Going to paint.......finally!

7982X

7982X

So much fun it MUST be illegal!
The 79 is finally going to the body shop. It is in the mountains west of town and we grabbed the window of opportunity (between snow & mag chloride applications) to take it there. Good thing, too. Today is 10 degrees & flurrying and the week doesn't look much better. We are looking forward to putting a clean, freshly painted car back together after 23 years of collecting parts & funds, and doing all the dirty ground work. There are lots of plastic containers (in the garage, shop, sheds, & spare bedroom), full of collected, polished, painted, plated, & prepped parts & assemblies, waiting to be put on a freshly painted X1/9 body. The color will be the yellow on the sail/targa bar edge.

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Finally the roads dried enough to take the hood to our body/paint guy. Not a fancy shop, but he has a great reputation around here for unusual cars. The pukey beige parts in the background are for a 56 Porsche (an original color, I think) and the red body in the background is a 63 XKE. Neither one is as valuable as an "X", but I guess he needs to eat like the rest of us. He has had a number of folks stop by his shop and asking what kind of car it was. A few of them started to remember, after he told them.
After the bodywork (welding in holes, straightening things out, and fine tuning the alignment of the headlight buckets, etc.) he put a coat of "fill" primer on the 79, blocked it and put an epoxy primer on afterward. He usually waits up to 2 weeks before sanding & continuing with the base color coat. Our plan is to go with Diamont paint, as we have used it for many years and have always been very pleased with the results. I didn't know just how much paint has risen in cost! The basecoat runs nearly $250.00 a quart. WOW! He plans on shooting the color around the middle of March.

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7982X said:
I didn't know just how much paint has risen in cost! The basecoat runs nearly $250.00 a quart. WOW!
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Unfortunately for the rest of us, that is actually a very good price these days (I know, it's hard to believe). I've been quoted about double that for some paints (needless to say I chose something else). My intuition tells me the actual paint doesn't cost that much more to make, it's just marketing.
Looking very good. Keep us posted.
 
Engine bay is to be yellow, like the outside. The frunk & trunk have been painted with gray/black spatter type trunk paint. We were going to paint the engine bay like the trunks, but thought it may not hold up to the heat & oil, etc., and also thought that a light, bright color would improve visibility when working on the engine. I need all the light I can get.
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kmead said:
Looks great. Is it late model X yellow?
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Thanks!
No, it is not late model X yellow. I had never even thought to look for that, to be honest. We wanted a bright yellow as we thought it would look good in that color, but also we don't want to get hit by a distracted driver in a huge truck because they don't see it. We wanted a yellow that wasn't "orangey" or had a green tinge to it. I painted a Yamaha Virago (25 years ago) with this yellow & really liked it, so we went with it. It came from from the Diamont fleet color selector guide, and is called chrome yellow, # 79635. It was more expensive than some other brands, but we used Diamont on a number of motorcycles & were happy with it. Also, I figured that you feel the pain of the price tag for the paint once, but you feel the regret of the wrong color choice every time you open the garage door.
 
Thank you again! Now to get it all back together without damaging the paint. Patience will be my best ally now,
 
That paint job looks terrific. Since our cars are related by sharing the same engine at different points in their existence, I guess it is becoming clear that I have the uglier sibling. Looking forward to seeing how the rest of it turns out. I'm sure it will be great.
 
Thanks, Don.
It isn't going to be color sanded & buffed, but it's not a show car. We used to do all the motorcycle paint jobs that way, but color sanding & buffing a car is a different matter. I don't think "uglier sibling" is the right way to put it, but their colors will go good together for sure, so the kinship is evident. Besides, yours is the wiser & more seasoned sibling. Ours is the younger snot.
It will be fun putting parts back on/in after being apart for so long. Some parts have been cleaned/prepped/plated/painted/ceramic or powder coated for years and put away, so it will be like Christmas every time we bring out another item from storage.

By the way, Don, I'm NOT putting up with any sibling rivalry or bickering!!!!
 
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Thanks for the compliment!
I don't think he would let go of the anvil, etc. He may use it to keep hammers & other defensive instruments handy in case the occasional bear or mountain lion wants to check out his latest paint & body project.
 
7982X said:
Thanks!
No, it is not late model X yellow. I had never even thought to look for that, to be honest. We wanted a bright yellow as we thought it would look good in that color, but also we don't want to get hit by a distracted driver in a huge truck because they don't see it. We wanted a yellow that wasn't "orangey" or had a green tinge to it. I painted a Yamaha Virago (25 years ago) with this yellow & really liked it, so we went with it. It came from from the Diamont fleet color selector guide, and is called chrome yellow, # 79635. It was more expensive than some other brands, but we used Diamont on a number of motorcycles & were happy with it. Also, I figured that you feel the pain of the price tag for the paint once, but you feel the regret of the wrong color choice every time you open the garage door.
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You have chosen wisely, as yellow, and particularly your chrome yellow, is THE best color for the X :)
 
I have to admit it is nice we don't all have the same color preferences. Cause in that case, we should all end-up driving nice black X's. o_O

Also, the way the color blend with the rest of the car is also important. In my case, since I was going to stick with the big 1500cc bumpers, I choosed black, 20 years ago, when I redid my car. My second choice was yellow. Black won, but I would have choosen yellow if I was going to go with US 1974/euro 1300cc small bumpers.

It took me awhile to settle on that. And now, fast forward 20 years later, I'm removing my big bumpers to go with more basics ones, which is a big tendency on our cars. I still like my car in black, but I may have choosen yellow if I had knew...
 
Daniel Forest said:
I have to admit it is nice we don't all have the same color preferences. Cause in that case, we should all end-up driving nice black X's. o_O

Also, the way the color blend with the rest of the car is also important. In my case, since I was going to stick with the big 1500cc bumpers, I choosed black, 20 years ago, when I redid my car. My second choice was yellow. Black won, but I would have choosen yellow if I was going to go with US 1974/euro 1300cc small bumpers.

It took me awhile to settle on that. And now, fast forward 20 years later, I'm removing my big bumpers to go with more basics ones, which is a big tendency on our cars. I still like my car in black, but I may have choosen yellow if I had knew...
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If we all liked the same color, it would get pretty boring......in fact, if everybody liked X1/9s, that would be pretty boring as well.
My first X was a "big bumper" car and I liked it. That look works for us. The 79 is a "big bumper" car, but the 81 has had a nice bumper delete done to it. It looks quite nice, but we still favor the bumpers.
Variety is part of what keeps it interesting.
 
Finally home ((3 days ago). Already starting to put parts back on. The yellow looks better in the sunlight than under Fluorescent lighting. The 81 on the lift is getting a "new" dash & a brown wire mod. Never a dull moment......at least I don't have to worry about getting bored.
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That is looking really sweet!
One unexpected challenge I find in owning a yellow car, especially when I wash it, is that bugs love it. They seem to think it’s a big flower and descend en masse.
 
Thanks! Yeah, I have heard that yellow attracts bugs. I guess we'll have to keep a wet sponge & towel in the tool kit in the trunk.
 
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