Can anyone guess the movie the title of this blog came from????
Tradgedy struck the Monday when I went to apply the second coat of clear to the 65 Cadillac Model I've been working on. Just to give you an idea as to how long I've been working on this. I started in 2009. I'd gotten a 1:18 scale die cast Cadillac made by Jada. It was part of their movie cars line, the one from "Resevoir Dogs" . So, I got it home and started looking at it. I knew in the store I didn't intend to keep the yellow color on it. So I waited and waited till I found a color I liked and then proceeded to paint it.
The color I liked was a color I had made up at the paint store. It was supposed to be a match to the color of a 1958 Edsel I know of. The color is kind of a dark auqua turqoise green metallic. I think the title of the paint after it was mixed was called "Tahiti Green", Edsel called it "Spruce Green". I got the paint back to my house, proceeded to TRY to cover the emblems with tape so it wouldn't be covered by paint. I then took it outside and sprayed it. Now, keep in mind, this is the first paint job after the yellow from the company. So, I painted it and it looked SOOOOO freakin good. I touched it in a couple of places and noticed I'd left finger prints so I figured the paint wasn't dry yet. I let it sit for a couple of days (remember this is a 1:18 scale) and went back to finish it. I was still leaving finger prints and it was sticky. I waited a week and was still leaving finger prints while I was trying to polish it out. At this point I got irritated and put it away moving onto other models.
This little caddy sat in my basement for about a year before I decided to go back to it and see what I could do. I picked it up and started trying to polish again, and again I was leaving finger prints and it was still sticky to the touch. With that, I decided for some reason, the paint I'd gotten didn't have enough hardner in it and didn't know what I was going to do to remedy the problem. I guess a smarter person would have just gone back to the paint store and had another can mixed. But, I decided to strip the car and start over.
I stripped the little Caddy and went back to the drawing board trying to find a color I liked. Oh, by the way, I've since used that tahiti green on another model and after I clear coated it, it seemed to be fine. Although through the clear coat you can still see finger prints forming if you hold it too long.
Looking at picture after picture on the internet of 65 Cadillac s, trying to find a color I liked. I finally narrowed it down to these two colors.
1965 Cadillac DeVille Fawn Metallic owned by Domenick
courtesy of http//www.rubbertherightway.com
1965 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible Firemist red metallic
courtesy of http//www.madle.org/dog07fhtm
I got both of these colors made up. I chose the lighter gold metallic. Now, according to the color chart from 65 the name of this color is actually called Samoan Bronz, the red color is actually called Crimson Firemist and was only available on the Eldorados.
Anyway, I proceeded to paint the car, got it painted. Then for some unknown reason decided to sand on it a bit. Just lightly sanded and using a wet sand paper with water. Then I applied the Decals I'd printed for it (I'm getting fairly well versed in Decal production!) then painted some extra colors on them. (I know I should let the printer do it, but it's honestly easier and I like the results better when I hand paint the colors.) Then clear coated that to protect them from scratches etc. Then I masked the top area an proceeded with painting the top onto the car. I got that done and then decided Monday to put a second coat of Clear on it. Well, here's the results... and I'm not sure what I'll be able to do with it.
My Diecast 65 Cadillac DeVille in Samoan Bronze with black top. and cracked paint finish!
my 65 Cadillac DeVille 1:18 scale with paint crackling. Not sure what to do other than sand and repaint.
Anyway, I'm trying to look at this as a good thing, not sure if I've convinced myself yet, but we'll see. If anyone has any suggestions... I'm all EARS!!!
However I'll continue plugging away at it and see what happens.
I stripped and repainted one of these Jada Cadillacs back in 2009,with very good success. I had to totally disassemble the model, then spray it with a chemical paint stripper to completely remove all vestiges of the original factory yellow paint applied by Jada. I did remove the doors, hood and trunk lids, as well asall the plastic trim so that all i had left was the diecast metal parts, (body, doors, hood, and trunk lids, as well as the metal hinge pieces that holds the hinges in place on the body. After you have TOTALLY removed the paint from all the parts, they need washed in soap and water to remove all traces of the paint stripper or your new paint will not want to apply right.I used automotive touchup spray paints. starting with the primer coat. Leave this coat dry GOOD for several days before you try to apply a compatible color coat, and so on. Use the same brand of primer as well as color paint products to alleviate paint compatibility problems. Then after your color coats have dried, use a compatable clear coat to finish up your paint work. Then after it dries good for about a week, reassemble your model. Read here how I added the extra details to my Cadillac model that were missing from it to make it look more like a really 1965 Cadillac. I painted mine light metallic blue to imitate the Hampton Blue Metallic that my '65 Cadillac Calais coupe was. I have since sold the real car, but still have this model.
ReplyDeleteHere is the link to my blog.
http://jayveejayaresjunk.blogspot.com/2011/02/blue-jada-1965-cadillac-diecast-reason.html
Jim.