Painting my Escort (Part 5) – Primer
Well, today I did the two coats of primer. This was great, because I learnt two valuable things: technique for painting, and how many cans it takes per coat. I was surprised to discover it took about 3 cans of primer (430 g per can) to do one coat. I only had 2 cans, and I wanted to do 2 coats, so I ended up grabbing more primer, and I also bought the last cans of Yellow Tremclad from the Aylmer Canadian Tire: sorry!
Total cost so far: a little over $200. Not too bad I suppose. Now I’ve got 10 cans of yellow, which should be enough for 3 coats. However, I still wish to do more than 3 coats, just to make sure it is bold and durable, so I may end up grabbing more paint. However, the topic of this post is the primer, and here it is!
The front after one coat.
This morning, I applied one coat, then I let it dry for about 7 hours (I did the first a little before noon, and I did the second a little after 6). This is the fast dry stuff, and it felt dry after only about 30 minutes, but naturally I gave it more time.
Tomorrow, I plan on applying one coat in the morning, and then seeing where I end up. I hear too many different instructions for painting, so I will see which way feels best after I get started. My dad says to blend the coats, and do one after another. Previous instruction has told me that for spray paint I should do a coat, let it dry, then do another. After the first coat tomorrow, depending on how it goes on and dries, I will determine what to do.
Click for more to see some before and after shots!
Sanded
First coat
Second coat
Sanded
First coat
Sanded
First coat
Second coat
Sanded
First coat
Sanded
First coat
Second coat
This fan was the only thing that kept the air from being solid paint dust. I was told that big clouds of white smoke could be seen blowing out of the garage, even at times I wasn’t spraying!
Oh, and I apologize, I forgot to grab a shot of me in my coveralls and in the big filter mask. I will grab one tomorrow!
I can’t remember if I mentioned wanting to make stencils to paint on the “Escort LX” and “2.o SPI” on the hatch, but here are the completed stencils:
Not bad, I think it will look pretty good, I like the font. Overall though, today was very productive, educational, and rewarding. It feels nice to see the whole car a different colour, and makes you think, “If I can make it look pretty good all white/grey, I can make it look pretty good yellow.” I’m so excited to begin painting.
Keep posted, soon there will be some colour!
