So falling back on my body shop class knowledge I decided I'd paint a little. I think I've done a pretty good job of sanding down the surface, priming and sanding again. I used a orbital sander with a 320 pad. I speak from experience when I say that Rust-oleum primer isn't a fan of this method. The pad gums up and leaves hard goobers on the surface which are then dealt with by picking them off ultimately scratching the surface and forcing you to re-prime the area thus creating another looooong wait time before you can sand again. My results were not coming out as anticipated to say the least
Like dad said the time I painted my crawler for the first time and the results were less than desirable..."son, it's not a show car". True, dad. True. However, if I'm going to put this level of effort into this I've got to have a better result than what I'm getting. Off to YouTube...
No one did what I was doing but they reminded me that I'm a moron. Why I wasn't wet sanding eluded me. Plus, one of the videos suggested it when using spray cans. Fair enough. I went to Lowe's and got some 600 grit paper for this purpose. Sure enough works like a champ. Put a couple drops of dish soap on the paper and when mixed with the wet surface it breaks down the surface tension of the water and makes it super slick. Now that I learned my lesson, the primer was coming out pretty good but it was still highlighting all the dents and bumps. No matter, I shall forge ahead.
The paint is bright to say the least. I tested it on a small panel and it definitely pops. The downer is that just like in those videos you will see some orange peel on the finished project. Once again, I'm not a fan. I did have some 1500 grit in my possession from another project so I decided to wet sand the paint to help smooth it out some. Using the same technique (soap and water) the results were pretty good. At this point, I put another coat on the fender. I was really surprised at how fast this coat dried plus the finish is a hell of a lot smoother. Yes, yes. This will be most satisfactory.