Side Skirt Restoration - Lots and lots of pics

Jimmy · Postby **Jimmy** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 7:20 pm

My lower side skirts had been resprayed at some point in the cars life. Unfortunately it was a really bad job and the paint was literally flaking away from the panels. After a quote of roughly $300 (mates rates) just to get the right skirt done i thought id give it a shot myself and if worst comes to worse, i can always get it done professionally. Originally i was only going to do the front right side skirt but the finish came up so well that it made the doors skirt look really crap...so, i did the lot! Here are the pics of the complete paint restoration of the right hand side skirts from front right hand lower quarter back to the door. I decided to ditch the textured finish (stone protection layer) and go with a nice smooth polished look. Resonably simple steps to follow and an awesome result.
In total: 4 coats of primmer, roughly 10 coats of colour matched paint and 5 clear coats (extra coats to acommodate the removal of the stone guard primmer stuff) - all paint/primmer was from a can! It only proves what can be achieved if you have a bit of patients

Its all in the preparation, painting was the easy bit!
Sorry for a few of the images, they were taken with my phone. I acutally have 150 odd photos of this on my camera but have only posted the most relevant ones.

Step 1: Strip old paint, sand, bog and sand

Step 2: Primmer, sand, primmer, sand etc etc (4 layers in total)

Step 3: Paint

Step 4: Sand

Step 5: AutoGlym Paint renovator

At this stage no clear coat has been applied. I waited a week for the paint to cure properly before clear coating. In the mean time, i got stuck into the door skirt...

half way through my scraper broke...all i can say is thank god for cable ties

Note in this next picture how the tape was moved to the top of the side indent strip thingy. This is so i can easly blend the paint in to the orginal paint and also to be less conspicuous to see.

And after some paint renovator to get it ultra smooth and shiny... (still no clear coat btw)

And finally the clear coat, sanded and buffed. What a result

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Jimmy · Postby **Jimmy** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 7:28 pm

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AJ · Postby AJ » Thu Jul 19, 2007 7:48 pm

good stuff....looks great!!! :mrgreen:

meanmx · Postby **meanmx** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 9:45 pm

That came up really good, you must be very pleased with it. Thanks for sharing this. Did it take you long?

Ajay · Postby **Ajay** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 9:52 pm

MAAATTTTEE!! looks awesome.. so whens a good time to drive to your place for you to respray my doors..

:D:D lol..

all the black part under the door has rubbed away on mine..

so do you not have ANY stone guard section left now?..

i have to say it turned out wonderful!.. good job

Ajay

Jimmy · Postby **Jimmy** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 12:13 am

Overall it took me a couple of weeks, mainly waiting for the paint to cure properly. There is no stone protection stuff under the paint now, hence why i did lots and lots of coats of paint and clear coat to get a really thick finish. You can buy the stone protection stuff but i wanted a smooth hard finish so opted to go without it. I'll be interested to see how it holds up and how long it lasts. But in the mean time, i saved myself a whole heaps of cash!

deez · Postby **deez** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 12:35 am

Wow...I'm amazed. Awesome work there!

Great result! I can imagine a lot of love and labour going into this. You must be one happy chappy

Alex · Postby **Alex** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 2:26 am

That looks great

Lucky_Luke · Postby **Lucky_Luke** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 9:30 am

Really nice work Jimmy,that looks really neat!! Go DIY

Benny · Postby **Benny** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 10:51 am

I think you've missed your calling in life there Jimmy.
Looks sensational!

green_comet · Postby **green_comet** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 11:54 am

Wow that came out great..

..and while you are watching the paint dry, you can catch up on whats happening in the news.. :mrgreen:

Hammer · Postby **Hammer** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 2:23 pm

Great work!

Did the paint match well? Couldn't really see from the photos due to lighting and reflection. And who did it?

I might have to pick your brain on your process and paint type/brand in the not to distant future for my daily car. It nees something similar done to what you've done.

ducktape69 · Postby **ducktape69** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 3:38 pm

looks great...
any reason u didnt paint the bit under the side skirt?(black paint area)

Jimmy · Postby **Jimmy** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 4:09 pm

Did the paint match well? Couldn't really see from the photos due to lighting and reflection. And who did it?

Paint match was near perfect. You can get colour matched cans made up by some paint shops. I did the entire job meself.

any reason u didnt paint the bit under the side skirt?(black paint area)

I did do the black skirt area. Some of the pics still have a bit of polish left on the skirt which i missed. There is a huge difference between the original black (textured and matt) and the new black which i put on (smooth and gloss).