When I walked out of my house this morning the light was too good to not take a picture of my Vanagon. Like I said, the paint job isn't finished but is at least good enough to appear finished from a few feet away. I don't expect anyone to consider this as "proof" that the roller paint job can work since I'm not even finished but I do think it is an excellent example of how deceptive a photograph can be. The van does look good from a distance but the closer you get the more flaws you notice. Once the weather improves I'll have to do something about those flaws and finally finish my never ending project.
Oh and this photo is taken after I believe six coats. The van HAS NOT been sanded in the past two coats and the last time I did sand it I used 800. My plan is to sand it with 1500 and then only paint panels which have issues. One other thing is that I still have not completely repaired my seam rust. I just loaded it up with rust converter, primed, and painted it. I did not put any body filler on it but was just trying to slow down the rust until I can do a panel replacement.
One last thing, if it isn't obvious, you should be able to click on the image to get a higher resolution. It was shot with a camera phone though so if you are hunting for flaws I doubt you'll be able to see them from this distance with the crappy phone. Enjoy!
Monday, December 22, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
Electrical Challenges
My latest puzzle is figuring out what is wrong with my second battery. I bought a proper Go Westy auxillary battery kit a few months ago because I was never quite happy with my original setup. Basically I wanted a proper isolator and I wanted to have the radio and interior lights moved over to the second battery. The Go Westy kit would make all of that easy so I picked one up. Thanks to my painting project I didn't get around to installing it until a week or two ago. As usual the instructions were well written and easy to follow but I somehow managed to screw things up. My first problem was that my main battery was draining with the engine off. In fact it discharged so much that in a single day it dropped to just under 4 volts. As you can probably guess that killed my original battery and I had to pick up a replacement. Now I haven't had a chance to really figure out what is going on so I've just been disconnecting the ground whenever I'm not driving so I don't damage the new battery. I really would like to get to the bottom of this issue but winter and the rest of my life are getting in the way. I'll get to it eventually.
Just to warn you guys, things may slow down over the next few months. A combination of sub-freezing temps, salty Maryland roads, and my first child due in a couple of months should result in the Vanagon finding itself on the back burner for a while. My only real regret at this point with it is not finishing the paint job before the cold weather hit. Even if I had the time I can't get that last coat on there. Maybe there will be an unseasonably warm weekend at some point and I can get things wrapped up. Until then it is just going to have to wait - its so close to being nice.
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