Saturday, May 5, 2007

Side Projects

As I wait for the electric engine and parts to arrive for my conversion, I am trying to do some other small projects on the Porsche. One of those was to repaint the engine compartment lid. It's a little tricky to paint, even removed from the car, because of the "PORSCHE" lettering on it. Originally I planned to remove the letters, spray paint it and then put them back on. However, when I tried to take the first one off (the letter "P", of course) it felt a bit difficult and fragile and I thought it might break off, becoming "ORSCHE," so I decided instead to tape the letters individually and just spray paint right over them instead. This required some attention to detail and some annoying fumbling with some masking tape. I got into a good groove, though, because of the CD that was playing. The band is called "Fat Freddy's Drop". They are a New Zealand based band, with various influences (reggae, hip hop, soul - kind of mellow) and quite popular there. Just before Lisa and I left New Zealand, we rented out a camper to see some of the far North Island. That was our only CD and we must have listened to it 30 times over those 2 weeks. I never got sick of it. It's also nice for adding a little romantic ambience in an otherwise cramped little camper van... If you can get their CD ("Based on a True Story"), grab it. Anyway, here is my tape job (I used that not-very-sticky blue tape - regular masking tape would probably be easier):



I used and wore out an exacto knife to do this, but I think it was worth it. Here's the end result:



The paint's still a bit wet in the picture. I'm quite happy with the result. It takes a few years off the apparent age of the car - better than botox. The gold lettering stands out much better now, as well. I used a semi-gloss black spray paint and I think it was just right.

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