Day: August 20, 2011

… from one day to the next. I obviously tempted fate a little bit too much by my comments yesterday about things going like clockwork because today it has been completely the opposite. Mind you, things started well… it’s just that they then went downhill fast.

The weather forecast was good for today so I was up with the lark to get going. I started by rubbing the pod down to flat the primer coat that I put on yesterday and I was really pleased with how well it came up. There were a couple of little bobbly bits that I’d sprayed over and when I rubbed over those, I went through to the blue of course. My fault, I should have got rid of all of the bits like that before I did the priming. I tried brushing a bit of primer on after I’d flattened them but the trouble with that is because what you put on by hand is thicker than what you spayed, when you rub it down you then go through in the area surrounding the bit you hand painted. No harm done, just a nuisance, so I decided to bite the bullet and get the spray gun going, but before I did it began to lightly spit with rain. I just couldn’t believe it – here we are, August, no rain forecast, not much wind and I can’t spray!

I then thought I’d turn my attention to the panel so I could at least get something done today. Starting with the top in which I’d previously filled the bolt holes, I thought I’d see how good a match the grey I’d had mixed was before I used it on the repair I did. SHOCK HORROR!!!!!!! What came out wasn’t dark grey at all – it was more like grey primer! So I was stymied again! I’ve emailed the paint company but nothing can happen now until Monday, of course.

As I type this it’s mid-afternoon and the rain has started to fall quite heavily and I’m now beginning to wonder just how much progress I’m going to be able to make this week-end, after all 😕

Just came back to say that shortly after I typed the above, the rain stopped and almost in an instant, the sky cleared and we had scorching sun for a short while. I took the chance to get everything back out of my garage and get the spray gun going. I managed to spray the patches in that I needed to and also do a little bit more stopping of one or two more small blemishes that I had found. By the end of it all, the pod was beautifully smooth and ready for its finishing coat. Incidentally, I don’t know what I did differently, but this time the patches I sprayed in came out lovely and smooth with hardly any overspray and I don’t know whether it was due to the mix of the paint, the gun setting (which I changed very slightly) or my technique. I just hope that the same happens with the red finishing coat when I eventually do it!