Day 5

Today was an eventful day... :-) I went on-line and brought up a few pictures of the dashboard of the GT, and then went to clean my brushes to get ready for more painting! For some reason, I had left the brushes on the paper towels instead of in water. The result (as you can probably guess) was that they were rock hard. I tried to soak them in paint thinner to loosen the paint, but by the time I got the paint off and softened the bristles, the brushes lost their form. This would make any remaining detail paint work very difficult. :-( Not a smart move MJ!

Well, I had initially spray painted the dashboard black. As you can see from this picture of the real GT’s dashboard, the area underneath with the radio should be silver. The 3 air conditioning vents were also supposed to be silver, as well as the out line of the gauges. I put blue tape all around the dash board so that I could use the silver spray paint for the radio area.

Looking back, I should have just brushed on the silver paint. When the silver spray paint dried and I peeled away the tape, I noticed that the silver had leaked under the tape, causing me to go back and touch up the black part. Also, the silver did not go on very smoothly on the bottom. Even though no one would be able to see this part once the car was complete, I still used my “favorite” paint thinner and a cotton swab to remove some of the thick paint, so that I could brush on a new coat of silver.

I know it may sound silly to you that I had chosen to use spray paint for this, but I was worried that the silver would not go on over the black very well. However, after using the thin brush on the vents, I realized that assumption was wrong. The silver went on beautifully!

While waiting for this to dry, I took a chance and decided to add the 5 switches (e.g., headlights, fog lights) that appear on the dash of the actual GT. Attempting this was probably a mistake… Because of the new shape of the thin paintbrush bristles, the paint came on quite thick and did not resemble the switches very well. If that wasn’t enough, some of the silver also spilled onto the area that should remain black. Once again, I had to wait for this to dry so I could try and fix up this area a bit. When you look at the switches on the dashboard, you do not see a straight line, but rather, an angle. Therefore, I had to try to add this angle to the top part of the switches.

The painting part of the dashboard was just about finished.

Now that the silver had dried, I made the start button red, and painted the radio section black. I then noticed that the only gauges that I had decals for were the speedometer and tachometer – the rest I had to do myself. All I did was mix the black and silver a little bit and add a touch of color to the area, so that when you look at the dashboard (once the decals have been added), it will look like actual gauges rather than a black spot with a silver ring around it.

Now it is time to assemble and paint the steering wheel and steering column. The steering column had been spray painted black, and the steering wheel was silver. I glued these together, which would give me something to hold onto, and then painted part of the wheel black (to resemble the actual steering wheel). The microscopic “Ford” decal will have to be added to the steering wheel after it dries, though I am not yet sure how to do this without ripping it…

I will save the decals for tomorrow, and the steering wheel column will not be attached to the dash board until the decals are put on, so it’s time to move on… The next step is the rear end of the car. :-) This includes the lights, exhaust, bumper, and rear grill. There are 2 small oval pieces of the grill that had to be painted black, and the main grill (behind the bumper) also had to be painted black, while leaving the exhaust pipes silver.

As I went downstairs to paint these pieces, I smelled paint thinner. And it wasn’t just a little whiff! The entire place smelled so strongly of these fumes that I had to hold my breath until I could open the door and walk outside! I guess you could say that I learned what happens when you leave paint thinner in a paper cup for 4 hours… Oops. The cup was empty, and the paper towel (and counter) beneath it were soaked. Just like a magic trick, there was no hole in the bottom of the cup, but it found a way to escape. I needed to get the smell out ASAP, so Bob and I cleaned up the mess on the counter, opened all the windows, and turned on some fans, while trying to inhale as little as possible. (I’m sure paint thinner is not only toxic, but highly flammable.) Needless to say, we both agreed that it was the perfect time to get out of the house and go see a movie. :-)

Good news! We not only enjoyed a great movie (Invictus), but thanks to a strong wind and the fans, we could not smell a trace of paint thinner when we came home! I will have to finish the rear end tomorrow, but I did get the parts painted, so the only thing left is assembly.