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View Full Version : Time for correcting Mitsu's mistake - side skirt customizing



MarkSanne
24-04-2015, 09:52 PM
Some 2 years ago I bought a facelift set of side-skirts, solely with the intention of just using the front upward parts and mate them with a VR4 pre-facelift side skirt. Why you ask? Because I like the shape of the pre-facelift, but the Galant I put them on would have facelift fender flares, so to have it looking the part, this 'hybrid' was needed.

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That went well, until I noticed the rear fender flares not meeting the side skirts. If leaves a 1.5cm gap, regardless of using FL/PFL skirts! What a horror. It bugged me for all that time, but tonight, I started making thing right!

Hack off the last part of skirts, plastic-weld an additional piece in, smooth it out with some putty and somewhere this week, I'll have them painted and fitted!

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MarkSanne
28-04-2015, 04:59 PM
And here is the end result!

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Davezj
28-04-2015, 05:31 PM
just out of interest where did you get the paint from to do the sparying, is it made up for you to colour match the paintwork of is an off the shelf colour.
do you spary it with a rattle can or spray gun.

looks like a really good finish.

jaspa
28-04-2015, 06:28 PM
Looks factory. top effort that man.

Judging from the air lines, I'd guess it was done on a gun. I really wish I had a garage :(

Stuart

MarkSanne
28-04-2015, 06:30 PM
It's professional (environmentally not so friendly) paint that I order in a professional carpaintsupplies store with just the mitsubishi color code. The brand they use is Standox, not sure where that originates from, could very well be a UK based brand. I use 2K filler-primer as a base, wetsand it with 600-800-1000 and then lay 2 coats of paint and 1.5 layers of again 2K clearcoat with my spray guns. The beauty of that paint is the finish, consistency of color and most of all durability. When it completely cures (give it a week or so) then it can really take a hit before it leaves scratchmarks or chips off. Of course, after just a couple of hours it is dry to the touch but you should at least wait a full day before putting a freshly painted panel back on. And even when you do it after let's say a day of curing, the paint is still not nearly as tough as it will be so handle with care. I can only imagine that this applies even more so using rattle cans.

Davezj
29-04-2015, 01:39 PM
thanks for the update mark i have to say again it looks like a really nice job.

i have not done much spray painting other than with rattle cans, but i do have a couple of spray guns i would like to try out.
Do you keep 3 separate guns for primer, paint, and clearcoat, and is there a quality of gun you would use at each stage.
obviously money no object you have top quality gun for every stage, but i would imagine you could get away with a cheaper gun for priming as you are going to sand the primer before paint, but the paint and clear would they require the top quality guns. one more question, do you colour sand after the clear coat go on or do you get a good enough finish without.

sorry for all the question just interested.

MarkSanne
29-04-2015, 03:17 PM
I have one spray gun that I usually keep for primer, even though the nozzle is the same for all 3 guns I have. One is a Lidl gun, it was like 25 euro, so very cheap, but it does works just fine actually. The other is another Lidl gun, which for some reason I hardly ever use and the last one is one from ebay, all metal, some rip-off from Devilbiss I think, which was around 75 euro. Again not very expensive. In addition to those I have 2 small sized guns which have a smaller nozzle and are absolutely ideal for stuff like multi-spoke wheels and small objects with lots of curves and edges. The problem you will soon get with the normal gun is that on such objects you'll get too much paint on certain areas, causing drips. I painted my summer wheels (you see them on these photo's) some month ago with that small sized gun. And if I remember correctly that gun came from dx.com :)

Excellent little thing for super budget price. Mind you, you'll need some other bits and bobs too, like a water extractor for your air lines to prevent water droplets that will form during air compression shooting out onto your carefully prepared surface ruining it. Another thing is thinner to clean the guns: you'll need it! And usually around 200-300ml at least to clean the internals completely. I usually fill a quarter cup, disconnect the air hose, shake the gun with the top just slightly loosened which will will cause the thinner to get into the threads of the cup. Then press the lever and wait until the remaining paint is out and the thinner comes out. Do this twice more and then one or two times with the air hose connected where then the thinner is sprayed under pressure, usually causing the complete gun to be cleaned quite well. The real pros won't use thinner probably as over time it can cause the rubber seals in the spray guns to fail, but for the low amount of times I use them and the price factor I don't see that as a problem at all. Also,the pros will screw apart the various bits on these guns and clean them individually. It makes sense for a pro, the quality of the work they need to deliver and the cost of these guns, but for me, I do this 'extensive cleaning' maybe once of twice a year max. Although my garage paint jobs aren't bad and certainly can get upto an 8 or sometimes maybe even a 9 for quality, there will ALWAYS be some bits of dust that will get caught in the paint, usually in the clear coat stage. I can live with that, this is not a perfect car, if I wanted it back into showroom condition it would need a multi-thousand pound respray which I don't think is worth it. But for me, my garage spray jobs do the trick and if one would go the extra mile to wetsand and buff the clearcoat the result could be extremely good actually.

Talking about sanding: no I don't do color sanding. Only time I do (wet) sanding is on the filler-primer stage. When I am not convinced with 1 layer of filler-primer I lay on 2 or even 3 layers of it before I start sanding. The end result is completely in that stage. Do this one perfect and the rest is spraying 2 or 3 thin layers of color paint and 1.5 or 2.5 layers of clearcoat. For the clearcoat: remember this stuff works best when the object is somewhat sticky! So the last clear coat layer should NOT be cured, but rather have a sticky touch. How to know if it's sticky as you obviously don't want your fingerprint embedded in the surface?! The trick is to also paint something on the inside or some invisible side of the object where it won't matter that you'll leave forensic evidence ;) The professional paints I have used never showed any orange peel effect so need for sanding which is good because I hate it! It's the most time consuming bit in this whole process, but the end result shows it.

One last thing I can add which will help determine if you have done your sanding well enough: before you start sanding, spray a very loose and very little amount of black paint from a rattle can on your object. Only very very very little specs and blobs of black paint should be visible. Maybe call it a 'mist' or 'haze' of paint. It doesn't have to be equally sprayed on, it's just a feather touch of black spray dust that is needed to see perfectly where the highs and lows in your primer layer are. When this black spray mist is dry (usually within minutes) and you start sanding you'll see immediately where the surface is flat, high or low. Once you sanded enough, the black little spots are gone and if there are spots where they are still visible: more sanding required! The trick is to sand enough to have a perfectly smooth surface without sanding through the primer, because the color paint will stick perfect to primer, but usually less good where there is no primer. For very small spots it's no biggy, but if there are spots where you have like a 5mm wide or a longer stretch of missing primer: do another layer of primer and repeat the process. For such prepped surfaces, better to use primer and not filler-primer as it's not as thick and smoother from the start so lesser time spent on sanding. I ALWAYS use filler primer as it perfectly fills up small scratches, cuts, dimples and the likes which normal primer would never be able to smooth out.

OMG...this turned into quite a bit of text. Hope you're still awake after reading ;)
Maybe I'll do a video, I have 2 front bumpers that I need to do within 2 weeks from now.

Davezj
29-04-2015, 06:29 PM
that is a fab response and very welcome to get this type of feedbak from someone who has just done the job, nice one..

i will give it a go on my next project. that is cracking info and it sounds like i have the tools that will do the job.
i just need to find a paint supplier that will sell me small qantities.

how much paint did you use to spray the skirts, only roughly, 0.5L 1.0L just so i can gauge the quantities i would need to buy.

oh one more thing does the paint stay fresh after you open the tin or does it go off. what i mean is if i bought 2Lor 3L so i get a consistant colour match across a variety of parts would i have to use it all up in one go or would it last say 6 months on the shelf between usage.

as i said before sorry for all the question but you doing the kind of spray jobs i would like to be able to do. for the bits and bobs on my car.

MarkSanne
29-04-2015, 10:13 PM
No worries Dave, happy to be of help. You can ask me anything.

For the 2 skirt + grille I used approximately less than 300ml from the 500ml tin I bought, which I had opened and used for something I can't remember several months ago, so to be more precise: It was probably 250ml for these 3 parts, all color painted twice. The paint strays fresh, so no worries about that, just remember to open the lid with some patience so it will come off undented and close the lid properly. Also keep the tin clean, especially the edge where the lid closes and where you will always have some paint after pouring it. Clean it well, the edge of lid too, this is to prevent forming of a paint crust that could fall into the paint the next time you open the tin.

It is indeed a good idea to buy a bigger quantity to keep color as consistent as possible.
For Standox dealers, try this map:
http://www.standox.com/gb/en_GB/about-us/distributor-locator.html

But then again, there will probably be plenty other top brands available nearby for you.

Davezj
29-04-2015, 11:35 PM
Cheers mark your a star, that is again some great info.
you cirtainly deserve some rep for the help and advice you have me
thank you