Beware of Nasty Ghosts!

[pgerhardt]

As I have stated in another post I decided to redo the running board splash shields on my 29 tudor. The story of my failure and its nasty surprise might help others avoid the same.

When I first sprayed my splash shields it was a little cool (mid 60s) so even using a cool reducer, I got a few runs & sags. No problem I though. They will be eliminated during color sanding. First I used a nib file to knock the tops of the runs off, then color sanded to get a perfectly flat surface. After buffing the shields looked very good - IN THE GARAGE! Luckily the garage gets direct sun through a window in late afternoon that hits the passenger side shield directly. When I saw the result I was horrified. Not only were there scratches that I had missed (which I could have removed with further buffing), but horrible ghosts of the runs & sags that I though were gone were clearly visible (picture 1).

I am lucky I found out now. I would have been pissed to discover this when I first pulled it out of the garage after the car was all assembled! I guess that is why shops use special daylight lights to check their work. I sanded both shields back down, and today when the temperature reached the upper 70s resprayed the shields. Those nasty ghosts are gone (picture 2)!

So when you think you are done with a paint job, be sure to check it in direct sunlight, and beware of those nasty ghosts! But also be comforted by the fact that no matter if you screw up, you can always sand it back and do it again.