Fly Fly Away little T Bird (thursday)
Posted by Dr Diecast at 6/5/2008 7:38 AM and is filed under uncategorized 
OK, maybe they won't be flying away just yet but we are close. Yesterday was among other things, painting day and while I had a great day laying paint there was one color I couldn't get mixed to my liking so it will get painted in the near future.
So the first thing I jumped on yesterday was a little quickie, LMAO, project for a customer. This is/was a simple job of painting a couple door panels and seats, swapping some wheels and removing the blackout stripe off a hood. Yeah.... well thats sounds simple but here is the scoop.
The car is made by GMP and its a 1970 Road Runner convertible B5 Blue with White interior. See this was modeled after an actual 1 of 1 car in real life. GMP made 1400 but my customer owns almost the identical car with a couple small changes. First off his interior is Black and not White along with his top boot. No biggie its a standard reshoot. He also has Rally wheels while the diecast has painted steel wheels. This is simple since I have a set of rallies here for that swap. Now while I have the car apart for the interior paintwork I remove the hood to get the blackout off of it.
Heres the thing I have been removing stripes off diecast cars for years and its a pretty simple task. Since these are tampo/pad printed some thinner and a rag or Q tip will take it off with no harm to the paint. Yes, I typed no harm..... no harm for me..... I DO NOT recommend anyone try this at home. Please remember I have been playing with thinner for some 35 years now so I know what I can and can't do with it and just how much to use and how much pressure to apply.
OK....... now that I have the car apart I take a rag and with thinner applied wipe the flat black stripe off the hood. Simple enough huh ?? not so fast Sparky... seems there are 2 bleed through areas on the hood where it looks like someone buffed through the paint. I mean literally buffed through it. Having been in the body shop industry for 35 years I know what Im looking at so..... now I have a problem. The customer won't accept this.... I sure the hell am not repainted it for free. So what's a guy to do.... call the boys at GMP. Once I get a hold of my guy there and we talk a while he does tell me this probably did happen in production and since they were adding the stripe over the top its not something they consider faulty.
All this being said the guys down there found me a perfect all blue hood that was actually used on there B5 Blue GTX's and are mailing it too me. So see guys even the simplest of things can turn into a project that takes 2 even 3 times longer then expected. This car which I thought would be done and ready to ship in less than 2 hours I already have 2 into and will probably have another hour before it actually leaves.
So .. now too the painting part. Below are individual pictures of the 4 cars I did get shot yesterday. The Monte Carlo is masked everywhere to save the vinyl top and rocker trim which is chromed from the factory. My customer didn't want to pay to 1, redo the roof nor 2, have me chrome foil the body trim so...... I mask and save it.
Then we have the Willow Green, Colonial White and Gunmetal Grey T-Birds.
Whats missing is the Pink T-Bird. I have to free mix this color and while thats normally not a problem every time I thought I had the color, after letting it dry, it wasn't close enough. So I decided it was getting late and I needed to get cars shot so the Pink bird gets painted another day.
The blog is back to its 10-20 daily viewers which is fine and one of them Filtercalvo, my customer Doug (Mustang nut to say the least) wants me to rant about UPS, lol. See I had shipped him 6 of his 8 cars I have done and UPS calls me yesterday to tell me they cant find the location because its a condo and there is no unit number, LOL. See in CA the condos all have there own number.... the unit number is part of the address and well.... while the girl on the phone was nice I said to her... you have a Doug (last name) and his brothers name at that address so deliver it. She said they cant just leave it since its a condo building..... ugh. Anyway, must have been a new or fill in driver and the girl on the phone just goes by what shes told so I cant fault her. Guess this is a lame rant, LMAO. Though I do remember Fed Ex calling me and saying we cant find you to make a delivery yet I had an account with a daily pickup from them and their driver came by everyday, LOL. Go figure huh...... idiots and morons I tell ya.
OK, I'm out !
So the first thing I jumped on yesterday was a little quickie, LMAO, project for a customer. This is/was a simple job of painting a couple door panels and seats, swapping some wheels and removing the blackout stripe off a hood. Yeah.... well thats sounds simple but here is the scoop.
The car is made by GMP and its a 1970 Road Runner convertible B5 Blue with White interior. See this was modeled after an actual 1 of 1 car in real life. GMP made 1400 but my customer owns almost the identical car with a couple small changes. First off his interior is Black and not White along with his top boot. No biggie its a standard reshoot. He also has Rally wheels while the diecast has painted steel wheels. This is simple since I have a set of rallies here for that swap. Now while I have the car apart for the interior paintwork I remove the hood to get the blackout off of it.
Heres the thing I have been removing stripes off diecast cars for years and its a pretty simple task. Since these are tampo/pad printed some thinner and a rag or Q tip will take it off with no harm to the paint. Yes, I typed no harm..... no harm for me..... I DO NOT recommend anyone try this at home. Please remember I have been playing with thinner for some 35 years now so I know what I can and can't do with it and just how much to use and how much pressure to apply.
OK....... now that I have the car apart I take a rag and with thinner applied wipe the flat black stripe off the hood. Simple enough huh ?? not so fast Sparky... seems there are 2 bleed through areas on the hood where it looks like someone buffed through the paint. I mean literally buffed through it. Having been in the body shop industry for 35 years I know what Im looking at so..... now I have a problem. The customer won't accept this.... I sure the hell am not repainted it for free. So what's a guy to do.... call the boys at GMP. Once I get a hold of my guy there and we talk a while he does tell me this probably did happen in production and since they were adding the stripe over the top its not something they consider faulty.
All this being said the guys down there found me a perfect all blue hood that was actually used on there B5 Blue GTX's and are mailing it too me. So see guys even the simplest of things can turn into a project that takes 2 even 3 times longer then expected. This car which I thought would be done and ready to ship in less than 2 hours I already have 2 into and will probably have another hour before it actually leaves.
So .. now too the painting part. Below are individual pictures of the 4 cars I did get shot yesterday. The Monte Carlo is masked everywhere to save the vinyl top and rocker trim which is chromed from the factory. My customer didn't want to pay to 1, redo the roof nor 2, have me chrome foil the body trim so...... I mask and save it.
Then we have the Willow Green, Colonial White and Gunmetal Grey T-Birds.
Whats missing is the Pink T-Bird. I have to free mix this color and while thats normally not a problem every time I thought I had the color, after letting it dry, it wasn't close enough. So I decided it was getting late and I needed to get cars shot so the Pink bird gets painted another day.
The blog is back to its 10-20 daily viewers which is fine and one of them Filtercalvo, my customer Doug (Mustang nut to say the least) wants me to rant about UPS, lol. See I had shipped him 6 of his 8 cars I have done and UPS calls me yesterday to tell me they cant find the location because its a condo and there is no unit number, LOL. See in CA the condos all have there own number.... the unit number is part of the address and well.... while the girl on the phone was nice I said to her... you have a Doug (last name) and his brothers name at that address so deliver it. She said they cant just leave it since its a condo building..... ugh. Anyway, must have been a new or fill in driver and the girl on the phone just goes by what shes told so I cant fault her. Guess this is a lame rant, LMAO. Though I do remember Fed Ex calling me and saying we cant find you to make a delivery yet I had an account with a daily pickup from them and their driver came by everyday, LOL. Go figure huh...... idiots and morons I tell ya.
OK, I'm out !
HEY MAN, CAN YOU TELL US WHAT KIND OF MASKING TAPE YOU USE?
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I use 3M fineline masking tape........ and bodyshop supply will carry it.
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