Old red racecar is still old, but now with more red.

"ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com" (ita97) 10/02/2017 at 18:41 • Filed to: None

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After polishing and a coat of wax, I’m done with the paint of the racecar. I’m beyond happy at how it came out, because I have no idea what I’m doing, I just follow the directions on cans. I would’ve replaced the fender had I thought the car was going to come out even half this good.

To recap, I decided to recommission the old racecar this spring. Actually, I initially planned to just get it running and then sell it cheap, but I kept on working on it until it was nearly race ready again. Being on the original paint from 1988, it was much more of an ask me about Mary Kay products color than red, and it wasn’t presentable to run with SCCA.

So I painted the trim and then started sanding. After much sanding, I hit it with a 2k Urethane primer, sanded a whole lot more and then sprayed it with three coats of a high quality single stage urethane paint mixed to the original Honda R-63 Rio Red. All this was done in my garage, and while the initial result was way better than I expected, there was plenty of dust and dog hair dried in the paint.

After procrastinating all summer, the cooler weather prompted me to finish up the paint. On Saturday I wet sanded it with 1500 grit. It wasn’t fun. On Sunday I wet sanded again 2000 grit and then compounded. It wasn’t fun, either. Today I polished it to get the swirls out and then finished it off with a coat of wax.

In the end, I’ve probably got 50-60 hours of time into it, and probably close to a grand in costs if I were to add it all up.Don’t paint your own car, just take it to the body shop of your choice and bring your checkbook. While I’ve learned a lot (including that I didn’t do as good a job masking as I thought I was), I don’t think I’ll ever paint a car again. I know why good bodywork costs so much money. It turns out that it only seems expensive until you’ve tried it yourself.

NojustNo > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 10/02/2017 at 19:42

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Yup I have tried to paint areas of my car and rarely does it end up looking factory ....though at least there’s usually *less* mismatch than when I started.

Die-Trying > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 10/02/2017 at 19:57

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that come out looking REAL nice.......

RacinBob > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 10/02/2017 at 21:31

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Nothing smells better than the smell of new paint on a race car. Fact....

RacinBob > RacinBob 10/02/2017 at 23:16

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One of my last repaints...

RacinBob > RacinBob 10/02/2017 at 23:19

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Here’s what it replaced.... This one is still in storage.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Die-Trying 10/03/2017 at 01:16

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Thanks. There are certainly imperfections, but none that can be seen from more than a couple of feet away. There is also that one spot some idiot burned through to the primer while wet sanding, but I’ve got a sticker in mind for that spot.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > RacinBob 10/03/2017 at 01:16

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That is awesome.