The Mite 
    Part: 28
Taping the stripes and Spraying the Paint!
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      It's been a long time getting here, but today it is finally time to spray the paint! I block sanded the whole car during the week. Block sanding takes WAY longer than they show on TV, and it is tiring and very messy. I replaced the plastic on the homemade paint booth due to sanding dust and primer overspray before I began to paint the Mite. I've decided to lay down a couple of white stripes in the center of the car, so my first step is to spray a patch of white where the stripes will be. | 
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      Here's the trunk lid with a white patch on it. the borders don't make much difference at this point, just three nice coats of white. | 
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      The trunk area of the car got white paint, too. I sprayed it on Friday mid-afternoon. Due to the properties of this PPG paint, I now have a 24 hour window during which I must finish painting. 
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      Here's what the garage looked like this weekend. | 
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      After the white dried, I tape and masked | 
    
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      It took about a half hour to get the stipes layed out straight and parallel | 
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      The back of the car | 
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      Then I masked off the stripes. I covered what I want to keep. | 
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      It's almost a negative image of what the final product will look like - here there are dark stripes on a light car. | 
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      The trunk area. | 
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      The next morning, I sprayed the 3 coats of green. It dries to a dull finish and then the clearcoat makes it shine. In between the primer, white and green, I cleaned the whole car with wax and grease remover and tacked it with a tack rag. | 
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      The Bonnet masked and shot 
        green. Yes, I was wearing a  Respirator  | 
    
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      The engine area, after the tape and masking was removed | 
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      A closer look showing the stripes on the cowl | 
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      A view of the rear, dull before the clearcoat | 
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      The Bonnet, dull before clearcoat | 
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      Another shot of the dull hood | 
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      Then.....Three coats of Urethane clear and it's nice and shiney! | 
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      The trunk lid | 
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      And the whole garage. Now I get to color-sand the entire car and buff it to remove any orange peel. | 
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      Here's the back end | 
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      and a close-up of the hood. |