Up until this point I have been uphappy with the way I have been doing the masking, it was taking forever and was not working as good as I thought it should, So I decided to improve upon my technique by outling the mask areas 1st using 1/4″ tape to get a nice edge, then follow up with a layer of 1″ tape placed on the 1/4″ tape. I also figured out how 3M was folding the plastic sheeting so that it would unfold easier. I started by taping the free edge of the sheet to the 1″ tape using 1″ tape with a 50% overlap. Then I used a razor knife to cut the sides to fit and then taped with 1″ and a 50% overlap. I then used the razor knife to trim the bottom for the final good fit and tape.

Improved Masking Technique

All in all much better! I do need to pay attention to make sure the tape is pressed smooth and flat to prevent gaping.

Time to lay down some Madagascar Orange paint. On the last coat of Beige paint I found that by adding some additional reducer to the mix that it sprayed wetter without orange peel so when I was mixing the paint I limited the mixing batch to 600ml which I mixed 4-1-2 then added an additional 1oz of reducer. I filled the gun with this mixture and sprayed the 1st coat. Fairly decent results but still a bit of orange peel. For the next coat I added an additional 2oz of reducer which really laid out wet, in fact I finally got a small sag in the passenger door by the window opening. For the last coat I backed down to 1 !/2oz of additional reducer and it sprayed great. So now when I paint the the hood, fenders, tail gate etc I will have a better starting place and maybe able to reduce the amount of color sanding that I have to do.

Spraying the Orange Paint

In addition to the sag, I also had another problem with the masking plastic on the windows billowing out and down into the paint on the window opening. I will see how it cleans up after the paint has a chance to dry and harden a bit. My other screw up was that I was so engrossed in playing paint chemist that I forgot to wet the floor between coats and I pick up some dust in the paint which will go bye bye when I color sand it.

Once Michelle and I got the old girl un-masked I slapped her rear wheels back on and pushed her outside to see how the paint looked in natural light. Frankly we both were a bit concerned that the orange was, well too orange. When we got it out of the shop lites and into the sun, the beige became darker and the orange toned down to a gentle burnt orange which Michelle was looking for.

Our Easter Egg!

I am not particularly pleased with the idea of having to color sand the body, but I think when I am done and have the paint buffed out it will look great.

The plan for this week… Need to clean out the third garage stall on the house so that I have a place to park the ’40 Ford which will be here Tuesday PM. It is spending Easter in Manhatten KS, before hitting the road to Show Low. The gentleman transporting it for me told me that on the way down from Fitzroy Harbor he had several offers to buy it, fortunately he declined them all…

Once that is handled I need to spray the rest of the body and interior parts, order some 1200, 1500 and 2000 wet paper and some more flat black paint. Oh, and I guess I better finally order the rest of my suspension parts! Looks like I might finally be close to getting the project on the road again!