Saturday, citizens in the otherwise quite community took note of a strange person spotted in the garage of the house at the end of the street.The person in question was wearing a orange jumpsuit causing witnesses to suspect he had escaped custody. Local police said there had been no bulletins for escaped prisoners in the area. One bold neighbor took matters into his own hands and confronted the man at which point, he came face to face with the the gun toting stranger. Unarmed, the neighbor made a quick (and clean) exit.

Source: Humor Press

In all seriousness, Saturday was the first day in nearly three weeks where it was both warm and dry enough to paint. (The next time is at least a week away.) I spent all day finishing the polishing and then washing all the parts with pre-cleaner to insure there was no residual oil from the buffing compound or my finger prints.

I assembled a temporary paint booth in one bay of the garage and suspended a rack to hang all the parts (each from a separate hook fashions from a bit of coat hanger).

I donned the above pictured outfit. Mixed the clear lacquer and reducer/thinner. And made a full pass on the parts. This process was repeated two more times. by the time I cleaned up, I had spent 9 hours either standing over the buffing machine, the work bench, or in the spray booth.

Unfortunately, I could have benefited from some training. The results were a satin finish across all the parts. While it looked nice, it was not the clear gloss I was trying for. I spoke to a professional painter today and the problem was either moving the spray gun too quickly or spraying at too high a pressure. I suspect the a combination of the too. to fix the problem, I’ll have to lightly sand with 600/1000 grit paper and spray one or two more coats at the correct speed and pressure. UGH! (I’ll chalk this one up to a “training session”.)

Back to that outfit for a moment. I thought back to my grandfather’s little paint room where he did painted projects for my grandmother. I remember a fan in that room but I am pretty sure my grandfather didn’t wear a respirator. I have an OSHA certified respirator which really works (you could smell fumes outside the garage but I had clean air through the respirator - even in the fog of the paint booth). I guess it’s is yet another example of us surviving history despite ourselves.

ttd = 37

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