Making trunk panels.

 The plan was to make the panels out of aluminium but wanted "try" my idea on some skrap sheet metal first. Pattern drawn on sheetmetal with sharpie.

Used a nylon roll as lower wheel and a "sharp" uppe wheel on the bead roller to make the pattern. As can be seen from picture there is quite a lot of wharping going on. Learned that it is a good idea to try and straighten the peace between beads to keep the wharping under control. Straightening the piece after all beads where done was dificult and result not that good. 

For more info on the motorised bead roller project visit:

  https://mybeadroller.blogspot.com/

Front side.

Back side. The tejp on backside is there to prevent scratches on the newly painted sofa while test fitting the pieces.

Some semi gloss black rattle can spray paint and I concider the panels ready.

 

If I where to do these panels again as originally planned I would change the design a bit. Estetically it would probably look better to have the flat part a bit narrower and I think it would be possible to minimise the wharping with not making beads on the scuare pattern all the way to the side of the panel. 

BUT, the result came out good enough so I think I will use these ones even if I now wish I would have removed old paint and rust more gently when prepping the panel before bead rolling it.

Paint job.

I tried to get a color as close to the original Ditzler color code 81515 that was available for the 1965 Dodge Dart and used on the Charger and GO GO Darts. On some forum I have found that Warsteiner GAT1616 would be close so that is what I asked for from the locar car paint dealer. I only have pictures to compare with but to me it looks close to the original color.

This is my first time trying to do a paint jog with spray gun. I'm happy with the spray result but I had an issue with dust and even one mosquito got stuck in the paint. My plan is to try and buff or wet sand and buff to improve the result. 

"Car" and panels where painted separately as space was limited. Everything prepared for next days spray session.

Covered the sofa while sparayng the panels. The garage is covered with thin yellow layer even though the tarpaulin arrangement worked decently.  

Need to make room for the car as this is where I store it during Winter. Tearing down the "paint booth".

Prepping for paint and first coat of primer.

 Made a temporary "paintbooth" of tarpaulins. It is very small so difficult to get deasent pictures of the result as there is just enough room to walk arount the sofa. This is the first time I'm painting something using a paint gun. The paint gun worked ok. My compressor is small and had to work hard during this job! The preparation before painting could/should have been done better so some touch up body filler work will be required!   

Preparing for paint.

Probably the worst "paintbooth"arrangement ever.

Adjustable ventilation.

Had to buy some stuff. 

Tarpaulins for the booth, Air hose, air dryer/filter pressure regulator unit, new face mask, air connectors and last but not least a paint gun. 

 

And then off course the paint. Two component primer and top coat and some accessories like thinner, mixing cups, paint gun cleaner.The most expensive sofa I have ever owned is coming along...

Pressure regulator installed on the wall and adjusted to two bar, in accordance with paint gun manual.

Starting from basics seaching the internet for how to use mixing cup.

Adjusting the gun. 

Air supply screw on the gun I had fully open as pressure was regulated earlier in the line, paint amount (needle) I just adjusted so it felt like a good amount of paint was coming out of the gun and pattern was adjusted so it was about 15cm wide when gun was about 15-20 cm from the piece of cardboard.

Final mock up to make sure everything fits before starting to prepare the sofa for paint.

All detailes where not ready when I started putting it together so some final fabrication work was needed.

More bead rolling was done to the rear part of back rest to try and imitate backrest of a 65-66 station wagon Dart, same theme as with the beads made earlier. 

Back side primered and ready.

Found a used motorcycle licence plate I liked on a swap meet. The paint has a tendency to peal of so I cleaned the plate and sprayed it with clear coat this will hopefully prevent paint from pealin of further.

  

To install the licence plate a simple bracket for fastening to bumber was made. Its not dented even if it looks like it in the picture!