Been bizzy the last 3 days. Had a little fun in the garage.

Hood removal comes first:



Dents courtesy of a friend a year ago:












Look! Something green covering the motor!




Time to remove the old black primer with castrol super clean (my favorite caustic chemical):







Time to break the clearcoat down. The clear was flaking off, which is why I went after the hood vents when I did. Nothing to lose:











Let'* build a paint booth. This got washed out with water to control the dust between every coat (primer, color, clear):







Now let'* do something cool to the underside. This is a textured fleck-coat for outdoor patio furniture. It'* actually a dark forest green, but in the bad lighting, you can't tell very well:







I primed these the first time with the underside of the hood because I had some wear and abuse over the years installed on a Trans Am that I had to address. The first coat of primer made that easier:



The priming begins:






After a bunch of wetsanding on these 2 coats of high-build primer, it was time for color:

















Now let'* play around with a new idea. The logo will be shot with the same color, but with some gold pearl mixed in. The idea is to be subtle. Not right in your face, but easy to see in the right light:










Bad news. The tape that was rated for oil, alkyd, polyurethane, latex, and acrylic paints decided to leave imprints in the fully dried basecoat:




Time to wet-sand the entire hood EXCEPT the logo, and re-shoot color:



Before the next coat of color, we have to re-mask the logo (it has the gold pearl in it, and I don't want to have to re-mix and re-shoot it). This time we'll use electrical tape and a trimmed fridge magnet to mask it off:







The results (notice the 800-grit oops in the logo from the previous step):




I had no choice at this point but to hide that oops with 1500 grit. I did the whole logo (inside corners, especially on the star, were a B I T C H). It had to look the same. After that, it was time for clear:










Remember that body work at the beginning? Can't see a hint of it now:

WOW That looks frickin AWESOME!!!!!!!!
Nice, nice, nice work.
Did u drive the zilla without a hood? I would of lol

Not yet, but the Zilla is getting new shoes VERY soon, and may go the whole 6 blocks to the tire shop with no hood.


I'm not totally pleased with the quality of the finish (due to the oops and wetsanding) on the logo, but the rest turned out pretty damn good considering it was a garage job.

While I look at the flaws, I remind myself how much better this is than the black hood, and remember also that my lowest quote for a plain-jane job was 600 bucks. This paint cost $250. Call it 300 total with consumables.

yeah then you can be like the REAL car enthusiasts with engines too big to fit under the hood

looks awesome! when do we see the vents in?

Looks pretty good overall though. The Logo looks quite well. Frickin cool idea on that part.
I cant imagine why the zilla would need new tires.

Aww. Damn it bill. now your green hood is shinier than mine.

So I hope you're gonna be painting that bumper to match this spectacular hood!

did this get two coats? or is one sufficient? and no baking or anything? how long does it take the paint to fully cure without any type of drying process?

*edit*
just watched the video...lmao, the first thought in my mind when it started was..."I wonder if he disconnected the engine bay light"

Hey Matt. These tires have less than 5k on them and they're at 50% tread already or less. All 4. I rotate regularly.


It'll be on the car maybe on Xmas, and the vents may be installed tomorrow. It'* curing pretty rapidly out there. I'm keeping the garage at 65 degrees F tonight.

Bumpers are on the list before summer. This was 2 coats of primer, then blocked with 400 grit, 3 coats of color total, with 800 grit between coat 2 and coat 3 (all sanding was wet), then three coats of clear total. Baiking was in my garage at 65 degrees F between all coats. But it'* important to note that the primer has a catalyst mixed in (dries quickly like an epoxy) and the clear has a hardener.

Woke up at 3:30 with what I think is a killer idea. Going back to work......

Looks great! I like that the dart is subtle. Did you use PPG paint? The full body suit is nice...I find that a lot of the dust when i paint comes from my clothes. And give that bondo a couple more weeks and it might show up...damn stuff.