That fender looks great to me. Nice to see your doing what you can. We cant all afford big dollar restos. You have lots of years to build cars. Do what you can with what you have. Good for you.
One day I will shell out the money for a professional paintjob. However I am saving that for my 74 Javelin I'm trying to convince my uncle to give me. Man are you right! I have a space heater underneath the fender and I keep it stored in my boiler room where it generates a lot of heat. So I can get 1 or 2 coats on it in a day. However I have noticed that where I have hit steel during the sanding process I need to spot paint those areas so the orange doesnt show through(because the paint is thinned so much). Plus all the wet sanding. Like I mentioned I finally just got the appropriate mixture yesterday for no orange peel. And man it makes a difference. Ive just run out of sand paper. I work all evening this week until Sunday. So I might not get any sanding done by then but I figure I should have the finished product by Monday. Thats another thing too, I am probably shelling way more hours into doing this and trying to perfect the feel and look than if I just shot it out at the garage. Then again the garage is too far away and its freezing so, I might as well do something this winter to keep me busy.
I'm talking with a friend who builds custom motorcycle and paint jobs. He really wants to do a fine gold flake with an orange candy paint black hood. However I'M thinking 1 stage enamal still. Hes going to find out some prices for me in regards of using his guys paint booth then he will let me know. It seems I am definately getting it proffesionally painted now. Luckily hes not too worried about payments. I can get it to him when I get it to him. Rolling is taking too much time. I was very enthusiastic about it in the beginning. Now I am freakin out a bit. He convinced me to let him do it at least. I'll get back to all yalls.
I think thats a better idea.Hate to see you go through all that work just to have it fade out in 6 months.
I found a site called Backyard painter. Really good info. Im gonna build my own booth (Positive Preassure) with 2x4s, ac filters, a swamp cooler and alot of clear plastic to spray mine myself with ppg. Im gonna put the pics of this booth in my build thread. I havnt painted in 28 yrs. There is another site im involved with its a custom paint forum those guys are alot of help.