I shall take the opportunity to say this.

Thank you all for reading and for keeping coming back.

When I started this thread I had no thoughts about its popularity. To be honest I didn’t think anybody much would care about the intimate details of a scrap Toyota. I didn’t think anybody would read it much.
But even if that number of views is just complete tosh it does suggest that a fair few of you are reading this and that’s really flattering.

So thank you all, I do appreciate it!

James

[jimi]

Didn't realise you were a multi millionaire

[Sweetpea]

Aug 25, 2021 22:21:49 GMT jimi said:

Didn't realise you were a multi millionaire

Yeah, the thread's quite popular too!

[quaggers]

I don't post much, but this is one of my favourite RR threads. It has provided hours of interesting reading that I have been able to fill my time with rather than more productive, yet less exciting things like say... Work.

I am sure it has provided the same vital relief to many others and so am not surprised at 2M!

Thank you for posting

[dabhand]

Same here, not much of a poster on here, but read and learn a lot. This and BlackPops threads are full of good idea's.

[darrenh]

you are doing really well with this driveway bodywork James

[bstardchild]

I never read an update in this thread - in fact I try to avoid it because it makes me realise just how glacial my own project threads have been in the last 5 years.....

So congratulations on over 2,000,000 views none of them are mine

[Sweetpea]

quaggers , dabhand , thank you both.
I have to admit 2M views - well, I still don't believe it even though I've been watching it tick up for a while now.

darrenh
Yeah it's happening but way too slowly. The weather is a big part of that. I'm still working from home and sit in my front room looking at the sunny day outside longing for the weekend. When it showers endlessly.

bstardchild
I appreciate you not reading and making the count any more embarrassing. But I'm not sure you should be worried about me storming ahead. I took the poxy car to bits a year ago now and thought I'd have it back on the road before the winter hit. Now the next winter is getting closer and I'm not sure I'm much further on.

Well. A little further maybe.