Also, I dove into the trunk rust repair with the POR-15 trunk and floor pan repair kit. More on that in a moment... Oh! I forgot to mention that I got a compressor. I ended up getting a somewhat small dual tank design, 8 gallons total, but it's got a 5 HP Honda gas-powered motor on it. With that, it manages to crank out 9.5 cfm at 90 PSI and 11.5 cfm at 40 PSI. I know a lot of people say that's not enough, but my gun is rated to run at 4-7 cfm at a max of 29 PSI. So I think I'm good. It just runs all the time, which is why the neighbor complained.
So tonight I hauled the decklid out again to prep it for the high-build urethane primer (the last step before paint. after you sand it smooth, of course.) I went over it with 220 grit paper, then blew it with pressurized air, then went over it all with degreaser as a final step before shooting it. I had just gotten some teflon tape to get ride of some air leaks at my hose connections. Things were looking good. Oh...what's that? One last fitting I forgot to tighten, the one at the end of the hose that feeds the gun. Torquing....snap! The cheapo fitting on the pressure regulator gauge that came with the gun kit broke and is useless. I was just about to mix primer and go live! Alas, it was not to be. Lesson: If you buy a bargain-priced HVLP gun kit, DON'T torque anything too much. (You'd think they could at least use a brass fitting on there....geez.)
Well, it was too late to do anything about it, so I touched up a few bare metal spots on the decklid with the VERY LAST drops of a spray can I still had (after fishing it out of the recycle can) of self-etching primer. I think before I said something about rust starting to form in about 8 hours. Scratch that. It's actually 8 minutes. Can't leave that metal bare. Then I put everything away and I'm showered and done for the night.
About the POR-15...they supply a fiberglass cloth to lay over rust holes and then coat with their thick, rust-inhibiting paint. I assumed that the fiberglass would just kinda blend into it. Nope. Take a look:
It's still a fibrous mess. Not sure if this is supposed to sand out or what. I've got a message in to the folks at POR-15. At this stage I have two coats of the thick silver paint, and now (after taking the pictures) a coat of the black, thinner paint. I also filled some of the pits and irregularities with the putty they provide. Good stuff. If I had it to do again, I'd fill all the rust holes about the size of a pea and smaller with the putty. It's easier to work with. If you're going to use the putty, I recommend taking about a grape-sized chunk from each of the two bars and then blend those together. I did about three times this much, and the stuff sets up sooner than you can make your way through it. It's really easy to smooth at first, but got a bit too stiff to work with after about 20 minutes. I ended up throwing about half of the original walnut-sized chunk away.
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