the inner duct wings. This was a mistake. Or, at least the way we set the bonnet on the horses was a mistake. We didn't pad the points where the bonnet and the
sawhorses met, and we discovered that the weight of the bonnet pushed the metal out at the forward-most points of contact. On the left side, this was a gentle bulge that
disappeared when we lifted the bonnet from the sawhorses, but on the right we have a little touch-up to do. I think we'll be able to press out or gently knock out
a persistent bulge on the left side. Aaron noticed the bulges when we were rubbing the bonnet with steel wool (for reasons spelled out later). They were unfortunately
not visible at the time we set the bonnet on the sawhorses.
The Moral: If you use sawhorses to suspend your bonnet, make sure that you have the sawhorses well padded, and I think fashioning a broad supporting plate from plywood
is advisable. You need to spread the weight resting on the sawhorses.
I mentioned steel wool. Here's the story another mistake that a little research solved, but that could have been messier to deal with had we continued with the
painting process. After the sealer and the basecoat was applied, we noticed that the basecoat was drying "cloudy," as if it had been lightly covered with a whitish-grey
spray. This was only apparent after the basecoat had dried, and the cloudiness was not uniform across the surface of the bonnet. In general, it followed wide lines
of the spraying itself, usually appearing where there was probably an overlap of spray.
I had not run into this on other surfaces, and I initially thought that the cloudiness might be resolved when the clearcoat was applied, since the clear is supposed
to melt and resuspend the base. But I wasn't sure, so I searched the web and found that this is a common phenomenon that is usually caused by thinning the basecoat too much
or by applying clearcoat before the basecoat has dried sufficiently. The "cloudiness" is actually suspended flakes that float to the surface of the too-thin paint. The
recommendation was to reshoot base on the surface, making sure that the basecoat paint was accurately thinned. Not too much, not too little just right.
I took a little fine steel wool after a cloudy section, and the clouds disappeared with a little rubbing. The integrity of the basecoat (which dries very soft) was unassailed.
Aaron and I rubbed the entire surface of the bonnet with steel wool to dispel the clouds, so to speak. After that, Aaron cleaned the surface with compressed air, and I
sprayed another thin coat of basecoat over the bonnet. It dried as expected, and then the clear went on. We let the clear set for about a half hour, and then sprayed a
second coat over the almost-dried first coat. It was a bad oversight on my part to have missed taking a picture of the clouded basecoat. If it happens again, and I hope it
won't, I'll remember to take a picture. You can imagine that things were a little tense around the old DeLong hacienda as the bonnet clouded up!
The bonnet will get the 800-grit sanding treatment in mid-September, about two years after we initially rolled the car into the old cat cage garage.
The photos below show the bonnet in primer, basecoat (after steel wool treatment) and after the clearcoat. You can see one of the door panels to the rear of the bonnet.
The interior sections of the doors and the trunk/boot lid were painted with the bonnet. Place your mouse over the pictures for their captions.