The 9 lives of my black KATT

[camron at worldaccessnet.com (Camron D. Crouse)]

Gordy Stedman wrote:
> On 5/12/07, *Camron D. Crouse* <camron@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
> <mailto:camron@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
> 
>     Moral of the story?
> 
>     If you are inexperienced but have high expectation for paint nonetheless
>     (like me), DON'T EVER PAINT YOUR OWN CAR IN YOUR GARAGE.  Why?
> 
>     Cuz it sux.
> 
>  
> Why do you say that?  It looks like your paint job turned out great.  
> Your car is like a mirror it is so shiny and I bet the costs were lower 
> than even taking it to MAACO.  Plus when someone asks who painted your 
> car you can tell them that no one but yourself did.
>  
> Did you use the $50 roller paint job tactic?  If so what paint did you 
> use and how thin did you make it?
>  
> BTW your car looks hot even though the KITT paint scheme is not a 
> favorite of mine :)  Good job man.
> 
>     -- 
>     Gordy
>     MK1 x 5 


Thanks for the kind words, but in truth the paint job is really only a 
"5-footer" at best (8-footer, really), the photos hide a lot of little 
things... but it does look 100% better than last year with failed 
clearcoat.  I still have a little more polishing to do.  And YES, I 
tried very, very hard to make the roller technique work;

<http://scirocco.dyn.dhs.org/vw/list/Camron/IMG_4294.JPG>
<http://scirocco.dyn.dhs.org/vw/list/Camron/IMG_4295.JPG>
<http://scirocco.dyn.dhs.org/vw/list/Camron/IMG_4299.JPG>

but I found that I could not meet all of the following conditions:

*Shiny, glossy finish
*Lack of "orange peel"
*Removal of all wetsanding scratches
*Removal of all dust nibs
*One uniform coat without sanding/polishing through to previous layer of 
paint.

The solution to one problem - wetsanding to remove dust and orange peel 
- leads to new problems - either I can't polish to a high gloss, or if I 
do, I burn thru to the next layer, leaving ugly rings.  It becomes 
maddening.

So in the end, even though there is still some light wetsanding, I had 
decent results with a Costco HVLP gun:

<http://scirocco.dyn.dhs.org/vw/list/Camron/IMG_4332.JPG>
<http://scirocco.dyn.dhs.org/vw/list/Camron/IMG_4333.JPG>

The Interlux Brightside is about US$40/qt. at West Marine, and is very, 
very glossy.  But if you thin it more than 10-15%, you'll experience 
dieback (loss of gloss) as the paint dries.  That's part of why the 
roller technique is so challenging, it requires very thin paint.

- Camron from Vancouver, WA USA
   '86.5 Black 16V 2.0L