derekf.com

24 May 2009
Blasting and Painting

I identified a pile of parts that needed to be sandblasted and painted. That's a lot of blasting (this was Wednesday or so).

Here's an LCA. I didn't blast them to pure clean, just good enough that I felt OK shooting primer and paint on them. You can see some stuff that didn't want to come off in the spring cup here.

Lots of other stuff blasted clean too.

The column is way too big to fit in the blaster. I stripped it down and did my best to get the pretty part ready to go (not pictured here). This is the guts of the column. I may end up trying to replace that lower bushing - the plastic is pretty rough.

Column surrounds, AC box, and the column will get a little sanding before paint.

So I get everything ready to go on Saturday - going to shoot primer and then paint (PVC stand is to hang parts from) and as soon as I get ready, the rain starts. It had been sunny all the while when I was getting things ready, too.

Pile of ready things. The LCA in the foreground got rained on.

My Summit order arrived. I got the shifter, the flywheel, and the sway bar bits. Also found that the spare steel bushings that wouldn't fit the ElCo (see this update) are correct to fit the Chevelle (they're 1.90 inches in diameter). Still waiting on my special-ordered front bushings though. They're becoming the holdup.

So today there was a 40% chance of rain. Perfect day to shoot some primer! Here's, well, everything, with primer on it. You can see a spot behind the brake pedal carrier where the cup fell off my paint gun. Dammit.

And then, once the primer dried, it was time to shoot paint. I used the entire remaining amount from the quart of single-stage black. Stuff, for the most part, came out pretty good. The glove box door needs to be buffed, I didn't get the engine-end of the column, and the heater box kinda looks bad. I did the pedal assembly, column, and glove box door in glossy, and then added the flattener for the semi - and then saw that I'd missed quite a bit on the column. I'd already added the flattener, so the column is a muted gloss.

Engine compartment is painted too! I know I missed some spots. I've decided that I don't care.

Column vaguely assembled. You can see what I mean about missing the engine-end.

Brake/clutch pedal assembly assembled. Glove box door mostly assembled. The trim piece I have has broken the mounting studs on the ends; I may end up screwing the middle studs and just put doublestick tape on the ends. I still need to recolor the "Malibu SS" text on the trim too.

So now that the engine compartment is painted, it's time to start assembling stuff. Hopefully the bushings will come in soon.

Go back to the previous day (18 May 09)

	I identified a pile of parts that needed to be sandblasted and painted. That's a lot of blasting (this was Wednesday or so).
Here's an LCA. I didn't blast them to pure clean, just good enough that I felt OK shooting primer and paint on them. You can see some stuff that didn't want to come off in the spring cup here.
	Lots of other stuff blasted clean too.
The column is way too big to fit in the blaster. I stripped it down and did my best to get the pretty part ready to go (not pictured here). This is the guts of the column. I may end up trying to replace that lower bushing - the plastic is pretty rough.
	Column surrounds, AC box, and the column will get a little sanding before paint.
So I get everything ready to go on Saturday - going to shoot primer and then paint (PVC stand is to hang parts from) and as soon as I get ready, the rain starts. It had been sunny all the while when I was getting things ready, too.
	Pile of ready things. The LCA in the foreground got rained on.
My Summit order arrived. I got the shifter, the flywheel, and the sway bar bits. Also found that the spare steel bushings that wouldn't fit the ElCo (see this update) are correct to fit the Chevelle (they're 1.90 inches in diameter). Still waiting on my special-ordered front bushings though. They're becoming the holdup.
	So today there was a 40% chance of rain. Perfect day to shoot some primer! Here's, well, everything, with primer on it. You can see a spot behind the brake pedal carrier where the cup fell off my paint gun. Dammit.
And then, once the primer dried, it was time to shoot paint. I used the entire remaining amount from the quart of single-stage black. Stuff, for the most part, came out pretty good. The glove box door needs to be buffed, I didn't get the engine-end of the column, and the heater box kinda looks bad. I did the pedal assembly, column, and glove box door in glossy, and then added the flattener for the semi - and then saw that I'd missed quite a bit on the column. I'd already added the flattener, so the column is a muted gloss.
	Engine compartment is painted too! I know I missed some spots. I've decided that I don't care.
Column vaguely assembled. You can see what I mean about missing the engine-end.
	Brake/clutch pedal assembly assembled. Glove box door mostly assembled. The trim piece I have has broken the mounting studs on the ends; I may end up screwing the middle studs and just put doublestick tape on the ends. I still need to recolor the "Malibu SS" text on the trim too.