Painting the Mirage...6 years into it.

I finally got the courage up to quit making excuses by finding yet another mechanical thing to work on, and dress up in my Sunday best. So I started out with some low visibility parts (side-pod covers), and then the small ones (doors) to test my waning painting skills. Paint now days ain't what it was 15 years ago, so it did take a bit of trial and error before I finally figured it out again. Now I feel I can finish the entire car within the next month. All the decals are in hand, and hopefully put on the car by the end of next month.

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Looking good Terry. Your color looks to be a good match to the original McLaren Orange.

Second Act: At this rate I should finish sometime around New Years. :eek: Fortunately, this panel was the largest and most complicated in terms of prepping and shooting. The next two, and other door should be easier. Then I can start into the fun stuff, and start playing with the decals, roundels, and numbers. BTW, it's official...I suck at painting. What used to be a considerable amount of pride in my ability, has turned into a shadow of the shadow of a paint man that I was. Part of this is the paint now days has no semblance to what I used to use 15 years ago. Yellows and oranges used to cover in 2 coats. This took 5 to get proper coverage. It's also too hot to be painting in the afternoon. Morning shoot this weekend for the dash cover or middle panel should help. These photos make the orange look a little more red, and less yellow than it really is.

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You are still way ahead of me in painting skills...Looks great from the photos!

Part 3. Last piece now is the nose panel.

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Gave up a 65 mile bike ride this weekend to finish the overall painting. Now on to the the detail painting and the many blemishes that need to be wet-sanded and polished out.


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Then when all that is "fixed", I'll put the McLaren graphics, numbers, and the Gulf and Goodyear decals, on it. My wife is jazzed in that she's optimistically thinking I can finally apply some of my skills to some trimwork in the house.

Great looking car !!

It must be exciting, your car is getting very close to looking like your avatar picture !

A lot of skill and hard work.

Looking Great !

I've been "convinced" that I should use my wife's lucky number of "14" rather than the single number "4". Being she is my largest sponsor of the car, and "if mamma ain't happy, nobody's happy" is true, then "14" it will be. I'll put the last roundel on the driver's side tonight, and then finish up the graphics for this car's first car show this weekend.

http://mantacarsforum.com/attachment...ntid=703&stc=1

14 is good!
We like car show pictures.

Six years of working on this car at every free opportunity I've had, finally appears to be wrapping up. Started the detailing work tonight, but about to finish this string soon. During the last year and a half, my passion and perfectionism waned, and I wondered if I'd ever "get off the couch" to get it painted. That's when Debbie pretty much kicked me in the back-side, and said "get 'er done!". She's absolutely jazzed about how the car has transformed in the past month...I'm still trying to take it all in. Anyway, here's some end-game photos, with only a very little bit of detailing left to complete.

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The Manta looks amazing!!! Congrats and great job!

I was up until 3 a.m. last night preparing the car for one the largest car shows of the year in Little Rock, putting numbers on the other side of the car and other graphics. It drew a consistent crowd of folks that loved the car. I'd guess that only about 10% (or less), had any idea what it is supposed to represent, but I loved talking to the guys that had actually watched a Can Am event (showing my age now) back then, and knew what the car was.


One of the rare periods in which I could sneak away from the questions, and take a photo:


http://www.fototime.com/EE24CAC66552F01/standard.jpg

BTW...anybody on this site know an old relic that goes by the name "Chopper Jim"? :)

Terry it looks great! I know the feeling that you described...I have been at this so long that I have lost perspective on how close to being finished I am...My wife and friends are telling me how far it has come, and all I see is what is left to do! Enjoy the car, drive it, show it, bask in the well-deserved attention!

Dan

The Z car you did looks amazing. This one of course looks REALLY GREAT.
You probably look at it and think, ah I should have made this longer or that shorter or something, but trust me everyone else sees, WOW, NICE!

I'll be coating the underside of the fiberglass panels, and inserting thermal barrier on the rear panel, re-fabricating my rear uprights to make them lighter and taller, and other ongoing improvements as it moves to "hobby" from "project". I also applied Plasti-Dip onto the dash (the orange paint was too glossy, and not visually consistent with the M8).

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The 2nd picture on this page is cool. You can see how short the wheelbase is and how wide the wheelbase is.

Took the car to work after lunch to let the guys finally see the car we've talked about for 7 years. I'm starting to REALLY enjoy the car now.

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Terry
Looking Great! Getting to drive it and see people's reaction to it helps make the labor worth it!
Congratulations!

Dan

Excellent Work!! You must have years of Mechanical and Body work experience.

Thank you. I've been messing with cars since I left home at the age of 19. This project utilized every piece of knowledge and experience gained during the last 40 years, and most likely will be the last project I ever work on (will probably always be upgrading bits and pieces on it).

Just found my dream car... where can I find more info about this build? Engine, parts, changes from the original Mirage, etc...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Joao

Just found my dream car... where can I find more info about this build? Engine, parts, changes from the original Mirage, etc...

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Already on my posts. Just click on the signature link ("Manta Build Photos"), and it will take you to my photo hosting site that has pretty much the entire build in photographs.