Well what a day....got a fair bit done on the prep work for paint.

Finished welding the seam next to the rear window (as only a centre section headliner will be fitted). After weld was ground down only a little filler was required to tidy it up. This is after etch primer.

Any bare metal spots were etch primed...

...before I laid down the high build primer. If I was doing any more than one car I would hire/invest in a fresh air system...for now I will take as many precautions as possible.

Managed to get the interior and underside shot in high build primer (beige).

Interior is done.

Engine bay also primed.

Unfortunately didn't get to finish the exterior today...that will be done tomorrow.

Inside of guards also shot with high build primer in readiness for guide coat and sanding.

The remainder of the high build primer went on the body. Also started the guide coat/block sanding process on the peripheral parts - takes a long long time and as usual I never seem to get as much finished as I expected!

Finally finished sanding, then spent all day masking up (well 3/4 of a day after recovering from the new years hangover).

Tomorrow I will finally see some colour going on (although I've been thinking that for the last three days!). Underside of guards, inside of bonnet, decklid, doors etc etc are all masked up ready to go!

Anyway, finally got some colour on - it is a green, with a goldy-bronze metallic plus a bluey pearl...very hard to describe and is different depending on how the light hits it. Just wanted something a little different.This is after two base coats.

Inside after the base coat....

Here are a few of the fiddly bits after a couple coats of clear.

Probably my favourite pic thus far...nice and glossy!

Dash...finally out of primer!

This pic shows the gold metallic showing through.

Firewall looking nice and shiny. Next weekend the rest of the body will receive its dose of colour.

Managed to remove all masking without ordeal!

Fender wells came out pretty well.

Was a bit hard to spray under here on my back (due to inexperience!) but it also ended up okay.

Here is the body after three base coats....Mounted guards and doors back on to maintain consistency whilst spraying so the panels don't look mismatched.

I was very happy with the base coat...initially had heaps of trouble getting "tiger stripes" from a build up of pigment in the middle of the spray passes. Some fine tuning of gun distance, air pressure and fluid flow solved the problem.....eventually.

The base coat colour looks pretty ordinary when it is in its satin finish...the clear coat really brings it to life.

Four coats of Spies/Hecker clear coat went on too (finished at 7.30pm....started the whole process at 8am). My right shoulder feels like I have been repeatedly punched at the moment from holding the gun up for so long!

No major dramas which is a nice change...a few bugs, a few runs...just to prove it is a home job

Birds eye view...

This has been a mammoth effort but well worth it and very satisfying....especially when (hopefully) people will ask "nice paint job - who did it?"

Last shot to bore you all with, hopefully next weekend I will remate it to the pan if plans go as scheduled!

Removed most of the masking today - no major dramas fortunately!

Colour sanding has begun! Started on one of the rear guards...first up hit it with 1500 then some 2000 wet and dry to knock back all orange peel...sanded portion on the left and the freshly buffed portion on the right.

A bit scary sanding back all that clearcoat and worrying I'd break through to the base...but okay so far. It's coming up quite nicely.

The reflections are showing pretty well, not perfect but if I wanted perfect I wouldn't be doing it myself!

Decklid came up pretty nicely after a bit of elbow grease.

Front guard is done with the colour sanding process....glossed up pretty well.

Bonnet has received the treatment as well.

Still have both doors and the shell to go - then I can finally start to reassemble!

You can see the doors were probably the worst affected by orange peel.

This is after 1500 and then 2000 grit wet and dry - dull but nice and flat.

Looks just a little nicer after cutting and polishing and swirl removing!

It is not perfectly straight but not too bad considering the sandblaster warped the doors pretty well which I was really happy about.

This reflection shows the prep work, time and effort have paid off pretty well (just have to find time to finish my house renovations now!).

Finally finished the drivers side door - turned out pretty well again fortunately.

Tail-lights are back together, just have to sort out the bulbs.

Finished sanding the body just on dark - tomorrow will start the buffing process.

Here is the body as I tackled it this morning - all flat, but very dull.

Here you can see half of the roof section done - the reflection is of the pole cross pieces of the temporary carport I put up as it was 'ken hot today.

Now its all smooth and glossy.

Not mirror straight but good enough for a home job.