Short post this week, since painting tends to block out my use of the garage for most of the weekend. Besides finishing painting the wheels (see below), I’ve finished moving the tyres from work into my hallway, and since I’ve finished painting the wheels, I’m on track to get the tyres fitted next weekend.

I also stopped by Supercheap Auto and got some stuff I need for getting the engine together - nothing too interesting, just a massive hammer and some feeler gauges, as well as a few other bits and pieces.

Finished painting wheels

As mentioned above, I finished painting the wheels this weekend. I’m really glad this is done, since it’s the last painting I need to do for a while, so I can take down all the plastic sheeting and reclaim a bunch of space.

This job didn’t come up quite as nicely as the backs of the wheels - I’m not sure why, but there seemed to be a bunch more crap floating around in the air, and some of it has settled on the clear coat. It’s nothing obvious from the photos (it’s very fine). Hopefully it comes out once I sand back the clear coat. I’m not sure if it was related to the weather this weekend, since it was raining slightly - I was a little worried about the humidity, so I bought a cheap humidity gauge.

The highest I saw was 80% in the morning, and it was down to 70% by the time I started painting. It was still 70% when I finished, but was back up to 80% at 8 p.m. This should be fine, since it’s less humid in the garage than outside (where I was measuring). I allowed extra drying time between coats, and used a bit less thinners than normal.

Speaking of sanding back the clear coat, I’ll be doing that after I’ve got the tyres on - I want to leave the clear coat on the bead surface as thick as possible.

All wheels painted

Close-up of painted wheel