Sneak peek of my Diablo Roadster~

[tonypaul]

After finishing the plasti-dip job I have decided to do the turbo now and then the a/c system next. So I now have everything to complete the turbo execpt the injectors. The new injectors should be here 4/1/14.

 Today I pulled out some scrap exhaust bends along with a extra LS4 exhaust crossover that I bought, cut it up and welded a hot side merge together. My welding tank fell over crushing the gauges and messing up the regulator making so I couldnt adjust my welds. My welds ended up looking like crap but they will work.

Got it painted with high heat paint, wrapped with exhaust wrap and made it so that I can still use the orginal heat shields that were on the crossover. After temporary bolting the turbo on it appears that everything is going to work out as planned..... Sadly I wont have anymore time until next week to work on it again....

I also have a extra LS truck intake that I will be putting the new injectors in. My plan in building this turbo setup is make a second of everything needed to be able to swap from to turbo back to N/A in less than 30 minutes.

I update again soon~

[LP640]

This is the last pic I took of it back in Oct. I stopped and got some gas and everyone was taking pics of also so I thought I would snap one to.

beautiful shot! perfect

[tonypaul]

This is the last pic I took of it back in Oct. I stopped and got some gas and everyone was taking pics of also so I thought I would snap one to.

[BigPines]

Sweet. I'll bet it is a blast to drive.

[tonypaul]

Its been finished since august, I drive it 2 or 3 times a week sometimes more when the weather is nice. I think the only thing I have done to it since the repaint is install a new stereo system in it and done a little tune work on it. Mainly just worked on the fuel tables a little, smoothed out a couple dips in the lower RPMs. Its running great~

The paint is base/clear, used about 2 gallons of base and 1.5 gallon of clear. The bottom half of the car and wheels are done in black Plasticoat.

Just want to add- the paint in this pic looks kinda wierd, its really smooth I think its reflections from the clouds or something....

[BigPines]

Any update on this? Did everything get sorted out? Can we get some new pictures? How many gallons of paint did you use on this BTW? Was it a single stage paint?

[Robert]

If anyone want to plasti-dip anything on a car, take it to a good body shop! They will know the proper coatings!

[tonypaul]

sorry Dude, I happens sometimes.
I would seal all doors and panels ,hit it with 800 dry with sponge pad re do it just get the shine off. don't sand it to deep. if bumpers are ok, tape it. 1.5qt should do of base and gallon clear package.
before sanding de grease whole car. and watch for re coating the base it may bite in fresh clear coat .
other then that, wrap it in mat color.
also dual action polisher li Flex or Meguiars have build in clutch it is very hard to burn through .

http://www.autogeek.net/

Thanks for the support!!! This is the first time I have ever done that, and what kills me is I know better! But like you said 'it happens'. I think Im not going to worry about the paint right now. Im going to put on the turbo on the ls4 and upgrade the trans all around the end of October. Once I get it all tuned and running good then go back and do what you recommend and just hit the outside of the car again with some 800 and spray it again.

What killed me on this paint job was taking the car completly apart again and the Texas summer heat. This time I will only need to remove the rear bumper and a couple other things and spray it again when its not 100+ degrees. So it seems its not the end of world after all.... Thanks again~

[eddie]

oh I  forgot, to be safe you can use water based ground coat and top it with clear. this way ,it will not wrinkle the fresh clear coat. it may be bit more $$ and use 1.3mm S/S gun. Stay way from humidity and wet floor. it dries faster.

[eddie]

 sorry Dude, I happens sometimes.
I would seal all doors and panels ,hit it with 800 dry with sponge pad re do it just get the shine off. don't sand it to deep. if bumpers are ok, tape it. 1.5qt should do of base and gallon clear package.
before sanding de grease whole car. and watch for re coating the base it may bite in fresh clear coat .
other then that, wrap it in mat color.
also dual action polisher li Flex or Meguiars have build in clutch it is very hard to burn through .

http://www.autogeek.net/

[tonypaul]

The car just looks perfect as perfect can be, love it, I really like the color choice ! I'll be in Texas this weekend and I would love to see it in person but from what I understand your not in the Dallas area, are you?

Sadly Im in Austin..... Super bad news though.... I was still needing to do finish up some color sanding / buffing on the car. I had done all of the wet sanding and buffing with #1 & #2 buffing compounds on the car other than the corners/edges. I didn't want to buff the edges/corners with the high speed big buffer so I got one of these small 3" buffers. So yesterday since it was raining I decided I was going to do the areas that I couldn't do with the big buffer. I worked on all the car for about 2 hours and it was getting late so I decided to wide off all the excess wax compounds and I started noticing little lines are streaks in the paint. I had been pretty darkish in my garage since it was raining and the above lights I have in there are not that great I plugged in some floor lights...

I burned through the paint in a lot of areas around the edges and corners........ That little 3" buffer was a lot stronger than I thought. Being darkish and not paying attention I pretty much ruined a great paint job.... I know better, but "F'ed" up..... So now I don't know what to do..... Repaint again, or just plasti-dip the car or what.

Im just sick.... Its not super bad, but its now a 10 foot paint job, you get close and you can see a few areas that have some sealer/primer showing. The car being silver and the sealer being gray is helping some but the damage is done.... I havnt had any good luck with this repaint.

[usmc_butler]

The car just looks perfect as perfect can be, love it, I really like the color choice ! I'll be in Texas this weekend and I would love to see it in person but from what I understand your not in the Dallas area, are you?

[BigPines]

This is a very, very nice car. I think it is absolutely beautiful. It is a curse being a perfectionist isn't it?

[CCIE]

Still..... Just stunning....

Very nice work

CCIE

[tonypaul]

Got my orginal windows tinted and back in as well as all the newly suede covered interior pieces today. I also washed all the dirt off the car and in the process exposed some areas I need to buff a little more. After all this work on the repaint, Im just not "wowed" with it. Kinda unhappy with it honestly, I really wished I would have done a color change....

Plans now are to upgrade the transmission and put on the turbo and then tune it to where it rips up the payment. Then I think Im going to plasti-dip the whole car.....