Paint It Yourself!

Rather than jump right to the clearcoat, Ron performed an intermediate wet sanding stage to the basecoat, cutting the base with 600-grit wet. This left an unbelievably smooth surface to serve as the substrate for the clear.

The same Eastwood Concours gun was used, this time with a 1.8mm tip. As shown here loading the clear urethane, a gun rack is a must with a gravity-feed paint gun, since it will not stand on its own. Eastwood’s gun rack nests the gun and provides a holder for the strainer. Note the Eastwood mixing cup, which is graduated in the various ratios needed when mixing paint products

Cutting and polishing is what brings the finish to show car perfection. Ron started by wet sanding the clear with 1,000-grit paper, and then followed up with 2,000-grit.

Next it was back to the booth for the clear gloss. Once again the familiar cleaning steps were performed, the loose panels racked, and the clear was laid on in four full coats.

The surface should be sanded until the clear is entirely flat, with no shiny spots showing. It is difficult to tell when an area is fully sanded while wet, so the surface needs to be frequently wiped dry and checked as the work progresses.

The clear brought the paint to a magnificent luster as it was applied, making all of the work seem worthwhile. As with the loose panels, four coats were applied to the main body, providing plenty of material for the cutting and buffing to come.

The buffing process is typically accomplished in two steps, starting with a more aggressive rubbing compound and a “cutting” pad on the buffer. Ron used a wool cutting pad and 3M Super Duty Rubbing compound. The compound will buff out the sanding scratches and leave the paint glossy.

After the first compounding, the surface was cleaned and the pad on the buffer was swapped for a fine foam polishing pad. Ron then repeated the buffing process with 3M Perfect It Ultrafine Machine Polish, and brought up a brilliant smooth gloss.

Once buffing completes the paint process, the particularly satisfying job of reassembly begins. With the aid of a host of resto parts from YearOne, Ron set to work installing the glass, trim, weatherstrip, bumpers, grill, lights, and the rest of the parts to bring the Nova’s body to completion.