Td5 D2 bodywork - Front door respray

May 2016  -  Next to the newly sprayed rear door, the sad and sorry state of the front door....

.. is a bit alarming!

The contrast is amazing. Bear in mind the rear door panel still needs to be 'mopped' to get it to shine. 

5th June 2016  -  The same hassle with removing the door handle and sealing strip were overcome and the removal of the door mirror was straight forward. 

This image shows the residue lacquer from under the door handle. Also worthy of note is the top of the door where the sealing strip was removed. The original factory paint finish is still visible in that area.

Close examination of that area reveals the difference between the original base colour-coat and the lacquer coat. The area along the top edge that looks like a piece of sellotape has been applied is actually the base colour coat minus the lacquer.. It's not that far removed from the weathered door panel tone.

The thickness of the lacquer coating is something to note..

Another view of the top edge of the door panel with the sealing strip and door mirror casing removed. This patch was beneath the mirror casing..

Close up of the door handle aperture. Can't believe I thought I could get away with not removing the handles..

So, with the door stripped down, I commenced to wet and dry the door panel with mixed results. The intense strong sunshine did not help by drying the surface almost as soon as I wet it. It proved to be a diversion, as I watched the wet surface quickly dry off before my very own eyes.

On the rear door, I used the wet abrasive handheld with gentle pressure working small areas at a time.
Research indicated that a better more even finish can be achieved with the use of a suitable 'sanding block' and sanding in horizontal and then vertical strokes.
   

A large rubber sanding block (£1.90 Toolstation) was sourced and used for the first time on the front door panel..

..here are the results...

...Figure something went wrong here!!

I ended up with really visible 'tram-line' surface scratches all along the panel. On close inspection, it could be seen that the pattern and spacing exactly matched the ridges on the sanding block. Clearly my technique needed more practice..

I went back to hand sanding, but I used an old kitchen sink sponge as a block to wrap the paper around. My intention was to remove the scratches. 

Using the paper handheld or wrapped around a kitchen sponge soon got the scratches subdued and the respray back on track..

Time to wait for that favourable weather window to begin.. and the Muse to return.

18th June 2016  -  The weather conditions were good, dry, calm and overcast.  At 0845 the temp was 23°C with 49% humidity. I had started to log temp and humidity at various times of the day as I read about temp and humidity being important for spraying. (particularly when outdoors).

An odd image of the door panel all masked up and ready to paint. It looks like it is just floating in space...

The door was left slightly open to allow the trailing edge to be sprayed. I was careful to mask inside the door aperture. 

Made extensive use of the lining paper. All the bubble wrap was kept from spraying the rear door as I felt it would be ideal to use again. 

Unfortunately though, the areas of it that had been sprayed over caused a problem by flaking off all over the place and I got to worry the flakes would end up on the door panel. So I only reused the cleanest pieces..

Looks like I was still using the ordinary masking tape. That would soon change to using the 'blue' low-tack and waterproof painters one.

At this point in the proceedings it had become apparent that the front wing was going to need to be resprayed as well. I did consider doing this at the same time as the front door panel, but felt that was well beyond my fledgling capabilities. 

Made sure the rattle cans were warmed up by standing them in a bowl of hot water. This is a good practice and it does seem to bring better results. For example although the same can of lacquer was used for both the front and rear door panels, the can was warmed up more for the front door then the rear door. The difference in the finish was noticeable.

 

Kind of hard to get a good exposure of the paint tones. It appears to change depending on the light falling on it..

I sprayed about six coatings of the colour coat and changed cans near the end judging the original colour coat can to be near empty. The clear coat also had about six coatings. I recall that is more lacquer then the rear door received and may have contributed to what I felt was a better finish.

During the spraying, I left at least 10 minutes between each coating, and did not rub down between the coats.

Found it difficult to judge how much 'spray' was left in the can. I had already purchased another can of colour-coat, but I started spraying with the original can. Judging by the difference in weight was the only measure available. The colour coat cans contain 400ml and the clear coat can has 500 ml. I managed to use the same clear-coat can for both door panels.

All the fun was soon over for another day and it was time to pack away.

  the dreaded paint fleck pox....

19th June 2016  -  first day after painting and already the critical eye is casting. In comparison to the rear door panel, the front door panel is clearly more 'glossy'. This may be due to warming the clear coat can or it could be a thicker coating or both. The same can of clear-coat was used on both door panels so it must be down to the application.

At this stage, I recall thinking I should maybe put more clear coat on to the rear door panel.

Also at this time, it becomes obvious that the offside front wing will need to be resprayed. 

The above photo shows the paint finish on the front door before any buffing took place.

The 'orange peel' effect can be seen when zoomed in. The rear door shoulder has already been buffed up...

The shoulder of the front door was then buffed and it quickly out-shone the rear door shoulder. The front door shoulder now became the target to get all the panels to match up to.

I have decided to treat the buffing process as a separate topic to the respray and will write it up elsewhere..