Meanwhile, the grey primer on the nose was giving me the shits so I went to a Glasurit paint supplier and asked the paint guy to mix me up some pressure packs in SWR but I wanted them to look faded like the rest of the bus. I unscrewed the vent cover and gave it to him and he also came out to check the Kombi out. He ended up mixing to the Glasurit codes for L53 (SWR) and putting 30% flattener in it.
Now my brother is a tradesman spraypainter since he was 15 and an expert colour matcher but I didn't want to hassle him for such a small job. The nose will have to be repainted again anyway - either blended in or resprayed properly after some dents are attended to, so I wasn't too worried if my pressure pack experiment wasn't quite right and ANYTHING is better than grey primer!
I ended up calling my brother anyway because I wasn't confident in masking a consistent curve for the nose 2 tone - he told me I should've just brought the bus to him in the 1st place and could've easily colour matched the faded OG paint and blended it. And yes, I should've....
The 30% flattener was a mistake because all it did was make the good Glasurit SWR look like dull red primer. My brother fixed that as best he could with some wet weather thinners and clear coat.... which made it heaps better. But he said don't put my name with this job!
It's good to experiment (remember the front clip isn't original to MY bus and had to be painted anyway) and it gives me a better idea of what new shiny paint would look like Vs OG blended in.....
So here's a few pics, did I mention it was pissing down and I had to drive home again?!
My bro reluctantly helping me out....
Masked up with the grey primer that was already there!
Paint shop guy gave me wrong advice! 30% flattener won't match faded OG paint; you've gotta colour match the faded pigments & texture in the OG paint says my Bro - well, now I know...
Second coat, still looking crap like red primer...
Starting to look a bit better... see the rain pissing down; not the best day to be painting!
And better still...
Bare in mind, the white on the nose isn't the correct Beige Grey either. But overall I'm happy for a temporary job and anything to cover the grey primer. Should have listened to my brother and let him colour match... but as I said, it'll be getting repainted in the near future anyway!
