Primer and paint questions

[slothead]

I really appreciate all the comments and find them helpful, as I'm sure others do too.

The picture I posted is after the 1st or 2nd coat, not the finished job after 3 coats. Not perfect, but probably the best I've managed so far. No thin spots as far as I can see and that goes for any obvious orange peel too. I can see areas on the body I should have spent more time prepping to eliminate rough edges and mold lines. Those things were on my to-do list, but I didn't check the list before painting. Typical. But once again it is one of my best builds ever.

I did heat the primer and paint before applying. But I didn't reheat the can of yellow between coats which I did every 10 - 15 minutes. I had a container of hot water in the barn I put the can in between coats but the water would have cooled down quickly.

I didn't increase the thickness of coats at the end. I'll remember that next time.

I tried to keep the car about 10" from the nozzle and moved the can left and right past the car as I rotated it. In the photo the car is taped to the top of a quart water bottle which I rotate with my left hand as I paint with my right hand.

I let it dry overnight and started applying decals about 20 hours later. The decals gave me more trouble than the paint - couldn't get them to slide off the backing and then they wouldn't stick solidly to the car. An hour or so later I went back and glued them down with clear window paint or Future wax. After I print new sponsor decals for the quarter panels on sticker paper and apply them I'm going to paint over the whole car with Future. Can't use the Tamiya clear coat as I intended to because the windows and interior have been installed.

My next project arrives tomorrow - a Carrera Torino I plan to repaint without stripping the factory paint, and possibly without dismantling the body. I have some peel off face mask stuff to coat the chrome bits, and will mask off the windows and interior with tape. I'll make a final decision on how to proceed once I take the body off the chassis and see what would be involved in disassembling the body parts.

Thoughts and comments greatly appreciated.

[chrisguyw]