Zed Body Assembled

Quick post today. This past weekend, Boo, C and I put the hood, rear hatch and doors onto Zed, in that order. That's really all there is today, but we did learn some things, as we always do, along the way.

Hood

hood, door on

We started with the hood, not because we thought it would be easiest, but because it was the closest to the car, and we didn't want to trip over it. When I removed the hood to shoot it, the hood was open. Now, that sounds kind of obvious, but earlier, when I had it off, it had been closed. Back then, I could not get the mounting brackets to shift from closed to open position after I removed it. After all the prep work, I installed it to get the fenders and such to line up. When it came time to paint, I opened the hood and removed it vertically. I was by myself, but I figured if I scratched or dropped it as I removed it, it was not a big deal. For install, though, I needed hands to hold it steady or it would get scratched and that would have been super disappointing. I held one side and C held the other while Boo got all bendy, reaching into the engine bay with the bolts. Once they were fingered in, we lowered the hood (still unlatched) to put on the other panels.

Rear Hatch

hatch, door on

The rear hatch was the easiest of all 4 to install. C and I each held it aloft while Boo fingered on the nuts. The hinges were attached to the body, so they wanted to lay down in a way that we could not get to the underside to put on the nuts. C found some scrap foam and stuffed it under each of the hinges so they popped up enough to get the nuts on. The hatch still needs some adjustment to sit a little higher, I think, but I will probably wait on that until after I have the seal installed so I can get it where it needs to go. I figure I would have to adjust it after the seal goes on anyway.

Passenger Door

C and I planning

For the doors, I left the hinges installed against the car, and removed the bolts from the hinges into the doors. I did this for 2 reasons. First, and most obvious, the bolts that run through the hinges into the body are mostly covered by the fenders when they are installed... like they are now. With the body kit epoxied in place, those fenders are going nowhere. Second, the majority of the install wiggle is in the bolts the go into the car body. Once I got the doors where I wanted them before the last tear-down for paint, it is much easier to get them back where they belong with just the hinge-to-door bolts. Still, this is at least a 2-person operation: one holding the door (from the inside: protect the paint) and another threading in the bolts. I held the door, and moved it as requested while C did the threading. Boo, meanwhile, moved car-port supports and such out of the way.

Driver Door

The driver door was probably the hardest. Consider that the person doing the bolt threading needs to reach past the door from the inside, placing your head where the steering wheel is. Still, the process is the same: one person holds the door steady while the other threads the bolts. We took turns and after about 30 minutes we had the door on.

Front Bumper Adjust

bumper not yet adjusted

At this point, I cut C and Boo loose to get after their own Saturday afternoons while I fiddled with alignment of the various panels. I started with and got the hood square and evenly spaced on either side. I had to loosen the headlight bucket on the passenger side and push it outward, but otherwise the hood aligned relatively easily (read: 30 minutes). The doors latch, and they installed right where they were before, so I will probably leave them be until after the seals go in, like the rear hatch. Because of the nature of the latching mechanism for the doors, there really isn't very much forward/aft movement available, leaving just the height that you would really adjust. I am satisfied that the height is spot on, but once the weight of the glass is added, I may need to adjust them upward to compensate.

While standing back, admiring the front end, I noticed that the front bumper was much closer to the bottom of the passenger side headlight bucket than the driver side. It was a noticeable 10mm difference. I loosened the nuts holding the front bumper bar and tried to lower the passenger side or raise the driver side. It made very little difference (maybe 1-2mm). I had to loosen the front bumper brackets where they mount to the car and shim the driver side to make up the difference. They are exactly even now, but it took some doing.

Well, that's it for today. We have some housing things going on, so I'll probably go dark on the blog for a while. We had an unexpected opportunity to grab a small farmhouse on a large lot around the way. So, my time will be taken with home repair projects and then moving. Suffice to day, I will probably not be doing anything major on a car until winter.

Thanks, as always, for following along-

Zed Shot

Following the post from last week, I spent this past weekend getting Zed (1979 Datsun 280zx) painted. This has been such a long time coming, it is really hard to believe the painting is over. I may circle-back around and shoot some touch-up clear coat some day, but for now, the painting is complete. I have not color-sanded nor cut/buffed, but that isn't technically painting.... and I'm not going to do that for a while anyway. Unless I change my mind, cuz that never happens. About that painting...

Scrapping Booger Epoxy

base shot

I concluded my efforts the prior weekend with removing the clamps and confirming that the bumpers held in place. This confirmation was simply me tugging on them in various directions. Everything set right. Starting Saturday morning, I got after reducing the epoxy spread along the seams of the front bumper. Recall, I put that clear epoxy all over where you can't see, but wanted to make sure it really held to the fenders on the ends. So, I applied a bunch where you couldn't see and then ran a bead along the seam. this stuff sands off in boogers, so rather than suffer that again, as I did with the side skirts, I tried a different method this time.

Using the razor blade, I etched two lines, one a hair above and the other a hair below the seam. Then, using a piece of 320-grt sandpaper, I worked the edge of the epoxy until it lifted off a little bit. I grabbed that edge and pulled off small sheets that left a clean edge along the seam. This took far less time than straight sanding, and left a much cleaner finish. In the final picture below, you really can't see any evidence of epoxy peeking through.

more base

With the epoxy lines clean, I repaired some masking and performed my usual degreaser cleanse. Next, I set up for paint, laying down my air lines and mixing station, getting the supplies in place, etc. In the past, I did not get 100% ready, leaving things like lacquer thinner or a parts-cleaning brush in the garage. Inevitably I would have to open the garage door, letting all that stink into the house, just long enough to grab something. This time, I had my gun set up with the line drier, paint set out on a sheet of crap plywood, tarps on the ground, walls on the carport, etc before I even thought about mixing paint. Once I was set up, I took a break for food. Figure each coat takes about an hour, and I didn't want to be shooting hungry.

Shooting Base

Once fed, I wiped the car and the detached parts with a tack-cloth. I felt ready to go, but a little anxious after borking it the last time. I had the paint-correct activator this time though, so I was hopeful. Similar to the prior paint shoot, I mixed 20oz at a time, pouring most of the mixture into the hopper on top of the gun, leaving a little in the jar so it wouldn't drip out the air-hole at the top when I'm shooting at a sharp angle. Unlike the last time, I literally used a jar to mix in, versus a plastic measuring cup. The paint would stick to the plastic cup; it doesn't stick to glass. I pre-measured my mix lines (4oz for activator, 12oz on top of that for base), and simply poured in the activator to the first line and filled with color to the second. I hand shake the can of base for a few minutes before each session, and then shake it for a few seconds before each mix into the jar... because this has metal flake in it. I imagine, if this were just color (no flake), I wouldn't need to do that pre-jar shake. I want to make sure there's plenty of flake in each mini-batch.

hood base close-up

Because I failed to set up the gun correctly the last time, I was a little more sensitive this time. I had at least one coat still on the car, so I didn't need multiple coats everywhere, and I didn't have a full gallon left anyway. So, to set up the gun, I roughed-in the pressure by setting the pressure at the compressor to 30. I have read that there is some pressure loss down the lines, so rounding up a couple of pounds is better. I have a pressure regulator with a gauge at the gun plus the pressure control knob on the gun itself. I understand that necking down the pressure only at the paint-gun end of the hose will reduce the pressure, but the volume of air increases. So, by setting the pressure at the tank closer to your end-desired pressure, the volume will not meaningfully change when you lower the pressure at the gun by a few pounds. Anyway, with the pressure set, I hooked up my in-line drier, opened up the paint volume knob and started shooting test fans on one of the replacement hoods I got for ToyoTruck. In my last session, I used some cardboard. I don't know if this made a huge difference, but I figure test-shooting onto auto-steel is probably a better fan-test than paper.

Satisfied I was getting a fan that laid down without orange peel, spitting or thin spots, I set to shooting the arrayed parts (hood, tail gate and doors) and then the main shell. I had thought I had enough paint for 2 coats. I was wrong. When I thought I had enough for 2 coats, I shot the most important stuff first (omitting the door jams), and then did not have enough paint to get the door jams. So, after the weather seals are on, there may be a few spots in the door jams that don't have the coverage the rest of the car enjoys. Since I was out of paint, I just moved on. I figure I can get a rattle can of this paint (9mm metallic) from Eastwood if it really bothers me.

Shooting Clear

hood clear'd

I have read that letting your paint dry for up to 4 hours before applying clear coat is a good idea. Others have said you can shoot it as soon as the directions for the base say you could shoot another coat of base (like 15-20 minutes in my case). I decided that a little extra off-gassing / drying wouldn't hurt so long as I shot the clear coat within 24 hours of the base. Outside of 24 hours, the base needs a scuff for the clear to really adhere. I figured early Sunday afternoon was inside the 24 hour window, since it was now past 4PM. My other options were to shoot right away or wait a few hours and shoot after dark. I didn't like either of those, so I cleaned up the gun, and the work area.

Sunday morning started similar to Saturday afternoon. I already had the walls up and the tarps down. So, I just needed to set up the painting rig. I had chosen Eastwood's Low-VOC High Solids clear. The reviews were not as good as some of their other clear coats, but most of the complaints were about it's ability to flow out the gun. The advice was to include reducer, which I did. The standard mix for the clear is 4-parts clear to 1-part activator. I added about 1.5 parts reducer. Similar to my use of a jar for the paint to get my measurements consistent, I used a different jar for the clear. Otherwise, the process was the same.

rear clear, in the sun

The weather for both Saturday and Sunday was peculiar for the west-of-the-Cascades Pacific Northwest. The sky was overcast, which made painting much easier. When I shot a few weeks ago, it was very sunny. You would think all that light would make it easier to shoot, but it didn't. Seeing the fan and the paint lay down was much harder in all that light. The overcast skies created a flat light that allowed me to see the target and the paint (and clear) much easier. Weeks ago, I used a GunBudd to help me see. This time, I didn't need anything to see. I did, however, have to wait for the weather to warm up to 70*F. It's a really strange feeling, waiting for the air to get above 70* in August, but that's the world we're in, I guess.

front p-side clear'd

The clear laid down very well, and flowed out the gun without issue. I probably could have used a little less reducer, as I suffered a few drips and sags. Still, I was able to get 2 nice coats of clear before I ran out of reducer. As the clear dried, I became less and less concerned about the drips/sags and more pleased with the overall look. From the pictures, everything looks a little wavy, but I'm okay with that. Without the camera, I think it looks amazing and the difference in the way the color looks between sunlit and shadowed is remarkable. In the first clear picture of the hood above, you can see my elbow in the lower right corner reflecting off the hood. My arm is probably 5 feet away, and that's not a shadow (I'm actually facing west); that's the reflection of my arm. I think that describes how deep this paint can look once it's wet sanded, cut and buffed. Thinking of the imperfections, I know I can sand those drips down and the waves will sand flat. I have more clear, so I can re-shoot areas if I really need to. For now, I am going to let everything sit for a few days, and then start gingerly attaching the hood, rear lid and doors.

I don't know for sure what's next. Well, strip the masking, but maybe I'll clean the engine bay and then start re-installing the electrical stuff. Or do I do windows next? I don't know. I suppose the next logical step is to sort through the shed-room and figure out what I have and don't have. Let's not forget, when I inherited this project, it was a basket case. After all the painting, I still have boxes and piles of unlabeled parts. So, I guess the next step is to empty out the jigsaw puzzle pieces and start sorting.

That's it for today. Thanks, as always, for following along-

Orange Peel

Brief post today. For the tl;dr folks, after I let the paint on Zed (1979 280ZX) cure, I looked at it more closely. I definitely did not have enough pressure at the gun, leading to the paint not atomizing well... resulting in some nice orange peel.. pretty much on everything. Today's post touches on that, and then finishes with the bumpers getting installed.

Before I start, today is Boo's birthday. Boo, you are amazing. I am so grateful we found each other, I simply can't express. Your support for my car projects, and tolerance for the corresponding messes has helped make these posts happen. Your embrace of a "Let's See" attitude has opened doors I would not have thought possible. You inspire me. Congratulations on another trip around the sun; I am looking forward to the next annual trip together again.

Sand Sand Sand

rear bumper installed

Why say it 3 times? Well, I spent 3 days sanding all the orange peel off Zed's exterior. After trying a few different grit combinations to get the orange peel off, I found wet sanding with 120 grit and following with 320 (also wet) removed the orange peel most effectively. This was not fast, however. I put in 3 6-hour days to get the orange peel gone. Fortunately, I had put 3 coats of base on, so I didn't burn through to primer very much. I still have almost an entire gallon of base, so when I have another full day available (maybe next weekend), I can shoot 2 new coats of base and then the clear.

Even after a wet sand, there is a residue. I washed everything with a mild no-residue-leaving car wash and the garden hose. With our warm dry weather, the puddles dried up quickly. I will still need to do my usual de-grease, tack-cloth routine, but I am starting out from a much better place than had I not washed it. 

Bumper Installs

front p-side

With the car sanded and clean, I decided to install the bumpers. If I learned anything from the side skirt installs it is that they will not go on effortlessly. Had I shot the pain perfectly, I would still probably have something to fix with regards to the bumpers after installing them. Unlike the side skirts, though, they were not nearly as non-compliant.

My method was similar. I started with a nice coating of contact cement on both the inside of the bumper and the steel bar it was attaching to. Ditto for the side panels. Once the cement was set up, I applied some of the clear epoxy on top of the cement along the top and face of the bumper bar. I then set the bumper in place. For the rear bumper, I re-used the M4 bolts to hold it in the right spot as the cement and epoxy set. I held the front bumper in place with a pair of long clamps just in front of the front wheels. To make sure the front held well, I spread a thin layer along the top seam, like I had with the side skirts. I know I know... this stuff is "sandable" (read: not really sandable), and I'll be scraping boogers before I can shoot the paint. I am willing to accept that, if the bumper holds firm. In the picture below, of the driver side, you can see the seam marked with a shiny line. That will need to be minimized for paint.

front d-side

The next morning, I tested the hold. I could lift the rear end of the car by holding onto the bottom of the rear bumper. That's a win. For the front, I removed the clamps, and pulled the bottom edges (near the tires) away from the car. The fender flexed a little bit, but the bumper did not budge. I will be scraping boogers, but it will hold.

Well, that's basically it for today. It has been a very labor-intense week for such a short post. That's how it goes some times, though: work for almost 40 hours and have little to show for it. If the weather holds ,and I can carve out the time, I hope to be shooting this weekend.

Thanks, as always, for following along-

Pickathon 2022 Pop-in

My brother Rob set me up with a one-day ticket to the 20 year tradition music festival on Portland's east side this past weekend. So, rather than spend the day sanding, I ran with the bulls at Pendarvis Farm. Today's post is a collection of observations. Like any cultural anthropologist, I bring with my observations a bias from prior experiences (Black Sheep, 4Peaks, NW String Summit, Horning's Hootenanny, and ChinookFest). I can't ignore all that, so understand that my opinions stem from what I saw at those other festivals.

Parking

Margo Cilker

Obviously any festival starts with getting there and back. With the significant increase in housing development around Pendarvis Farm, the festival site seems to be contracting. This year, there were significant issues with parking, and some persons who bought weekend parking passes found themselves parking either within the housing developments or at a shuttle-served lot a few miles away. We were fortunate in that we were able to find a spot in the blackberry bush strewn overflow parking complex Saturday morning. I say complex because it was a hilly area with mixed bushes, trees, and ravines, making the "lot" a labyrinth. Lotyrinth? Finding the car in the dark after many more cars appeared was especially challenging. For the beverage consumers, this would have been a very effective sobriety test.

Get In to Get Lost

Once parked, the entrance, and pretty much the entire festival, was effectively unmarked. You knew you were at the entrance simply because that was where some folks were walking in, but it was a 1-person wide breach in the fence marked by a guy sitting in a folding chair. The wristband tent was well run (though, again, the signage was virtually absent), and once strapped, Rob and I headed uphill on the gravel driveway towards the crowd. Our passage was interrupted by what would become a very familiar pair of catering tables on either side of the walkway, with a 8" x 10" sign reading "Bag Check". Here, they confirmed you did not have any alcohol from whence you came.

Cherry Hill stage

The "Bag Check" sign was the only consistent sign I recall seeing. The stages were unlabeled. The trails were unlabeled, so were the barns, leaving you subject to finding maps, which were posted in a few spots around the festival grounds. Unfortunately, they did not include a "you are here" marker, so the maps really only served to taunt you with seeing where you wanted to be, without actually delivering what a map usually delivers: a route to take to get there. Any time we were walking around, I really had no idea where I was or how to get where we were going. "Rob, you're driving," was a familiar refrain. He had been to Pickathon a bunch of times and had been at this event for the prior 2 days... and even he had to check himself on where we were and how to get where we wanted to be. It was a rolling navigational pop-quiz. Frankly, something as simple as a single central post with arrows pointing in the general direction of the stages would have helped.

Beyond the lack of signage and having to pass through security twice every time we went to the Woods stage (or to the barns) and back, Pickathon did a great deal of crowd management through frustrating clear paths with fences or other obstacles. A route would look clear and then you would get to the end of the path, terminating with a small "artists only" or "staff only" sign and a security person. My last complaint / observation is the dust cloud. Rob and I both wore masks most of the time for CoViD reasons initially, but found them to be critical in keeping the dust out of our lungs. I still had considerable brown junk in my nose after wearing the mask all day because the event staff were not watering the trails we were allowed to use. At other festivals I have gone to, this is standard fare: those 4-wheel golf carts would run water sprayers on the main trails to cut down on the dust. Even in festivals based on the desert (4Peaks, eg) would do this, and the water in Bend ain't cheap. The dust management, when combined with the forced-crowd routing, was a major miss.

Vending

After all that complaining about logistics, the vendors were fantastic. There were probably 25 different food options, including beer and pizza offerings at the remote stages. The lines were fairly long all evening, and they did not move terribly quickly, but the prices were reasonable ($16 for a burrito, eg). 

Because Pickathon is a waste-free event, you need to buy or rent a plate or utensils for food and buy a cup for drinks. I had not seen a waste-free festival before, and now, in retrospect, this was admirable. There wasn't any garbage anywhere; no litter, no overflowing garbage cans, etc. The location between the food vendors and the merch tent where one could purchase these items had no line at any point that I can remember, even during the heavy dinner food rush. If you did not want to buy, and wanted to rent, the exchange took place there, with a return (no cash back, you got a food/drink chip) after you visited a washing station that was kinda far away. I got a burrito and skipped the whole commemorative plate thing, but the concept and execution were impressive. Other festivals could learn from this.

The merch tent was efficient and had lots of swag for both the festival and the artists. Of all the festivals I've been to, I think this merch tent was the best supplied. Considering how many artists appeared, having shirts and recordings for what seemed like every artist was no easy feat. I grabbed a poster, rather than a T-shirt (I can see the poster every day, the T-shirt comes up in the rotation, like, once every 6 weeks).

Camping

Bella White

Neither Rob nor I camped, but some of Rob's friends were in the car-camping area closest to the festival grounds. So, we visited long enough to get a sense of the scene. The car-camping zones were set up on slightly sloped, open field about 10 meters wide by, maybe 100 meters long with a fire lane along one side and a fence along the other. Cars were parked two or three deep against the fence with canopies and tents intermixed in between. Everything was close together for sure, but Rob's friends had a large rectangular canopy under which they spent the majority of their awake-but-not-at-music time. They seemed quite comfortable.

The tent camping seemed to be pretty much everywhere, at least in the treed areas; the open ground around and between most of the stages hadn't any campers. Once in the forest, however, it almost seemed like if there wasn't a trail or a tree, there was a tent. Of course, we did not hike into the deeper areas, but we met a friend who was camped at the furthest end and she indicated that when she arrived (early-ish Thursday) the best, flatter spots at the outer edges had already been taken. She had to clear her own spot with clippers. We joked about bringing a machete next year.

Unlike the other festivals I had been to, it seemed like the camping spots were really just used for sleeping, and no one was hanging out there. The only exception to that, other than a handful of close-in car-campers, was the hammocks. Those who brought hammocks had them strung between trees and appeared to spend most of their time lounging in them. At least, that is how it appeared, as they were there whenever we padded between stages. Even the RV zone appeared empty during the day.

Music

Garcia Peoples

Of course, the main reason for going to a music festival is the music. When Rob invited me to go on Saturday, there were 2 acts I really wanted to see: Built to Spill and Quantic. I had never heard anything by Built to Spill, but numerous people in my past have raved about them. Quantic, on the other hand, I had listened to here and there since the late 90's, and I really liked his original material. Rob had a few more on his "really want to see" list, and then had a bunch circled for otherwise open time slots. Below, I'll list who we saw in the order in which we saw them.

Jake Xerxes Fussel - Afterwards, Rob described him as a "white Taj Mahal". I thought that was generous. Jake's vocal range is much more narrow than Taj, and his guitar work was nowhere near Taj. After 3 songs we felt like we had seen everything he had to share and we left for the Woods stage to see Margo. Jake was an otherwise open spot on the schedule for us.

Margo Cilker - from Rob's "really want to see" list. They were amazing. Her lyrics have genuine word-smithing that far surpassed pretty much everyone else we saw. Margo was joined with backing harmonies by her sister, and there are few things as tonally perfect as sibling harmonies. When Boo and her sister sing together, it is magical. Add to that the lyrics, the melody lines and a tight performance group, and they really stole the festival for us. Her stage banter was approachable and created understanding for the next piece well. Seriously, for a first artist of the day, she could have been, and, arguably, should have been much later in the day. Still, the Woods stage represented, and gave her the love deserved.

Frankie and the Witch Fingers - We stayed to the very end of Margo's set and then had to navigate the bag check between the Woods stage and the others. By the time we got to the Grove, Frankie and co were deep into it. What we saw was punk, basically, complete with crowd surfing by some of the younger set. We were fairly far back, so the sound quality was not very good, so we didn't stay. Rob's friends said they were great, and they were in front of the sound board.

The Feels - We caught the tail end of the Feels set after tasting Frankie and the Witch Fingers. They were tight with a hard edge. Apparently, Pickathon was their last series of shows, so I'm glad we saw what little we did. The musicians look fairly young, so this isn't a case of retirement. More likely, some artists are heading into different directions. It will be interesting to see where these folks go.

Quantic

Rachel Briman - From Nashville, Rachel was chosen because we had an open time slot, we hadn't been to this stage except for one song by the Feels and it was surrounded by trees. Rachel is a multi-instrumentalist, appearing with a banjo, guitar and violin during her set. Unfortunately, the soundcheck appeared to have not gone well, as it was still ongoing when her set was supposed to start. The sound system was definitely not ready: we did not hear the guitarist at all for the first few numbers and of all things the drums weren't loud enough. Most unfortunate, though, the entire main was not loud enough. So, neighbors having a conversation at normal conversation volume were louder than the stage, and when Rachel was talking, we couldn't make out what she was saying. By the middle of the set, the mix was better balanced, though still way too quiet, but we could tell that she and her unit were good instrumentalists. The sound guy earned an F; total fail, go back to school.

Bella White - I don't remember where Bella was from or how we came upon her set. We were fortunate to get standing room directly behind the soundboard, though. As flat-awful as the sound guy was for Rachel, this guy was great. At the start of each song, he would jump on the sliders and make the mix spot-on perfect. As her set was starting the DJ at the stage behind us, unfortunately, did not get the memo that his set was over, so for Bella's introduction and first song, we had to strain to hear through a later Phil Collins recording. Yes, that's right; Phil Collins from a DJ. Wow, seen that now. Bella appeared with a violinist to her right and a standup bass to her left. They were really good, putting them in my top 3 for the day. Bella brought a charisma to the stage that no others did that day, drawing you in with vulnerability, wanting to hear more of her stories. Great harmonies, really sweet violin. Like Margo, we stayed to the very end, and also like Margo, we were sad her set was only an hour long.

Cherry Hill at night

Garcia Peoples - We headed down to the Galaxy Barn after Bella. We had an opening in the 5PM timeslot and we hadn't been inside a barn for a performance yet. The Galaxy barn is cool (quite literally. it is air conditioned), and fits probably 60 people. When it is at capacity, the air conditioning doesn't do much, but it feels very intimate. These guys were loud; like the Who loud. They were so loud that I pulled out the decibel reader on my phone to see how loud, and they were over 102dB during a quieter part of their 2nd song. I tapped Rob on the shoulder, showed him the reading and pointed my thumb at the door. He agreed and we hit the door. As to the show, their musicianship was really good. Their bassman was clever and laid down interesting lines while their lead guitarist shreded. They reminded us of Iron Butterfly or another late 60's riff-rock band, but their vocals were very disappointing, and the drumming was crude, like very early Black Sabbath (blacka-blacka-blacka) simple. We sat in the grass under a tree, where the outdoor speakers played to the "overflow" space for the balance of the set.

Quantic - We returned to the Woods stage (bag check again) after Garcia Peoples. We had an open hour, but the security lines were getting slower and we did not want to miss the start of the set. I have enjoyed Quantic's original material for literally 20+ years, but I had never seen him live. He rolled a "festival set" of danceable music that showed his roots (Afro-Cuban underbeat with some deep bass), but there was little of his original music in there. Still, he was awesome and the Woods stage crowd loved it. Of the entire festival, this was the only performance where the entire audience was standing if not dancing. Until this point, every other performance was witnessed by a 75% (or more) sitting crowd, with the standers usually along the outer edges, standing because there was no longer room to sit. No judging, just noticing.

Built to Spill - As the afternoon shifted to evening, the smaller stages shut down, but the security bag check lines were unrelenting. We intended to catch some of GZA, but working through the crowds really prevented that plan. We did catch a little bit, but then decided that scoring a spot for Built to Spill was a better use of a our time between. We set up right in front of the video camera tripod adjacent to the sound board. The vocal was low in the mix at the start, but that was resolved by the end of the first song. They rocked, and played past the end of the hour by almost 15 minutes. Oops. Such a good bass player, and the lead solos/jams were fantastic. How they could produce so much sound with so few players, I don't know, but Built to Spill were great.

Because of the different genre's, it's hard to say who was "the best" or my favorite. I think the festival day winner was Quantic simply because he got an entire crowd on their feet and dancing for over 30 minutes. Near the end of his set, I shot the imbedded video posted above. Having said that, my favorite was Margo. With Quantic second and then Bella, followed by Built to Spill. Everyone has an opinion; that was mine.

In the end, we really had a great time and I think the company I was keeping (brother Rob) was what made it so. Like Boo, he approached with a list of wanna-sees, but an openness to take what came, and change it up if what we encountered wasn't what we needed. I was worn out by the time I got home. A warm shower with a cold beer set me up for a long sleep. If you've never had a cold beer in the shower after a long hot dusty day, I strongly recommend it.

That's it. I intend to get back to Zed later this week / weekend. I'll post an update when I have one. Thanks, as always, for following along-

Painting Zed

It has been a very busy couple of weeks. I had taken a block of days off work for a camping trip in Hapy, but with Boo's arm, that was not going to happen, So, instead of a road trip and corresponding post, today I will cover what I DID do those days: take several major steps forward on getting paint on Zed, the 1979 Datsun 280ZX. Apologies for the late post. I finished painting yesterday, and I am back to work today. So, while this is a day and a half late, there's a lot to cover.

Priming Body Kit 

end state

Recall the last post about Zed, I was fitting and wrestling with the fiberglass body kit. I got the gaps set, and panels attached with bolts. I described the effort on the rear bumper and the side skirts, but did not detail the front bumper. While it did not seat as well as the rear, it was not as much trouble as the side skirts either. Similar to how I filled the gaps on the skirts and rear bumper, I matched the height to the side skirts and then set the spread on the front bumper. Similar to the others, I shot cooking oil into the gap, cleaned the fiberglass, applied Bondo, removed the bumper and sanded the Bondo smooth. After sanding, I repeated the process a couple of times to get the front bumper to sit as well as the rear. Once the seams were as good enough, I set the panels on that old blue tarp with the replacement driver fender, and shot them with the black urethane primer I used on the rest of the body. That was day one of my vacation.

Sanding Party

Ah yes. The fun of sanding. The more you prime, the more you get to sand. I had the 5 panels, and they sanded down smooth with 320 grit, eventually. I discovered, however, that if I started with 120 grit and did just a quick pass on the panel before shifting to the 320 the finish was as good or better, but it took far less time and material.

final priming shoot

Of course, I re-sanded the rest of the body too. Why? Well, I got a little overspray from the priming onto the passenger side of the main shell. Since the doors, hood and tail gate were still on, the tiny dried paint bits made a difference. There was a slight sandpaper edge on the whole car. It only took an hour or so, to sand it back smooth but it all adds up. Next time, I'll cover things with an extra tarp.

Next, I prepared for paint by removing the hood, doors and rear tail gate. I arrayed them on the blue tarp with their less-likely-to-be-seen sides up. My plan was to paint these areas first and then paint the flip sides when I shot the rest of the car. This plan was a good one in that I got to learn the feel for my new paint gun (Atom x27). As before, I disassembled and cleaned that gun with lacquer thinner and then re-assembled with a "larger" 1.4mm tip. I quote larger because 1.4 aint so big. This was where my day 2 ended.

First Spray with Color

hood underside shot

I am continuing to use Eastwood paint material, and chose a base-coat / clear coat urethane combination. For color, I am shooting "9mm" grey. The paint has very small metallic flake on a medium grey base that appears to have a touch of olive green in it. The olive green sub-color is not apparent in online images, but it does appear after it has been applied.

This first day of shooting was focused on body parts that mostly won't be seen: the insides of the fenders, the side skirts, the bumpers, the insides of the doors, the underside of the hood, the inside of the rear deck lid, the radiator supports, around the engine bay, the hidden parts of the headlight buckets and the door jams. The first coat laid down extremely well in the over 33C (92*F) heat. When I shot the second coat, however, I could not see the material hit the panels very well. Between wrestling with my glasses, which were fogging up from my sweat, to sweat droplets on my glasses, all aggravated by my lack of direct light on the panel.... lead to a dry-spray effect on most of the panels. The under side of the rear deck lid and radiator support were mostly spared, but the others had varying effects. So, the next morning, I chose to sand the bumpers, door jams, and door-insides planning to re-shoot them when I did the rest of the car.

In the background of the rest of the pictures, you will see that Boo and I added side walls to the Harbor Freight car ports. I ordered 2 8' x 20' walls from TentAndTable. They attach with clips, and, because they are 20 feet long, they can be used in different configurations around the 20' x 20' covered space we have. After the end of my final day of shooting paint, we shortened them to 10' long on the sides to allow air flow (after the surfaces flash-dried) to let the fumes out. These walls did a great job of keeping the light and temperature consistent while also preventing dust and bugs from drifting in.

Side Skirt Install Fun

pop rivetted

Before I could do the rest of the painting, I wanted the side skirts installed. Of course, that meant that the fenders were re-installed first. I mounted the headlight buckets to the fenders, and installed the fenders with M6 bolts. The side skirts had been held in place during the Bondo cycles with M4 bolts through the panels into the side of the car. I did not want to repeat that for the finished work.

I had hoped that the epoxy would hold well enough that I could remove the bolts and the panels would hold in-place just from the strength of the epoxy. I was not so lucky. Both the contact cement I used for carpeting the speaker box and the clear goop stuff that delivered with the panels failed. So, I cleared the goop and tried again with the goop and then, once the goop had set up, I replaced the bolts with pop-rivets. Of course, once the side skirts were on, the fenders are now effectively fixed-in-place. I applied small spots of Bondo a-top the pop rivets and sanded them smooth. Last, I cleaned up the goop along the top edges. The goop label said it was sand-able and paint-able. If by "sand-able" they mean that you can apply sandpaper to it, then, yeah, it's sand-able. It does not powder down, though; it sanded off in big boogers instead. Cleaning the goop took an hour just by itself. Grr.. But, the side skirts are in. With a gloved hand, I wiped primer on the spots I had put Bondo or otherwise sanded down to fiberglass. The next morning, I cuffed the primer down and after one more dance around the car with 320 grit, we're ready to shoot. I did not take a picture of the finished skirting, but the pop-rivet and booger repair is unnoticeable in the final finish. They look completely straight and flat.

Paint Prep 

no boogers, no rivets

Before I could shoot, I had to set up the space and then prepare the panels. For set up, I started by flipping over the hood and rear deck lid. I considered how the paint might flop on the panels, and considered that the hood is effectively flat, relative to the ground, and the rear deck lid is fairly close to flat. The doors, however, hang vertically. I don't have a means of holding a 20# door in the air vertically, but I do have saw horses. I hung the doors on one side of a saw horse, attaching it to the horse with bailing wire. This way, the door is as close to vertical as I can manage, allowing the paint to arrive on the panel in the correct orientation, and for the paint to cure that way as well. I don't know if it matters with this paint, but I figured it didn't hurt to take the extra step.

On shoot day, I have found that I follow a very similar path. If I know that I have touched the car with anything other than a gloved hand, I clean with de-greaser. Either way, I sweep the painting area clean and then vacuum every panel. Last, I pass over every square inch with a tack-cloth to get every speck of dust that might have attached itself to the panels.

arrayed for the shoot

Once the car and panels were wiped down, I set up the paint gun with an inline desiccant from Harbor Freight followed by a pressure controller. I added an air-system quick-release to the inlet side of the desiccant so I could move without the hose attached. With the gun set, and the panels placed, I was ready to mix paint.

By the time I got to this point, we were entering the heat of the day (2:PM), after the end of a heat wave peaking at 39C (102*F). On this day, at this time, it was 27C (80*F) so I set up with medium speed catalyst rather than the fast-dry I used a few days earlier.

 

Main Shooting

When I researched the root causes of dry-spray, I believed the problem was that I was not sending enough material out the gun. In retrospect, I think I was unable to see well enough, and moved too fast, or did not overlap my fan well enough. Regardless, when I set out to shoot this time, I opened up the mixture so more material would pass out of the gun. This, unfortunately, caused orange peel that I was unable to sufficiently account for during the second coat. Unlike the painting session 2 days earlier, this time, I was running the GunBudd, shining light directly on the work. I decided to turn up the pressure and apply a third coat. This time, the orange peel was reduced significantly, but it was not eliminated. Since this is metallic paint (albeit tiny flecks), the recommendation is to not sand, lest the flakes are disturbed. C and Boo said that they really liked the texture, that it looks bold and "badass". I'm not so sure.

unfortunate orange peel

Frustrated at my mishap, I decided to just get after the clear coat anyway. At this point, however, I discovered that I had just used the catalyst designated for the clear coat, consuming almost all of it. I determined that the catalyst I used was fine for paint, but the paint catalyst was NOT fine for clear. So, I could not shoot clear coat until I had more catalyst. Getting catalyst from Eastwood will definitely push me outside the 24 hour re-spray-without-sanding window so I will have to at least sand a little bit for the clear to adhere. Since I have to sand a "key", I think my mistakenly using the clear-coat catalyst creates a new opportunity: I can sand down the remaining orange peel and then shoot another layer of base before switching over to clear coat. The extra coat of base should address any flake flakiness. Of course, I have to wait for FedEx, but I can start sanding while I await the catalyst's arrival. Yeay.

At this point, we have color on every panel. There is orange peel, but I think there is enough paint build to allow me to lightly remove enough of the peel without burning through. Then, I can shoot another coat of base and top it with 3 coats of clear.

Thanks, as always, for following along. I'll post on the finished job once it's done-