Recommendation on partial Re-paint of SR5 AC

Remaining tasks:
1. Interior of Bed prep, prime, seal, color, clear
2. Wheel well trims prep, prime, seal, color, clear, re-install
3. Grill-Bumper Cowl prep, prime, seal, color, clear, re-install
4. Overall Compound/Polish Clearcoat [not sure I want any taken off, but...]
5. Re-install Door Handles, Rear Bumper
6. Re-install Belt trims and Badges
[check all lights and if any "Trouble Codes' show up]

Did I miss anything?

 

Those guys paint better than I do!

 

from what you posted, looks like you're being 'humble'; your stuff looks way above min std.
I presume if you had his shop and his 'hired hands' you'd match his quality...but why would you if u dont need to?
Seems like a small margin biz and most $ is fr/insurance claims- where he makes his big $'s.
Im just guessing; cant prove it.

 

Painting single stage is a fine line between runs and orange peel. Too thin it runs, too dry it orange peels. I'm so out of bounds I usually get both.
But I'm not an extreme perfectionist. It was either DIY or pay exorbitant prices and not know what it will look like in 2 years. I'm pleased with the results considering what I have in them. If I was painting a real classic I would have to get a lot more serious about it.

 

When I was painting (just my own vehicles), I used an old Devilbiss JGA 508 at about 60 PSI at the tip, with the paints and reducers of the day, as long as it was mixed correctly that gun would lay out a beautiful flat paint job with almost no danger of runs or orange peel. I never got down with the HVLP guns and new material. I quit now because of the EPA restrictions and difficulty in finding paint. There used to be several automotive paint stores within just a few miles of me, no more. I liked Dupont Centari, RM, and Ditzler, all top notch stuff.

 

There are so many changes that you have to completely re-learn painting if you haven't painted in 5 years. Environmentalists are responsible for many of those changes.

 

The Roman’s thought lead pipes were the pinnacle of indoor plumbing. China still uses asbestos (rock wool) for everything it can. Have you met old painters, they’re usually not well individuals. I think some improvements are justified and others we just can’t fully know the full cause/effect consequences, good or bad. Awesome paint jobs by the way y’all.

 

Explains a lot about why the human race is astronomically stupider than the geniuses who existed during Roman times (genius is scarce these days), decisions like that, it's been proven lead heavily impedes brain function and results in IQ reduction. In the interest of convenience, we've poisoned ourselves to the point of reducing intelligence. And unfortunately, it seems the stupidest are too ignorant to realize how stupid they are, thus won't get out of the way to let the actual intelligent people fix shit. Every smart person I know will tell you they're dumb, because they're painfully aware how insignificant their breadth of knowledge actually is. It's the stupid people who think they know everything, and fuck it up for the rest of us.

It's wild how this planet works sometimes.
/rant

 

That was like a weird Pro-Elon rant

 

oh-oh...i detect 'thin-ice' ahead....

Anyway, since the topic is re-painting, Im curious about Clearcoat 'compound/polishing'. Necessary if you have zero runs, etc?
Way I see it, in interest of protecting paint [and metal below], leave ALL the Clearcoat 'as-is'.
Painter said he sprayed equivalent of 6 layers of CC, which seems like a lot, but of results I see so far, I'm tempted to tell him "leave as-is, its shiny enuf"....?

 

I have a bias, I love amazing paint jobs, but I’m firmly in the mechanics and interior over body/paint category. That said my voter is to leave it be, shine it up at a later date. Till then go collect some az pinstripes to add credibility.

 

“Brave new world” vs “1984”, but mostly just “idiocracy”. Evolution doesn’t stop, but we can retard it’s progress.

 

I went through the same when I refinished my grille recently. Leave it up to the painter, what he decides.

If it's smooth enough, you really don't need to cut at all UNLESS you want a mirror finish. What I'm seeing in your pics, a basic polish to knock down the little bit of ripple is fine. Ask the painter about off-gas time and if/when you should seal the paint after. They'll know their product better than anyone.

I probably should have/could have polished this just the same, but honestly, it was good enough for me, for something I did hanging in my garage with rattle cans and no professional equipment.

​

 

Ok, at min, maybe minor polish, and am presuming his expertise 100 over mine...
Is that Sgl stage?
Very nice work for rattle-cans; musta done proper prep...and nice [mask job] 'grill infield'.

Also, asked him [painter] about leaving mud-flaps and other plastics alone; I could hit later w/Griots if really wanna be picky. He said re-paint w/black will out-last...? Hmmm...

 

Sort of w/u there; I mean what good are they if not mechanically reliable.
...ha-ha..you mean drive that boy thru the brush and wear the stripes proudly!
Spent 20 yrs of my field engineering/construction life hacking & pushing 2 & 4wd's thru the wooly bushes of SoCal to be done w/it [man, the stories I have about job sites and company trucks!..].
Nope,..this FGT is strictly a paved road machine. No cred needed.

 

Clearcoat is basically just single stage urethane paint without the pigment. You can "cut and buff" it if you want, if it has orange peel (harder to see on clearcoat than on regular SS paint), from the pics showing the reflections, it looks pretty damn good. If it looks dingy 5 years from now, just buff it out.

 

@Shifty read ur grill thread...holys - - t! U a mad man....this guy want to hire you as consultant...

'chasing classic cars' Wayne Carini

 

as my ol friend Johnny Carson would say...
"really? I did not know that."

good Car Paint 101 info...thx.

 

I try not to half-ass anything on my stuff. House, cars, bikes, tools. It sucks sometimes, because it also means it takes far too long before I start/finish the work, if I don't feel like I can put the necessary attention into the job.

 

totallyunderstandable...i know my wife thinks im OCD w/nearly any project [latest = new FGT]...but she's VERY cool about it, just gives me the 'eye-ball roll'...
Cant help it, its just in the DNA, or fr/how I grew up...I remember the days as a 15yr old before I got DL, aspiring as "yeah, I wanna have a street-rod", not just a stock set of wheels. Yet, today Im almost 100 on stock Toyota...go figure.