So it's finally done.
Short story...
I wanted to use 2K urethane paint and I've been shooting finishes for ~30 years, just on guitars, not cars.
So I called up the local car paint supplier and told him what I wanted.
Satin. Not gloss, not flat, but satin.
He said he didn't have 2k in Satin, only in gloss and flat.
But I could mix them 50/50 to get satin.
So I bought everything I needed and shot the rear bumper.
Waaay to glossy, looked ridiculous, so I bought another quart of flat and added it.
Could barely tell the difference.
Long story short, total waste of money and time.
If the sheen you want is satin, you need the actual satin flattening agents in there.
If there's gloss in it, the gloss is gonna show through no matter what.
So I had to go through all of that and rip that off the bumper.
Then I decided to use Plasti-Dip with their Shadow Black over their regular black.
Nailed
exactly the look I wanted, and it's all removable.
So here it is and I love it, should have done this a long time ago.
Gotta get back to the stereo install and finish that up.
Because I also installed new black carpet last week.
And sprayed all the floor pieces black to match.
The carpet came out
perfect, but I want to get all the trim installed and finished up before taking final shots of the (now black) interior.
But I love it all, the outside, the inside, all of it looks great now.
For some reason, it reminds me of a 3rd gen with the black cladding.
Probably because I've seen far more green 3rd gens than I have 4th.
I don't know why, but it just strikes me like that.
And I did the emblems and hood scoop in Aztec Gold, which I mixed myself into the Plasti-Dip clear.
Totally love the way it came out, the perfect satin black that I wanted.
10 minutes after it was finished and bumpers put back on, I took it for a drive.
I stopped at the local gas station for a coffee and parked at one of the pumps.
On the way out, this totally hot babe who was parked at the pump beside me says '
NICE TRUCK!'
Hilarious.
That never happened with the gray cladding.
The Before:
And the Now: