I'm still not 100% satisfied with how the buffing came out, but I don't think most observers will notice, so I moved on.
The repaint:
There was some repainting required - on the hood there was a blemish on the driver side center from a mistake I made, the front bumper cover had a section where I only did one layer of basecoat, the driver side mirror cover had a couple fish eyes and the rear wing was the wrong color blue.
I removed the front bumper cover, sanded them all down with 1000 grit, prepped the surfaces and got to painting. Plan was to spot paint the base coat on the front bumper cover and the hood, maybe spot in the hood. I took inventory of the paint I had left and it was somewhere around 25 ounces mixed, which was going to be tight.
The first attempt did not go well. There was clearly something on the surface that was affecting the paint. Unfortunately I had put down the first layer of the mirror cover, wing, small section of the frt bumper cover before I figured it out. I did a small section of the hood to confirm it had the same problem.
I think the problem was that I was using a different wax and grease remover than I had used when I painted it the first time. This was old PPG Ditzler DX440 and I was using PPG Omni paint I never once figured these would be incompatible. To remedy there was no choice but to sand off the base coat I had applied and retreat the surface. In order to not damage the surface underneath I wet sanded it off with 600.
At this point I knew I was going to be short on base coat so I bought another quart along with PPG MX190 cleaner (which smells a lot like mineral spirits by the way).
After that I masked off the whole car except the hood, put up stands for the three loose items, In the end I decided to paint the whole hood. I lost a few days waiting for nicer weather but finally had a chance to paint yesterday. At first it looked like the base coat was having the same problem but it dried flat, so I proceeded. The clear went on all four panels without incident.
The color match is good too
Today I installed the rear wing and mirror cover. I also assembled the front bumper cover and put it on the car, but the top of it is not lining up with the hood at this moment.
Other:
I also discovered some welds in the trunk from removed police equipment so I ground those off and painted the area black. Before:
Not many items left
2019 Dodge Charger
Moderators: MostMint, wxo, Fred32v, Basement Paul, ttamrettus
Re: 2019 Dodge Charger
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
-BP[/quote]
Re: 2019 Dodge Charger
Over the past couple weeks I put the finishing touches on the car. Rear wing installed, Charger emblem added, front bumper cover on, cleaned up most of the dust and runs in the repainted parts until the sanding discs wore out. Removed the sticky stuff off the rear window. I also checked the rear toe in and it was spot on so there was no damage there.
Today I washed the car one last time before Rachel picked it up. We snapped a few pics.
Changing of the guard.
This chapter is closing.[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
-BP[/quote]
- Basement Paul
- Posts: 3538
- Joined: Sun Jul 17, 2005 9:27 pm
- Location: In the dirt.
Re: 2019 Dodge Charger
That thing turned out awesome. Great job! With that paint color, I really like the cop car wheels with poverty caps. I'm not a black wheels guy, but the steelies are cool with the blue.
-BP
-BP
Re: 2019 Dodge Charger
That's funny, 'cause I also thought those black wheels look really sweet on the blue car. Unique for sure!
Great transformation, almost can't believe it's the same car.
Great transformation, almost can't believe it's the same car.
Fred32v
GMC Canyon Crew Cab Short Box 4x4 V6!
GMC Canyon Crew Cab Short Box 4x4 V6!
- TireSmoker
- Site Admin
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Re: 2019 Dodge Charger
Yeah, going back to the first page and being reminded what what it started like, its really an amazing transformation. Awesome job!
-Dave
-Dave
Re: 2019 Dodge Charger
Recently I came across a set of OEM wheels off a 2022 Challenger GT. The owner upgraded to wider wheels as he wanted 275 wide tires. These have 2200 miles and look like new.
The police steelies will be for snow tire duty.
41956 miles
The police steelies will be for snow tire duty.
41956 miles
[quote="Basement Paul"]Is that a mint rocketship on the hood?? :shock:
-BP[/quote]
-BP[/quote]