2004-09-26


Previous Up Next
Today my friend came over to help me prime all of the parts. Remember when I bought that spray gun for $8? Well, that grand experiment left me without a gun to paint with so Irv brought over his gun. He also brought over his digital camera which is way better than mine. I actually use my Panasonic digital video camera in still mode to take all of the pictures. One of these days, I'll splurge for a new camera. So all of the pictures today are nicer than usual because of it. These pictures are actually scaled down. If you click on the first pic, you'll see a full size image. 

Here are the parts on the bench all ready to be primed. 
Huh, another pic of the same thing. Exiting, isn't it? You can actually see the red handle of my vacuum cleaner attachment spray gun in sticking out of the box under the bench.
Here we go, ready to mix paint. The idea is to mix 50/50 the primer and the catalyst, wait 30 minutes while it does its "chemical thing" and then paint. The pot life is 8 hours so you can actually paint one side, wait until it flashes over (about 15 min to 1 hours depending on how hot it is) turn the parts over and paint the other side without having to re-mix paint. It's actually a very nice system.
Hmmm, this is a picture of the paint-stir sticks that I had to rip off the side of a 2X4. When Irv showed up he started asking for stuff, like "you need a roll of paper towels, you need paint filters, you should have a bunch of stir sticks" things like that. Well, the only thing I couldn't find was the stir sticks. I did have a 2X4 and a table saw...
Here is Irv mixing the primer. There was quite a bit of settling to the bottom on the primer. The catalyst is a clear amber colored liquid. The paint is thinner than either Irv or I expected. It's a nice consistency to shoot. (according to Irv, and he should know, he's painted cars)
Here are the parts outside ready to paint. Today was a perfect day for painting. It was relatively dry, the air temperature was about 70 but if you sat in the sun, it was hot. 
Irv doing the paint thing.
Me, attempting to do the same. One thing I noticed is that Irv takes a better picture than I do. I cut off way more of his head than he did mine.
Starting to get the hang of it. I was concentrating on painting the edges and the flat spots took care of themselves.
All painted, ready to flip over.
Here they are, baking under that big heat lamp in the sky. My driveway has this lovely green hue now.