First coat

In the last episode, I had discovered that after all the sanding back and painting I actually needed to fill the crack. I also discovered that the paint takes a lot longer to actually dry that I thought.

The end result was that I was now at the point of having patched the crack whether to paint over it before taking the car out for the weekend, or doing the sanding and painting of the epoxy after the drive, even though the car would be dirty.

I ultimately decided that there was no need to rush (which took a lot of discipline on my part) and that I would wait until after the weekend run. So on Sunday night, after the trip out in the morning, I broke out the 600 grit sand paper and commenced what I thought would be short process.

The reality was that I probably needed coarser sand paper to cut through the epoxy, because the 600 grit got clogged pretty quickly. Not having any coarser sand paper I continued on for well over an hour sanding, sanding, sanding and sanding some more.

To be honest, it got the better of me and I was now so sick of sanding that I just wanted it done. I tided it all up and then applied the first coat of paint over the patched crack.

The above result at the end of the painting process certainly looks much better but if you look closer you can see that the surface is not completely flat. The ‘scar’ where the epoxy is can be seen upon close inspection.

To get a totally smooth result I probably should have used a machine sander, however the risk with that is that if you sand away too much then that is generally more of a problem than not enough. Thus, I decided that given all the constraints it was the best I could do.

I left the paint to dry for another week and took the car out for a long drive with the Ferrari Club on Sunday.

So if the above is what it started out as, this is what it looks like now.

If you look closely you can see the area that I have painted and the ‘epoxy scar’ that perhaps could be sanded back more but generally at this stage of the game i am pretty happy with the result as I no longer see white fibreglass poking through red paint work.

With the weekend drive over it was now time to put a second coat over the first. I had been advised that I should sand the first attempt with 1200 grit to ensure there are no imperfections that would show through the second coat.

I would need to clean the area before painting so I asked someone whether methylated sprits could be used. They advise that I should use polish first then use metho. In the end I decided to wash the area first with car detergent. I then rinsed and dried the area. I then applied some of the cutting polish that came with the paint repair kit I had purchased.

The cutting polish took some of the paint off onto the polishing rag. I panicked at first but then remembered that that this is what the polish is supposed to do and the paint I was cleaning had no clear coat on it yet so it was raw paint.

I got an even greater shock when I then tried to use metho, because it started to take the paint off in much greater volumes. This left part of the surface I had attempted to clean sticky, like the paint wasn’t dry. Cursing my luck I now had to decide whether to proceed with the sanding and second coat.

Impatience won out and I decided to proceed with the second coat. I therefore cleaned the area again with water to remove any metho. Once it was dry I then proceeded to lightly sand the whole area back with 1200 grit.

Doing so took the gloss off the surface and did expose some of the white areas previously sanded. This was probably more to do with applying the metho than the sanding.

With the area sanded back, I once again cleaned it with water, ensured it was dry and then broke out the red paint. The question here is, how much do you apply? Do you apply a nice thick glossy coat or the bare minimum? I went for the thick glossy coat figuring that it is easier to take away than add later.

After closely examining my work, I touched up a few areas that where inconsistent and then stepped away. As always, I could see some small areas that I REALLY wanted to paint more but I disciplined myself after previous impatient attempts to call it quits for the day.

This second coat will now have the rest of the week to dry and after a trip out on the weekend the next step is to apply the clear coat.

Dry paint, dry.