Re-Kridering the dome panels

Well, like the title says, here's my post about repainting the dome panels.

Two Sundays ago I looked outside, and saw that it was sunny and clear, which is something of a rarity this time of year, since most afternoons we get those big afternoon thunderstorms down here on the Gulf Coast.  I checked my weather channel app, and it said the temp was 92 degrees, with 76% humidity, but I went ahead and painted anyway, figuring "who knows when my next chance will be".

I had put a couple more coats of primer on the pieces on Friday afternoon and sanded them on Saturday, so everything was ready, with the exception of my paints.  I had everything I needed except for enough of the DupliColor MetalCast Blue, so I made a quick trip to the AutoZone to remedy that.  When I arrived, at first I was worried, because they had all the usual colors except blue, and they appeared to have added a very light teal color judging by the caps on the cans.  After picking up the teal, I realized that the cap had faded and it was indeed the blue I was looking for.

I headed back home and began the 2 hour process of painting the parts, using the timer on my iPhone to remind me when the 15 minutes between each coat was up.



Painting went well through the metallic blue coats, easy as could be.  The only problem came when I started to apply the Duplicolor.  Of course I had some of that left in the can from last time, so I was going to use it first.  Naturally, shortly after I started the first coat of clear blue, the can starting "spitting" and messed up a couple of the panels.  I immediately tried to blot up the spots with a corner of paper towel, but that really didn't work, so I grabbed the new can and continued painting.  The new can of course had no issues, and I was able to finish the 2 coats of clear blue without further problems.  When it came to the clear coat, instead of the usual 2 coats, I applied 4 coats, hoping that the weight of the paint would somehow settle the spots down, but that really didn't work.


You can see the "spits" in this photo:

I went ahead and brought the pieces inside and let them cure for what initally started out to be 3 days, and turned out to be 2 weeks, just due to procrastination,I guess.

Anyway, today I reglued them to the dome using my good old PolySeamSeal silicone.  I also used much less silicone this time than I did last time, just because you never know...



Here in just the last 5 minutes I've gone back and added some small pieces of painters tape to hold the pieces in place. Thanks to our old friend gravity, they were sliding down to the bottom of the openings.
The color is a pretty darn good match, although the old paint seems to be a little darker, possibly just due to age. Anyway, repairs done :)