Not much of an update for a while but there's been plenty going on at cheese towers....
Some less rusty rear bumper metalwork arrived and needed hitting with the wire brush before a hefty coating of epoxy primer.
![](http://i492.photobucket.com/albums/rr281/regcheeseman/rearbumperirons.jpg)
One of the corner sections was bent and rusty, typically my original one was also rusted but I could make a decent one by joining the best bits of each one
![](http://i492.photobucket.com/albums/rr281/regcheeseman/rearbumperirons1.jpg)
The van has been getting a lot of attention recently, mostly because it was mid-prep for paint and looked a mess, spent a week or so looking like this
![](http://i492.photobucket.com/albums/rr281/regcheeseman/painttime.jpg)
Thursday I had a kid free day to crack on with the paint, I was hoping against odds for some vaguely decent weather....
Thursday dawned clear and sunny and promptly clouded over during breakfast.
![:(](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/sad.png)
Regardless I decided to crack on and continued flatting the roof and tidying a few bits, it took much longer than expected.
I bargained on a hour to mask up and it took nearer two.
I mixed up a load of two pack and fired up the compressor and put a small amount in my favourite gun but had my doubts as when I last checked it had something up with the fan pattern. Hoping that was just an issue with pressure or viscosity - but no, he fan was heavy on one side and nothing on the other.
I swapped to my new cheapo primer gun and carried on painting after about 20 minutes I noticed that the pressure was dropping and the compressor was not recharging.
I had to stop and check the compressor, eventually finding a duff contact in the pressure switch and just bridging it out.
By now there was an ominous grey cloud passing by, aware of the time constraints I crossed my fingers and continued to paint.
Ten minutes later it started to rain, not a lot but big rain drops. The shower passed but not before making a mess of the front panel, roof and passenger side.
I carried on painting on the drivers side and on the lower bits of panels.
The raindrops dried and I continued to whack more paint on, there was a fair bit of dust and now the flies had arrived
![:(](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/sad.png)
I carried on painting until I had a decent coat all over, with extra on the rain marked panels with a view to being ale to flat it out.
With the light going and temp dropping the van looked like this.
![](http://i492.photobucket.com/albums/rr281/regcheeseman/painttime6.jpg)
![](http://i492.photobucket.com/albums/rr281/regcheeseman/painttime5.jpg)
Not bad, fair bit or orange peel and a bit blotchy - I left it to dry.
This morning I went out to take a look - not good, it had dried streaky and some areas had bloomed badly. There were a few whitey patches and the front panel was almost all a light grey colour.
And the masking tape had let go and a few sections were flapping about - I pressed them back down and hope they stayed.
Now for a favourite trick of mine, load the gun with 25% satin black celly and celly 75% thinners. A light dustin all over and the paint just softens and dries uniform and matt almost like a black cast iron in texture and colour. The results were good and the bloom was all gone. Yay!
I could now un mask and refit the bits....
![](http://i492.photobucket.com/albums/rr281/regcheeseman/painttime3.jpg)
![](http://i492.photobucket.com/albums/rr281/regcheeseman/painttime2.jpg)
Well happy with that, and my youngest summed it up with "AWESOME!"
![](http://i492.photobucket.com/albums/rr281/regcheeseman/painttime1.jpg)
Where should that number plate go? Central as above or offset to the right?
The tailgate has the reflector removed
![](http://i492.photobucket.com/albums/rr281/regcheeseman/painttime7.jpg)
But it'll be going back on, after a bit of carbon film work
![](http://i492.photobucket.com/albums/rr281/regcheeseman/rearreflector.jpg)
Retro rides tickets turned up today, wheels still left to paint - looks like the plan is coming together.