Sunburst Yellow 1987 Subaru GL Wagon

Here is my baby, the original color is like a faded gold. I plan on doing the underside of the hood with rubberized undercoating. The calipers will be painted yellow to match and im in the process of restoring some old 8 spoke wheels for it. Im into the begining of my project and have rolled on 2 coats 50/50 of flat white primer (rustoleum clean metal), im going with sunburst yellow. This is what I have so far,
I plan on wetsanding with 1000 grit before the fist coat of paint and after every 2 coats. Because of info found on this site I was thinking of using reducer and hardener, thanks all.

First attempt at bodywork ever


One coat of primer


Two coats of primer

Here is the third and final coat of primer and my surface before sanding:

looking good man!

I had an 83 subaru gl 4x4 wagon.
Loved that car.

The car seems to have a lot of clean lines to it, not to mention the wheel wells look in very good shape. No rust demon eating away at your ride. Keep up the good work!

MR2Miach wrote:The car seems to have a lot of clean lines to it

Yeah nice straight, flat panels with minimal weird curves will help not drive you insane! lol, I almost gave up every time I had to roll my ultra curved front bumper cover. Have fun

This morning I sanded the primer down with 1000grit. Threw the first coat of paint on and got pretty good coverage. Its thinned 50/50.

Very nice! A few more coats and it will deepen up nice.

Looking good. I like the boxy looks of the early subies.
Mike

Second coat of color

UPDATE: Bought some Valspar Hardener and come Medium Reducer for final coats.

Started tinting lights

despues de lijar

1 capa

3 capas

capa final (4ta)

thats the stuff i use
I also clear over that with duplicolor automotive clear.
Helps with the uv and what not

Obviously I love the color
Looking good.

Looking good. What are you going to do for the hood and top? I think I would have done the top first unless you are going to leave it alone but then thats just me thinking outloud lol.I am enjoying the pictures. keep it up please.
Mike

The parts that have bedliner on them are getting another coat of bedliner on them but it will have a UV topcoat to keep it glossy

Having some issue unsure if my paint is just dull or if its an orange peel problem.
7th coat after Sanding with 1500 grit





Im scared of sanding too much so I think im sanding too little... Even after a total of 9 coats I can still see through some spots so this makes me scarred to sand too much off. How do I know when I have sanded the orange peel out?

looks like your not sanding enough. When you get it sanded far enough, it will be totally smooth with no shiny little 'potholes'. You may want to try 800 grit to get it down to smooth before the next coat

I lost count of coats I put on, plus I had so much orange peel after a few I pretty much sanded them off completely

RoboGeek wrote:looks like your not sanding enough. When you get it sanded far enough, it will be totally smooth with no shiny little 'potholes'. You may want to try 800 grit to get it down to smooth before the next coat

I lost count of coats I put on, plus I had so much orange peel after a few I pretty much sanded them off completely

I did notice after I sanded I did end up with glossy parts and potholes, so I do need to sand till everything is smooth and looks flat (no shine or gloss)?

yeah - it will look like flat yellow with no little dimples.

I used red, which really didn't get fully covered until I had at least 8 coats on, and probably more. One of those coats I decided to see if I could get thick enough to fill in all the dimples, but it just made it worse

Should I sand like this and then lightly every 2 coats? Thanks for the help Could I use a vibratory sander (carefully) with some 1000 paper or do I have to do it by hand?

I would think a power sander would take off too much, too fast. Besides you need to see how far you are going down. Also, wet sanding and a electrical sander would be a shocking experience LOL.
I would sand with 800 grit (its a little faster) untill there were just little baby shiny pits and then finish with 1000. There is no such thing as a light sanding here. You need to get all the o.p. each time you sand or the next coats make it worse. Sweat equity is the trade off here insted of a high$$$ pro job. Hang in there, your getting close to the end.
Mike

Thanks man more TLC for me then.

Caramanos2000 wrote:Thanks man more TLC for me then.

Yep you will be glad you did it. I know i was sanding mine till i was sick of it....but i just came inside for a while, then back to the grind