Kevin Campbell
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Thanks for the input guys. I had the camera, but sold it because most of the time the “blendable matches” were worse than I could do making up a formula myself. Add in the cost of monthly colornet updates, and it just wasn’t worth it to me anymore. I was just hoping somebody had a DuPont # as a starting point.
This one’s pretty straight forward black pearl, but the pearl doesn’t have that Prismatic effect that some of the xryillics, and doesn’t turn the base grey/silver like some of the standard pearls do.
It’s listed on Colorite’s site, but I was hoping to do it in house. I’ll do a few test mixes, and if that fails order up some from them.
How’d he know there was a scratch? 😉
Looks like it was scuffed with a wire cup brush to me.
At SEMA years ago, Ford had a Super Duty with aluminum panels bonded to the sides. a majority of the panel was sanded with a DA. They then changed to an orbital device, and added flames by freehand grinding, then cleared. It was a nice effect.
I’ve found Featherfill G2 works well on bare ‘Vettes. Nice build for blocking, and seals down the fiberglass grain. Follow up with a good 2K , and your pretty set.
Doing one now with that.
[IMG]http://i419.photobucket.com/albums/pp275/Autobodyman/img39.jpg[/IMG]
I’ve never understood why any jobber would sell partial mixes. Should be pretty standard to sell full pints, quarts, gallons. These are also the guys complaining they’re not making any money.
You might be able to get away with half pint of the pearl, but the basecoat probably would need a full one. If he’s still to stubborn, is there any similar color laying around from a prior job to get a few coats down first. Other than that, Valueshade undercoats help.
Thanks all for the positive feedback. I was really pleased with how it turned out. Ran into some problems with them along the way, but nothing drastic. I’ll try to get out of him how much these things go for tomorrow when he picks it up.
I think he’s been showing these around, because he’s been asking about pricing for straight repaints for other guys. Bad thing is, I’ve probably got 30-40 hours in this one with the bare wood. No way I could get that out of most refins on a guitar for now. Still nice beer money.
Bar top epoxy. Really thick stuff.
Hey, It’s “functionally equivelant”.
The one thing that everyone here doesn’t seem to grasp is that compared to inflation, the labor rates are severely depressed compared to virtually every trade. Add in that there’s been a downward progression of labor times for more technically advanced repairs only adds to the problem. Everybody justifies it by saying they beat book time, But really, book times are based on an average technical skill set. If you’ve been doing this for years, most technicians should be considered advanced, and be able to beat the time with the tools they have aquired.
Insurers are fully aware of the labor rate multiplier, and have been exerting pressure on those also. How come they all came up with that crap refinish within panel, yet they still won’t pay for prime and block (here at least). They’ve also been trending more towards real time when repairs are figured.
To me. A major rate increase would be justified to cover our investment and liabilities, But were stuck “asking” for more from a stingy entity watching out for their own pursestrings.
As far as Customers being in charge, well, Most don’t want the battle necessary to take the insurer to task. And they sure don’t want to pay anything over their deductible. Half the time they don’t even want to pay that.
Just my thoughts.
I agree, end result looks awesome, but I also messed around with bodykits, and know how they can be.
One tap against a parking curb, and “pop” there goes your fill job. It looked like when he was filling against the tape the first time it pulled off to start.
Add a little flexibility to it using a similar material and it goes a long way in preventing future problems. When you have dissimilar expansion characteristics between fiberglass and urethane, who knows what would happen.
Now if it had been a fiberglass air dam. he’d be right on target.
I know you’re just starting out, just trying to point you in the right direction.
One thing that’s puzzling me is, why are you using rigid repair materials (fiberglass) on a flexible part (urethane)?
My 2 cents are that the job turned out pretty good. While I do see the blotchiness, I’ve seen worse.
One thing that I’ve noticed for me is that the first few coats of candy need to be weaker than recommended to avoid the blotchiness. I make up my candy about half strength of what it should be, then lay down 3-4 coats, then I start making it stronger each successive coat ’til I get the color I wanted. The green base was a great idea also. I use both SEM and House of Kolor concentrates quite often. The first coats are critical.
In January of this year we had an 09 Accord towed in. At first it didn’t look too bad, but once it was off the flatbed it was obviouse that it was a mess. Insurer had already assessed the damages at $12k.
First thing was that the rt front wheel was being held on by just the strut. So we had to have it dropped inside to make sure it would be able to be properly assessed ( our yard is gravel, and floor jacks don’t roll well on rocks). Second thing was that the battery was dead. So we needed to charge the Bat. Once we got the batttery charged. we tried to start the car only to have about 5 quarts of fluid dump onto the shop floor. Couldn’t tell where it was coming from, but it was both trans and engine oil.
Pushed the car onto the lift to see what was going on and noticed that the door on the opposite side was ajar at the bottom and not at the top.
After all was evaluated we added another $13k in damages that the adjuster missed.
I charged for everything needed. Towing plus markup. inside storage on a rack. charge battery. waste oil cleanup and disposal. Lift charge. disassemble vehicle for assessment. Damage assessment. enter and re-write damage appraisal.I think there were a bunch of other thing that we did that we charged for, but offhand you get the idea.
Thing is, when presented with our charges. nobody questioned why we were billing what we were once we broke it down individually. All were within reason. My thoughts are that if they are paying an appraiser $50- $65 + thousand a year, and they miss that much damage, they shouldn’t be writing sheets in the first place ( and trust me, some were in plain sight). Let’s be truthful about this. The individuals that normally write sheets for the insurers have little idea what’s necessary to rebuild some of these wrecks. Why should we give our knowledge away for pennies? In all, I had 10- 12 hours handling this car. Between handling tows, moving around, cleaning up, assessing,entering and re-writing their sheet. We wound up making about $1000 doing their legwork.
Odd to think of that as being “tired an old”. We’ve just begun seeing them in the states within the last year.
Regardless, Quality job as usual.
My understanding of the rules are that you can get away with “hand washing” the guns to be in compliance. What that would entail opens up a whole other set of questions that I can’t answer. I would think that if you would have some sort of enclosed container with thinner, disassemble your gun, rinse with thinner, clean passages, rinse with clean thinner, and reassemble that would satisfy the requirements.
Basically, I don’t think they want you to be spraying thinner through it anymore to clean it.
Autobodytoolmart has an astro cleaner for $560.
Addendum: There are certain areas that do require gun cleaners specifically.
Add a third vote for Mar-Hyde Ultimate 2K. Buff color is super easy to sand, and build is excellent. Dries fast, and holdout is right up there. I get a kit of primer + act for about $75 when I buy it by the case.
I’ve been told that they grey is harder to sand, and is costlier too. Go figure.