The Great Pumpkin - '71 Duster
Got the rear wheel wells done today. Pretty much all that's left now paint-wise is to spray Raptor Liner in the front wheel wells. Like I've been saying, I'm pretty much done with this whole paint revival process and am itching to get back to the mechanical side of things. It was a great feeling to peel off the masking tape and plastic. I think mimicking the factory "gray dip" sealer and color over spray pattern was the way to go, just looks right to me.
The bed liner in the wheel wells turned out decent enough. Frankly, it was hard to do upside-down while trying to protect myself from the overspray. It covered fine but the surfaces were pretty rough from years of road debris and removing the original undercoating - every little gouge and scratch showed through. I had planned to re-coat these areas with some sort of undercoating or bed liner material so I didn't bother filling and smoothing them. It's done now though and I'm not re-doing it. No one will really see it with the wheels on anyway. I'm more happy about having a protective covering that doesn't weigh 40 lbs.
Raptor Liner seems pretty easy to use. The material is mixed 3:1 with the hardener then can be reduced about 10-15%. When using the schutz gun, the hardener is measured to the correct ratio with a provided cup, gets dumped into the bottle and mixed. The schutz gun screws to the top of the bottle then you attach it to your air supply and spray away. I was unsure whether I could reduce the mixture in the bottle which is one of the things that swayed me into using the regular paint gun.
Also, even though everything was masked off, it seemed like the schutz gun would have sprayed **** everywhere so that was another factor that went into the decision to use the primer gun instead.
When using the primer gun, the material is poured out into a mixing cup and measured that way. Seemed to work fine.
The air pressure to the gun was also increased to about 50psi as recommended on the box. Along with the added reducer, I believe this helps the texture come out smoother. I actually prefer this look over the normal "chunky" bed liner. Yeah, some of the areas are a little shiner because there was un-scuffed paint underneath instead of sanded primer. Again - don't care, just putting it out there for anyone else that may want to use this stuff.
The texture is good here but as mentioned, the gouges and scratches in the surface are totally visible. If I had taken the time to fill them in, it would obviously be smooth.
I like the way the black juxtaposes the orange. The black is definitely necessary. I've seen Mopars without it, looks horrible.
Removing the stick-on belt line trim (and left over adhesive), buffing and polishing the original exterior paint and putting on some side stripes can wait until the car is reassembled.
More to come.
Got the rear wheel wells done today. Pretty much all that's left now paint-wise is to spray Raptor Liner in the front wheel wells. Like I've been saying, I'm pretty much done with this whole paint revival process and am itching to get back to the mechanical side of things. It was a great feeling to peel off the masking tape and plastic. I think mimicking the factory "gray dip" sealer and color over spray pattern was the way to go, just looks right to me.
The bed liner in the wheel wells turned out decent enough. Frankly, it was hard to do upside-down while trying to protect myself from the overspray. It covered fine but the surfaces were pretty rough from years of road debris and removing the original undercoating - every little gouge and scratch showed through. I had planned to re-coat these areas with some sort of undercoating or bed liner material so I didn't bother filling and smoothing them. It's done now though and I'm not re-doing it. No one will really see it with the wheels on anyway. I'm more happy about having a protective covering that doesn't weigh 40 lbs.
Raptor Liner seems pretty easy to use. The material is mixed 3:1 with the hardener then can be reduced about 10-15%. When using the schutz gun, the hardener is measured to the correct ratio with a provided cup, gets dumped into the bottle and mixed. The schutz gun screws to the top of the bottle then you attach it to your air supply and spray away. I was unsure whether I could reduce the mixture in the bottle which is one of the things that swayed me into using the regular paint gun.
Also, even though everything was masked off, it seemed like the schutz gun would have sprayed **** everywhere so that was another factor that went into the decision to use the primer gun instead.
When using the primer gun, the material is poured out into a mixing cup and measured that way. Seemed to work fine.
The air pressure to the gun was also increased to about 50psi as recommended on the box. Along with the added reducer, I believe this helps the texture come out smoother. I actually prefer this look over the normal "chunky" bed liner. Yeah, some of the areas are a little shiner because there was un-scuffed paint underneath instead of sanded primer. Again - don't care, just putting it out there for anyone else that may want to use this stuff.
The texture is good here but as mentioned, the gouges and scratches in the surface are totally visible. If I had taken the time to fill them in, it would obviously be smooth.
I like the way the black juxtaposes the orange. The black is definitely necessary. I've seen Mopars without it, looks horrible.
Removing the stick-on belt line trim (and left over adhesive), buffing and polishing the original exterior paint and putting on some side stripes can wait until the car is reassembled.
More to come.
