[RPOLS3]

In between some of the mechanical stuff I have been working on I experimented with the paint a bit. The car was repainted around 2011 when Pro-Team had the car. It is a medicore paint job that looks good from 20' away. When the car arrived it had a very rough texture to it and I used the Surface Prep Mitt to take care of that. There were a bunch of small surface scratches all over the car that needed to be buffed out. When Dad sold the car he had 2 gallons of Rally Red lacquer that stayed with the car and I understand that paint made it's way to Pro-Team with the car. Based on the look (you can see some of the fiberglass texture underneath like you would on an original paint car) and the amount of red color that comes off when working the paint, I think they may have used that lacquer when it was painted in 2011.

While at MCACN with the 409 last fall I had one of the mobile detailers there take out all of the scratches and paint damage from years of putting the cover on and off. All of the high spots on the paint were damaged up pretty bad and I did not have the confidence to tackle that. They did an amazing job and I took note of the equipment they were using. I have an old (like 40 years old) Milwaukee buffer that I used to use and it seems that technology is grossly out of date now.

I purchased the Rupes HLR15 kit (the same equipment the mobile guys used at MCACN) and had a chance to try it out the other afternoon. I used the fine sponge pad and the fine compound - this is the least aggresive combination in the kit. I did the drivers side of the hard top and drivers side hood/hood surround. So far it looks pretty good for an amateur. This is a D/A machine so it is really hard to screw anything up.

Hoping to get some more time on things this weekend and figure out the heat/vacuum issue (I spent some time digging in the assembly manual and now know what I am looking for) and replace the gasket on the accelerator pump in addition to getting the paint dialed in a bit.

Little by little.............