Rear Axle - Jag Rear Overhaul - Part 7

Ok, we are really making progress in the right direction now. No more stripping of parts and pulling things to bits, its all finishing and reassembly now.

In the last post you will recall I had the final base coat all prepped ready for finished colour......well here it is. These first pics are of the diff head all painted in metallic silver so it should blend nicely with all the HPC ceramic coating, polished alloy, stainless and chrome.

This is how the paint came out straight off the spray gun. Its the first time ever that I have used a spray gun as I never had the gear. I splashed out a while back though and bought a reasonable compressor and an Anest Iwata spray gun. Pretty good items I am told and I have to say I was really impressed with the finish. Totally stoked for a first attempt apart from a couple of rogue sandfly's and a bit of dust.

Next step was to give a good coat of clear which I did soon after these pics. I left the sandfly's and the other two imperfections and came back to them next day. Firstly I sanded the whole diff head with 1200 grit wet and dry and got it ready for more coats of clear, then I sanded out the wee imperfections and touched them up with my airbrush. The silver went on pretty well and matched perfectly, so all good.

Then I broke out the Iwata again and gave it a good few layers of clear. Its amazing no matter how you go about painting the diff head you still seem to miss a bit, there are so many bumps crevices and angles! Not a worry though I'll do that one spot I missed with the airbrush tomorrow, but meantime this is what it came out like with the clear all but finished.

Again this is just straight off the gun so pretty stoked! I did have a bit of drama with the clear going all cloudy though. Quickly shot upstairs and googled that and found it was a temperature thing. Just too cold and the air was damp. The cloudiness is caused by moisture. A quick shot with my hot air gun to warm everything up and the cloudiness disappeared.

I have a couple of runs I'll need to knock back with sandpaper and that one wee touch up, but apart from that its probably good enough to get the final shine using a bit of cutting polish without any need for sanding, especially given it is just a diff head. As my mate Bill says, at least the possums and all other road kill will have a nice view of the car. Very happy indeed.

Actually while I'm talking about the view for road kill.....there is a big square plate that reinforces everything under a jag rear. A lot of guys just don't bother with this but I quite liked this custom one I found and started prepping that for a bit of paint too.

Here it is being masked up. I had the metal polisher shine the flames so I will just paint the background. In this next pic I am trimming the masking tape with a sharp knife.

Heres a close up.

And here it is all primed ready for a first sanding.

Another day dawns and after a couple more coats of primer its time for some colour.

And with the masking tape removed!

Lastly I wanted to add a bit more detail and I have to thank the late Steve Foster here! I first met Steve in October 2009 when I got my white 33 Coupe on the road. Steve had not long gotten his blue one on the road too and below is a pic of that day with the two cars parked side by side.

Steve was incredibly helpful to me with parts and advice for my Coupe and he would become one of the main reasons I joined the Mid West Street Rods club. Steve was a sign writer by trade until he became ill with cancer. That didn't stop him though, he went on to live life to the full, finishing several projects and applying pin striping to many vehicles, not least of which was his own 33 Coupe. You can see the detail on the boot lid in this next pic.

I was fortunate enough to watch Steve do some pin striping on Roger and Ange's 28 Chev sedan and to be able to quiz him for a few pointers and tips along the way. Following that I purchased a pin striping kit and have had a few practice goes. My efforts pale in comparison to Steve's but its fair to say I couldn't have done it without his typically generous attitude in imparting some of his knowledge. 

My first real attempt, apart from practices on glass, was this flame work I did on my Grandsons Pedal Car for Christmas last year. I think Jayden was pretty pleased with it!

Anyway back to the diff....I used my wobbly pin striping skills once more to give the bottom plate a bit more definition. It adds a nice touch I think.

Cheers Steve!