half doors are installed!
I went to a local auto paint supply place and they set me up with basecoat for my color code, as well as self-etch primer, build primer, and a 2K clearcoat. All products were from SprayMax and in rattle cans.
The spray pattern was really nice for everything but the etching primer, which was pretty typical pattern for any rattle can you'd buy elsewhere.
I hung them up through one of the upper door holes using some paracord and a couple of small wrenches.
Etching primer:
high build primer:
after the high build primer went on, I went over it with a 400 grit-equivalent scotchbrite pad to smooth it out. Once I was certain it wasn't going anywhere, I masked up the backsides to keep the interior a matte black, then sprayed the basecoat (forest green pearl PG8).
Then I punched the pin on the bottom of the clearcoat (to allow the 2 components to mix) and sprayed the clear.
I didn't even take any more photos after that because the clear came out like CRAP. I didn't research adequately and did my usual multiple-light-coats process and it ended up with the worst extreme of orange peel imaginable, which wasn't even consistent. I also noticed the next day that the passenger side door didn't get complete coverage with the basecoat so I could see some of the black primer through it. I roughed it up and laid another coat of base, which fixed that, and then I finally figured out what I was doing with the clear but the can ran out halfway through (covering the new base but not the whole door). Great.
So I went on vacation for a week and when I got home I got my assortment of sandpaper and started wetsanding, hoping I could buff and polish it out. No dice. By the time I got up to 1500 grit I was into the basecoat.
So, back to the paint store I went, picking up 2 cans of clear this time (at about $25/can) and went back home, roughed it up to 600 grit, re-primed and basecoated a couple spots that I had accidentally sanded through and sprayed several nice wet heavy coats of clear.
The driver door came out just about perfect. The orange peel is almost to factory level. Best way I've found to capture that in a photo is to take a picture of the reflection of my handheld LED shop light.
The passenger door is almost as good, but I did get a little carried away and ended up with a couple of runs/sags. It's low on the door and I'm not taking it to hot rod shows so I'm leaning toward leaving it 'cause there's a half decent chance I make things worse instead of better.
On the color match I'm not real sure. The tub is really dusty and hasn't had a coat of wax in...ever as far as I know, so it may just be comparing dirt to brand new paint, but the door looks darker to me. This photo exaggerates it a bit. Hopefully it evens out once it's all clean, but if not, I'm not sure it's worth the effort to try to fix it. It seemed like it matched better before I redid the clear, but maybe I just had different lighting. I'm sure there's got to be some sun fade effect after 21 years but I don't know enough about paint to know what a body shop would have done about it. They had me take a sample paint chip out to the Jeep and compare before they mixed it and it was perfect.
I'm interested from anyone else with the JCR doors - is there slack between the latch and striker that lets the door move around 1/8" of an inch or so when closed? I haven't driven it yet but it seems like that's going to make noise and drive me nuts. Also, I don't have any means of attachment for a door limit strap, not sure if there was supposed to be something for that or if I need to fabricate something to attach to the back of the lower hinge bolts.
I haven't had it out of the garage yet for a good outdoor shot, but here's the best I can get in my garage, including the update from the 50" amazon light bar to the KC Hilites Slimlite 6" LEDs mounted to the A-pillars.
For the lights, I used most of the included KC harness, but instead of wiring it to their provided switch, I wired it to a relay which is energized by a factory-look switch I got from ebay and mounted next to the switches for the rear wipers, fog lights, and my locker. Upstream of the switch I ran a wire from the parking light circuit so the KC's can only come on if the parking or headlights are also on. I had the same arrangement with the light bar because if one of my kids hits the button, I can drive around all day with them on looking like an idiot and never knowing it.
