Prepping to paint PICs(warning)

I lowered the car recently and scuffed the yellow paint. I'm going to filler prime it tomorrow. Here are some pics:

Here's with my painting donuts on.


I'm going with Dupont Lemon glow and Psycho Silver Shelby stripes.

The suspension: Up fron t I have 620 coils from M+ cut 2 coils off. The rear is a custom leaf spring setup, they are 7 leafs. Here is the write up: http://forums.stangnet.com/showthread.php?t=544275 . I have classic Konis all around adjusted as stiff as I can get them. Also, I did the Opentracker front shock tower cap mod. http://forums.stangnet.com/showthread.php?t=493211&highlight=koni . I have a 1 1/8 front sway bar and not yet installed 7/8 rear sway bar, tubular subframe connectors and under ride traction bars.
Rims and tires: I was fortunate to find the rims with tires for $500 with new tires. A friend of a friend bought a car and didn't like 17's, he went back to 14's, go figure. They are 17x8 w/ 4.5 backspacing. I have 235/45x17 rear and the fronts are 225/45x17, they are road huggers or something like that. My alignment is off so I chewed up the fronts and back before I rolled the rear fender lips I chewed up the rear sidewalls, I'm thinking of running 245/40x17 on these rims. The rims have a Moon Eyes stamp on the inner rim. That's all I know. I have seen them only once on another car. I figure they are rare enough to hold onto. I have a set of 17 Torque Thrust IIs on my Cuda that used to be on the Stang. I'm glad they have the same bolt pattern.

I decided last minute to primer the dash, doors and the door jambs. The interior is gonig to be laquer Black. I originally had the windshield installed but luckily I hadn't put a sealer on the gasket, it was quite easy to remove without cutting the gasket. The headliner is installed so I taped about 3" on the edge up front and along the drip rails. No primer ever hit the headliner. I removed the window felts and all the dash trim. I also stuffed the cowl because I have 2 huge acccess holes that connect to the engine compartment. If I had not blocked it off the engine would get sprayed. Don't ask how I know that. My $200 chrome plated Ford Motorsports valve covers are speckled. I'll try taking pics of the rear leafs, and the cowl access holes tomorrow. I'm usually very forgetful about the camera but lately it has been fun to see the progress. Usually I'm so tired I just want to leave the shop. I'm going out again in the morning to wet sand. Gonna start with 400 wet and then to 600. I'm really scared. This is my 2nd paint job on my own. The first was a disaster(the yellow in the previous pics). Opentracker showed me the first time.
Supplies and equipment tools alone cost me over $1000. I'm scared out of my mind. I bought two paint guns, one w/ 1.8 tip for thick primer and one w/ 1.3 for basecoat, graphic and clear. The paint is Dupont Hot Hues. Its like $40 a pint. Well, at least I won't have to buy the guns next time. This is fun, if I have paint leftover I'm going to paint the Cuda too.

Oh, here is a pic os the car Opentracker painted for me. I sold the car a while back. I forget I don't own it sometimes.

geostang351 said:

I'm concerned about you wet sanding. 400 then 600 is way to coarse! You should go 1500 then 2000.You'll blast through your clear real quick with 400 with large scratch marks.

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I hope you'e joking. I haven't even primer sealed the car. There were low spots on the car yesterday after block sanding. I'm probably going to try another shot of filler primer. I want to be patient with this car but I am on a time crunch. I have to ship the car off this island by July 1. So, my first paint job might not be perfect, but I'll be satisfied with the experience.

65mistress said:

Wouldn't it be faster to put a skim coat down to even out the body waves?

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That's an awefull lot of unnecessary bondo to put on a car in my opinion. Actually, the filler primer is a spray on deal. It is easier to mix and apply than bondo, it is also faster to cover the whole car, and those hard to reach places. Sand the body smooth, then seal, basecoat, clear, done. To each his own.