The time had come after too many weeks of puttering around on the front fender to paint it and see if my body work was any good. My internal project clock was ticking, time to get something done.
I decided on a deep blue and started making the rounds to the car lots. Selecting the actual color from a paint chip is risky business; they are just too small to get the full impact of the color. The best way to insure you have the right one is to see it on another vehicle. I made many new friends at the dealers, all the sales people suggested that I just buy a car with the color I liked – they were just looking out for my best interest. I picked a hot color – Blue Topaz Metallic.
I had bumbled through the body work because I could fix my mistakes. Didn’t Confucius say, “the best lessons are learned from your mistakes”. I didn’t have any idea how to fix my inevitable painting boo-boos and frankly wasn’t sure if my body work was good enough. I wanted a professional to spray the fender.
I figured the guys at the paint shop could give me a few names since surely my orders were not keeping them in business. When I asked for some names, they said that none of the pros would touch anything unless they did all the body work. You have to be kidding me, here I spend months working on the fender and now no one will touch it because they don’t know if I did a good job. The ring of truth in the statement knocked me to my knees. Since I was already down I started begging and pleading, I think he gave me a few names just to get me out of the store.
The first guy I called said he would paint my fender and gave me all the disclaimers that he couldn’t be held responsible for my “shoddy” workmanship. He wasn’t Confucius after all. He told me the paint and supplies to buy, which turned out to be the very best that the paint store sold – now I know why they suggested him.
Bare with me on this. I bought a quart of color coat, a gallon of clear, reducer and hardener - all for the tidy sum of $500 dollars. Remember this is just for test run. I know this is a conspiracy. Each step of this project requires higher priced materials. By the time I am ready to purchase the batteries, I will be so conditioned that when the salesperson says they are $1,000 each and you need twenty. I will say – is that your best shot; I spent more than that just painting my fender.
I am now ready to take my beloved fender and expensive paint to the painter. I give him one more call to make sure he is in and now I get the run around, he is just to “slammed” to fit this into his schedule. After a few minutes I can tell that he really doesn’t want to do it. Better to find out now than after I get a poor paint job.
Not to be daunted, I call another painter and thankfully he is very accommodating. He even said to bring it over that afternoon. When I got there and explained that I was doing a frame up restoration and doing the body work myself, he asked how long I had been doing body work. I replied – a long time, about two months and all of it on this fender. That’s when he said he needed to examine my workmanship and that he had a few questions for me. To my great relief he complemented my workmanship and said he would paint it. While we were discussing the price, he did point out one spot that could be improved, there was a hollow spot near the bottom, and he said for a few extra dollars he would fix anything he didn’t like before he sprayed it. Deal.
When he said he would spray it the next day and I could pick it up on Saturday, I thought I was in heaven. I didn’t hear anything on Friday but at 7:30 am Saturday I got the call and went to pick it up.
It was a sight to behold, nothing has ever looked this good to me. In fact I am taking down our flat screen TV in the living room and putting this fender on the wall over the fire place. I don’t need to watch West Coast Customs anymore.
Here is the before picture and another of the unfinished fender.
