Ace-Garageguy

The best build of that less-than-stellar kit I've ever seen. Nice work, nice upgrades.

Whoa...NICE. Inspirational too.

I always color inside the lines, follow every rule like a good little boy, and never ever had a ticket.

Really? You may as well pour paint stripper on it. Duplicolor is lacquer. The solvent is hot and will almost certainly wrinkle or lift any non-lacquer paint you put it on. And dipping it? Geez.

Enamels and some other paints have a "recoat window" that's usually spelled out on the can. Something like "spray additional coats within an hour or after 72 hours". Sticking something in a dehydrator to try to force-dry it just isn't the same thing as giving the stuff the full recommended cure time. What happens is that you flash dry the surface, but underneath is still gooey. So when you hit it with new solvent-rich paint, the surface expands and swells over the gooey underlayer...and you get wrinkles. I would bet this is what happened to you. BUT...you can get away with what you tried with lacquer. My advice: ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS, unless you do a LOT of trial-and-error testing on things you don't care about, so when things don't work, it's no big deal.

Sorry...I wasn't, not as a young adult anyway. I've always had a little angel on my shoulder reminding me not to screw things up...at least since I was about 6. I certainly did my share of mindless stupid stuff when I was little, but by the time I was a teen, I kinda had a clue. Maybe it comes from being raised in an earlier time, when parents did physical stuff and made physical stuff and had physical skills and more tools than the Yellow Pages or the internet when they needed something done or something fixed...and parents who taught me early on to respect other people's things, and that cleaning up thoughtless messes takes a whole lot longer than making them. But I also know fully grown men and women, some of 'em professional and "successful" and getting some serious years behind 'em too, who still stumble haphazardly through life, pretty much ruining everything they touch. On the flip side, the other kid disassembled a little Fiat 500 engine, cleaned and painted all the exterior parts, and put it back together. It looks great. He also bead-blasted and painted a set of TR6 steel wheels. They look great too. And he didn't screw up anything else in the process.

Pretty cool. Kindof a Peter Max meets Salvador Dali vibe.

^^^ Great post.

Because some of the folks I work around are incapable of actually fixing anything, the scrap-metal dumpster is often a source of stuff I can put to good use with only a little work...or sell to somebody who needs it. Today I snagged a complete Ford 8" rear end that only needs a pinion bearing. It'll go under my '32 Ford rod as a place holder until I get the quick-change. Same dumpster so far has yielded a 5-speed TR8 gearbox, an MGB steering rack, a pair of genuine GTO cylinder heads, a 4-bolt 350 Chebby block that needs a .010" overbore, a 4-foot shop fan that needs a starting capacitor for the motor, an MG Midget / Sprite top frame, and all kinds of other goodies large and small. Twoww it awaaayyy, bozos. Your dumb is my gain.

I believe a large part of this widespread and ongoing problem derives from misunderstood "expert" advice that says misting paint is the way to go. What falls through the cracks of understanding is that ONE way to paint with an AIRBRUSH is by over-reducing (thinning) paint, and turning the material flow way down. Paint that's thinned excessively and "misted" will still flow out somewhat due to the excess thinner keeping it from drying before it hits the surface, as Pete alludes to above. But the bottom line is the same as it is for any endeavor that requires skill. Don't accept everything you read or hear as gospel, and PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. There are LOTS of ways to get a good finish on a model, but learning how to apply just enough paint to flow out without running it is an essential skill to master...and once you've mastered it, your paint will look like this with NO sanding and polishing (this is Duplicolor rattlecan green with Testors clear). NOTE: Small plastic soda bottles make excellent practice targets, as they're about the same size as a model car, they require the painter to turn them as one does when painting a model, and they're FREE.

Beautiful. The clearance reliefs for the bolt heads are a nice touch.

I hadn't heard about that one. You made my day.

Rough as that thing is, there's a really cool design there just dying to get redone by somebody with adult skills. I hope your stripper doesn't obliterate too much of the custom bodywork to bring it back.

It was something, alright. I'd been working part time as an apprentice photog for the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. They had tickets waiting for me at the gate, though I hadn't expected front row.

Yup. And the insert is Edsel.

Exactly.

Are you wanting the hairspray to hold weathering chalks or pastels down, or are you going for a chipped paint effect, or something else? You might find some model RR and military guys to have better insight on this... https://www.trainboard.com/highball/index.php?threads/anyone-use-the-hairspray-technique.75192/ https://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/69619.aspx

Looks good. I'm need one.

I spoke too soon. One of 'em used two of my takeoff tires that are going on my blue XJ6 for a paint stand. I now have two pretty green tires. After I chewed his ass and moved the tires, he finished his paint job on the pad just in front of the main shop door. So we had pretty stripes and blotches on the concrete, looking like a pack of chimps worked there. Common sense is in appallingly short supply. That's when the shop manager got involved and taught Mr. Paintboy how to run the pressure washer.

Heckdarn...half the real parts I use to build my own cars come out of the trash. Just today I rescued a pair of nice OEM seats out of something fairly new from the scrap dumpster. They're way nicer than the shredded bench seat that's currently in my '89 GMC. Clean 'em, dye 'em, good as new.

Cream at Chastain Park in October of '68. Front row seats.

Don't forget the morons.

Learned to drive in a '63 Olds and a '65 Mustang. Took the test in the Mustang. Learned to drive a stick in a VW bus. Boy, was that a long time ago. Seems like a different planet too.