Consolidating Colours pt. 2

So time to carry on where I left off... Given the amount of painting I had to do today, I decided to start off with the bonnet, to give my hand a break while I prepped the fenders.  The bonnet was already sanded from yesterday, so got the finger squeezing goodness off to a flying start... 

Four coats later, the bonnet is done!  Had to make sure I got all the edges as well, so that when the bonnet is on, you don't see any white when its closed.

I then started prep work on the guards.  It was good to finally get into them, as I'd spent a good 20 hours just waiting for fibreglass and bog to dry.  I thought the sander I bought yesterday was absolutely brilliant, but the rate at which it ate through bog?  Man its quicker than Kirsty Allen eating cake!!  Had to take the guards back quite a bit though, as there were several layers and qualities of paint on them which would've resulted in a very uneven paint job had I left them.  


I also had to add a second sheet of fibreglass to the indicator holes.  Due to gravity, the fibreglass dried with a bit of a curve to it, so when I was sanding back I was also sanding back fibreglass.  Unfortunately this meant that the strength of it was compromised, so a second sheet needed to be stuck on there to compensate.


After the guards were painted...

... it was time to fit everything back on.  Yes, I decided to keep one eyelid white. Hey, had to honour her heritage!!  The only purpose of test fitting the panels was to make sure that they all lined up before I bolted them in properly.  Theres a fair bit of play in each of them (i.e. bonnet had to move right by 3mm, front bar needed to shift over a good 8mm, the front left guard had to be pushed in in the middle, and the headlight covers/eyelids needed to be adjusted to make sure the curves still lined up) so it was good to make sure they were correct before I secured them.

Her all back together! Including lights, number plates, and finally a Nissan badge :)

Ive gotta say, she looks so much more meaner now she's all the same colour... The orange indicators also contrast with the black a lot better than they did with the white too.  

Also painted the mirrors while I was at it :)  Much quicker and easier than anything else I tackled this weekend.  You can see in this picture though that the new panels need some loving so that the sheen is consistent over the whole car.  I'm planning on waiting for the paint to properly cure before I give it a polish, and try to bring some of that gloss out.  After all, it is a gloss black that I painted it with... I would've liked to have seen more gloss and less satin.  Don't quite know why that came out this way actually =S


Anyways, stay tuned.  This has definitely sparked my inner mechanic to keep going!