[markeb01]

The repaint on the Buick grille has so far turned out to be a total disaster.

1st – I applied too much rattle can Rustoleum enamel and a week later the surface wrinkled in 3 places, two of which were right on top in the center and easily seen.

2nd – I attempted to sand off the paint and found it still soft and gooey inside. So I gave up sanding and started in with a razor blade, scraping 95% of it off. Amazingly the UPol 2K primer stuck like it was part of the metal.

3rd – My son volunteered to media blast the residue, and also offered to have it powder coated white to save me some time. I jumped at the offer figuring even if it was the wrong color it would make a nice base/primer coat.

4th – Got the grille back last night only to find something was incompatible between what was left of the original chrome and the powder paint, leaving every square inch of the entire surface covered in big nasty blisters.

5th - No problem, I figured I’d just hit it with the D/A and put some 2K primer over the top to smooth it all out. It took a couple of hours just to smooth out all the powder paint, after which some UPol 2K was mixed up and applied. After an hour in the 95 degree heat it was ready for blocking. It took at least another hour to block sand every square inch. Outstanding now it was ready for paint.

6th – The last step being a good wash with wax and grease remover, I noticed a couple of tiny specs sticking up in the finish. So I wiped them again and found they were actually small pieces of powder paint peeling off the metal! Then I found 3 more defects. ARRRRGGGHHHH! I attempted to feather the edges for more 2K primer, only to find it wouldn’t feather, it just kept peeling back and leaving a hard edge.

7th – Accepting that I was now screwed, I started in with the scraper again and stripped all the paint off that I could, then went to the wire wheel and stripper discs to return the thing to bare metal. My son is going to bead blast it again, after which I’ll do it right starting with epoxy primer. After that I’m covering the entire surface in Rage body filler, followed by 2K before finally applying the paint with block sanding in between.

Amazing how a little nothing project can end up consuming as much labor as painting the whole car, and it will never show how much work went into it.