Proof of Paint Methods | Roundtail Restoration

To make sure I knew what to expect and try to learn some lessons, I took an old 240Z fender that was in bad shape, stripped it down to bare metal, and built it back up through base coat and clear coat.

I used the same methods and steps that I am using on Dorothy. I learned several things along the way, including the fact that I had my gun set up improperly since...well, since I started painting.

Turns out the regulator needs to be the last thing in the air line before the gun. I had the desiccant filter in there. So, my air pressure, while indicating the "right" pressure, was reading artificially high because of the back-pressure provided by the desiccant filter. Since I'm a rookie and didn't really know what the correct spray pattern looked like, outside of a "cat-eye", I went with it. I'm usually smarter than that.

All in all, I was happy with how it turned out, though I have more to learn on cutting and buffing. Based on my new gun set up, I took some of the panel back down to bare metal and will be doing another section again, up through clear coat, just to make sure I know what, if anything, I need to change.

Here are the videos of the series and the dedicated video to how I figured out I was doing it all wrong. Thanks!