Looks great man, how do you think it came out overall?
I'm happy overall. The panels I did later came out a lot better than the first ones, but I think I have enough clear to cut/buff. The good news is the panels that need it, and specifically the areas that need it, are the big flat panels, so it's a lot of surface area, but not too bad to do.
The smaller/more ornate details I hammered the clear on harder as I was getting more comfortable with it. I've found 3-4 little drips, but all of them are pretty easily fixable I think.
I have a few ripples in the panels here and there. They're all in the body work, and they seem to be in transition areas, where I couldn't get in with the long boards when I was blocking it out. Around the door handles where the metal is stamped up, around the roof/quarter transition and around the rear wheel wells/door coves mostly. None of them are catastrophic, but if I get dead straight down the panels and move around, or shift my vantage point, I can pick them up. I didn't expect to be perfect though, and it honestly came out better than I'd expected. Had I paid 20k dollars for someone to do this for me, I'd still be finding imperfections and have 20k less dollars, so.
I'm 50/50 on if I'll have to reclear the hood. Maybe more like 80/20 that I will, I have to sand out a couple of drips (not runs, actual drips because my brain stopped functioning and I dripped clear out of the gun...) and a few bugs (the ONLY panel with bugs at least!) and I'm not sure if I have enough clear on it to do so and not go though. So, if I do, I'll just scuff it all again with a gray pad, smooth the areas that need it and do a flow coat on it. It's big and flat so I think I can do a nice job with all my practice. I have about 3/4 gallon of color and 3/4 gallon of clear leftover (which was always the idea) so I'm set if I need to fix anything. The front sheetmetal/glass is what I did last, and it came out the best by far, so I'm at least more confident in my skills than I was.
Beyond that, I need to fix the passenger door alignment a little (front is too far in) and get the trunk installed (I need a second set of hands for that) and I'll be ready to go as far as assembly goes anyway. Oh and the back bumper. That will probably end up black as I think it's too much blue in one area, but we'll see. It's painted now, so if I black it out it'll be plasti-dip so that it's reversable. I need to body work the front bumper (just two small areas) and that will get plasti-dip black also (that was always the plan, I need the contrast up front).
Then it's time to fix the radiator, finish the wiring, finish the center console and in a few weeks I'll do the cut/buff once the clear and everything has had time to fully cure (it was still a little soft when I tried on a test spot last night).
Oh, and I need to finish cleaning the overspray dust off of everything that wasn't covered up in my garage. Ugh, that's not super fun.
