paint

I actually got a lot done this weekend despite most of it being used up prepping for parties, grocery shopping, chiseling ice off the stairs (I literally spent two hours with a hammer trying to remove 1.5" of solid ice from the front steps), etc.

I picked up a small sandblaster gun from harbour freight during the week. On Saturday I tried blasting with the glass media I got from HF but wasn't real satisfied with the results. On sunday I picked up some regular fine sand from Home Depot and that worked much better. It's still a long and somewhat laborious process but it gave me better surface prep on the welds and other awkward areas than I could have by hand sanding alone. One piece of advice. If you use one of these, wear both a full-face shield AND the most tight fitting safety goggles you can find. The face shield protects against direct eye-destroying hits, but you get grit EVERYWHERE. I still have a few glass bits in my eyes that got there by threading their way around the face shield and my normal glasses. Also wear a good respirator and do it outside away from everything.



Once I finished the sandblasting, I hand-sanded the whole frame to get a consistent texture. I then wiped it down with mineral spirits and let it dry. I wiped it down carefully with a tack cloth and then sprayed a coat of self etching primer.



I let that dry for a half hour and cleaned up a few drips and re-sprayed. Let dry for another half hour and then hit it with the color coat. I went with a green. The color choices were pretty limited and I thought this might look nice. Time will tell. I'll let that dry for a day or two and then bake it using some stage lights that I just happen to have laying around. (It always helps to have multiple esoteric hobbies I guess).