All over refinishing of a DSG 03 Cobra
- Thread starter jbrown1238
- Start date
I think it is the camera angle that is making it look that way. Just the normal Flowmaster catback system.
That is my feelings exactly. PPG has eight listed variances not counting prime. The gallon I will be using is mixed at prime. I will be spraying everything except the driver & passenger door jamb and the engine compartment. Taking great care to fog every panel on the last coat. I will be leaving a few pieces attached as well to avoid issues with light refraction. Pieces such as the front & rear roof piller panels and possibly the side scoops. I would remove them on a solid color job but with the metallic and the potential problems with DSG I am going to play it safe.
jbrown1238,
Very nice & I admire your work that I have seen in the past. One day I will find another COBRA & it will have to be an 03 DSG one. People that say the factory paint is the best & the strongest you can get are pretty wrong. A proper re-spary with high quality paint is just as good if not more... !
Very nice & I admire your work that I have seen in the past. One day I will find another COBRA & it will have to be an 03 DSG one. People that say the factory paint is the best & the strongest you can get are pretty wrong. A proper re-spary with high quality paint is just as good if not more... !
Thank you, I agree about the factory paint, although the 03 & 04 Cobra did get a very good OE finish. The engine compartment and others areas were clearcoated where the base Mustangs were not. But let’s face it; the same fenders, doors, quarter panels, etc. were used on all the Mustang models. Our cars were built alongside the base Mustang. The imperfections from tooling that most people will never notice are visible to the trained eye. That is going to be a target area on this job. There is very little damage, no door dings, no dents, just a few chips and a few areas where the reflection of a straight edge does not appear to be true in the gloss. It isn’t so much the paint as what is under the paint that makes the final product look pretty good or REALLY GOOD!
Here is an example of the fender/door transition on the driver side of my 03. The reflection of the lines on the ground are a little askew going from the door to the fender. It would look much nicer if these lines transitioned smoothly from one panel to the next.
When I did the work on my sons 91 GT this same area required a lot of time and energy to get right, but the return on investment was worth it. The reflection is mirror tight and the transition from panel to panel is smooth.
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Thank you, I agree about the factory paint, although the 03 & 04 Cobra did get a very good OE finish. The engine compartment and others areas were clearcoated where the base Mustangs were not. But let’s face it; the same fenders, doors, quarter panels, etc. were used on all the Mustang models. Our cars were built alongside the base Mustang. The imperfections from tooling that most people will never notice are visible to the trained eye. That is going to be a target area on this job. There is very little damage, no door dings, no dents, just a few chips and a few areas where the reflection of a straight edge does not appear to be true in the gloss. It isn’t so much the paint as what is under the paint that makes the final product look pretty good or REALLY GOOD!
Here is an example of the fender/door transition on the driver side of my 03. The reflection of the lines on the ground are a little askew going from the door to the fender. It would look much nicer if these lines transitioned smoothly from one panel to the next.
When I did the work on my sons 91 GT this same area required a lot of time and energy to get right, but the return on investment was worth it. The reflection is mirror tight and the transition from panel to panel is smooth.
WOW, That is awesome! I never ever would have noticed that. Now I'm going to piss people off when I say their reflection isn't mirror tight haha. Keep up the good work and I can't wait to see how she looks when it's all done! :beer: :rockon:
My vacation request was just approved. I will be off work from May 2, 2010 through May 15, 2010. Between now and then I will be chipping away at the prep work as much as my schedule will allow and then hitting it hard while on vacation. If all goes well the prep work will be done on or around Wednesday May 5 and I hope to be in a position where I can get into the spray booth Thursday May 3 or Friday May 4. That will give me two or three days to let the car bake in the Florida Sun and five or six days to color sand the car before I am due back to work. I probably won't get to the polishing until after I return to work.
looks like an awesome project bro, you always do great work...i cant believe i have never seen your car around before...i am right down the road from you..i live in clearwater / palm harbor area...
-Ryan
-Ryan
Cool man! The 91 turned out awesome and so will the Cobra 
Thanks Ryan, I think I have seen your car around northern Pinellas when my girlfriend and I have been running around in her 07 conv. Looks like a bad ride for sure.
Today I cross sanded the rear spoiler, deck lid, and front fascia. Very quickly the low spot on the rear spoiler became visible. You can see the gloss where the paper didn’t touch it. Most of the spoiler was pretty straight except for the one spot.
The deck lid had a couple small high and low areas on the top. You can see the high spots where the paper cut through, coincidently all the highs were directly on top of the supporting structure located on the interior of the deck lid. The lows appear dark with a faint amount of gloss left after sanding.
The lower part of the deck lid near the tail light checked out good on the right side after block sanding.
The left side had two low spots that showed after a light cross sanding with the block.
The new front fascia looked good as well after block sanding with 180 grit. On both sides you can see a light bonding impression from the mold. This was not visible before the surface was scratched and probably wouldn’t show after paint if we left it alone. Since I stumbled acrossed it I will block and prime this section with a little added care.
Nothing special up front. This section turned out true with no surprises or imperfections.
The deck lid had a couple small high and low areas on the top. You can see the high spots where the paper cut through, coincidently all the highs were directly on top of the supporting structure located on the interior of the deck lid. The lows appear dark with a faint amount of gloss left after sanding.
The lower part of the deck lid near the tail light checked out good on the right side after block sanding.
The left side had two low spots that showed after a light cross sanding with the block.
The new front fascia looked good as well after block sanding with 180 grit. On both sides you can see a light bonding impression from the mold. This was not visible before the surface was scratched and probably wouldn’t show after paint if we left it alone. Since I stumbled acrossed it I will block and prime this section with a little added care.
Nothing special up front. This section turned out true with no surprises or imperfections.
Because the inside of the Cobra letters are clean with no damage I didn't want to touch them with 180 grit. Before I hit the rear fascia with primer/surfacer I will scratch any remaining gloss with 320 or 400 grit, including the inside of the letters.
So your going to prime everything?What are you gonna use slick sand or something of that sort?
What kind of gun are you gonna spray with?I sprayed this color last year..not ppg but sherwin williams through my 1.4 Sata Jet 2000 and it did great!
Looks like you got a great start man...Cant wait to see it finished up!
What kind of gun are you gonna spray with?I sprayed this color last year..not ppg but sherwin williams through my 1.4 Sata Jet 2000 and it did great!
Looks like you got a great start man...Cant wait to see it finished up!
No I won't be priming everything, just the areas that I will be checking with 180 grit or that have damage. Most production shops would buzz the whole car with 320 or 400 grit, prime the damage or broken areas and block only those spots and then spray out the car with basecoat/clearcoat. I will be blocking most of the car with 180 grit to get it straight and then going over those areas with primer/surfacer and blocking it once again with 180 grit. After that they will get one more coat of primer and final sanding with 400 wet. The roof has no dings, dents, waves, or ripples. It only has a chip or two towards the front. It will only need a spot or two of primer. The hood is pretty good and was blocked a few years ago when I painted it. It will only get primer where there is damage. Both sides will pretty much be covered in primer because they are going to receive a lot of attention with the sanding block. The sides are long and straight and catch the eye more so than most other locations on the car. I want to try and get them as true as possible.
I don't use slick sand although I would like to try it some time. I will be using PPG Shopline JP285 Primer Surfacer. I will wrap the car in Norton Plastic before I prime. I use a Binks #7 for my paint work and a knock off for the primer/surfacer. Don't laugh, I know it is a 40 year old design. I grew up using that model and have always stayed loyal to that particular gun. Just to afraid to try something newer. I do own a couple other models but never could get use to them, I always find myself going back to the old Binks #7.
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i know thats how we do everything at our shop but some of the allovers i have done we have blocked fixed all the body work sanded everything with 180 slick sand prime and then 400 everything! Either way makes for a good job and like i said you look like you have a pretty good head start.
Thanks, in a way I wish I would have stayed in the industry. It has changed a lot in the last ten years and there are new methods and products that I never had the chance to try. I only spray once or twice a year and don't have the chance to play around with various products like I would if I were working in a production shop daily. The price of paint and materials is getting expensive and I am forced to stick with the ones that I am familiar with.
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That is amazing Jeff. Very few would pick up on the panel to panel transition like this. The difference between yours and your son's is very dramatic. I learned something new today.
That is amazing Jeff. Very few would pick up on the panel to panel transition like this. The difference between yours and your son's is very dramatic. I learned something new today.
It isn't that noticeable until you start looking at a lot of show cars and see the little touches like that and learn to appreciate those things. A lot of people like to pull the panels off the vehicle and paint them independent of each other. There are advantages to that as well and it works fine with solid colors. The problem with painting them separately with metallic colors is you don't get the even spread of metallic and the light reflects at different angles as it bounces off the metallic particles. It is like looking across a field of grain, you can see the wind bending the grain in different directions at different locations, and this changes the appearance slightly. You also don't get the dead on alignment like you would have with file board sanding across adjoining panels when they are attached.
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