(07-30-2015) Gettin' the blues...

Tonight the side vents got stripped, sanded and repainted and while I was at it I painted the battery harnesses, octagon ports, pocket vents and the corners of the power couplers.

That leaves the centers of the power couplers, large data port, utility arms and the dome topper without paint.  I also may repaint the octagon ports, coin slots and the center vent surround - but I'll have to look at them close before I make up my mind.  Painting all of the blue parts is very close to being finished, finally.

(07-29-2015) Side vent painting - FAIL

I painted the side vents for R2 this evening, and while they look okay - the finish doesn't match the rest of what I've done on R2 so I'm going to strip the paint and do it again.  The inner plates have a glass-bead beat finish that just doesn't work for me.  I'll strip and sand them to make them match the rest of the panels next chance I get.  I'm trying to push and finish up painting most of blue parts that remain for R2 in the near future.

(07-26-2015) Center ankle finished

Today the center ankle is now finished.  It took forever to get the ankle cylinders mounted, but they're on and now it's time to start working on the feet. *whew*

(07-25-2015) Ankle cylinders finished

Finally, all of the upper legs are painted and ready for final assembly.  I think it turned out pretty well.  I finished painting all four of the ankle cylinders, even though in this picture there are two still waiting power coating.

(07-11-2015) Outer ankles painted

Edit:  Just noticed the ankle details are on backwards.  Don't put yours on like I did.  You'll notice as soon as you start fitting the ankle cylinders that something is wrong.

Tonight I was able to get the outer ankles painted and the ankle details installed.  The ankle bracelets and the leg struts aren't attached yet, just sitting there.  Also, the ankle cylinders and wedges aren't ready to be installed yet - but that will be coming soon.

Pro Tip: If you're going to powder coat your ankles - be sure to install the bushing AFTER you paint them.  The bushing has oil in it, and when you cook the paint on the ankle, then oil comes out of the bushing and make a big mess and shortens the life as well.  It's a lose-lose situation.

(07-11-2015) Booster covers finished, almost...

Today the painting of the booster covers is finished.    They're fully assembled, except for the leg strut (it's a silver cylindrical thing that goes in the middle of the booster covers (blue things on the legs).  I won't be able to fully mount those until the ankles are painted and mounted onto the legs.

I found the after painting and letting them cool, I was able to use an X-acto knife to clean up the masked edges for much nicer looking edges.  Not sure if I would do this on normal paint, but it looks great with powder coated paints.

(07-09-2015) Bushings and booster covers...

Today I tried out the press...  and it's AWESOME!  Five minutes and the bushings were pressed in and ready to go. 

I also sanded more on the booster cover, but I'm not happy with 2 areas that have some deeper scratches and so I will have to go back to a coarser sand paper and sand down those areas again.  It's getting close to being ready for paint, but not quite yet.

(07-07-2015) Pressing on...

Bought and (mostly) assembled a 10 ton press for pressing the bushing into the ankles, as well as for other uses in the shop.

I've also been sanding on the second booster cover and I'm now down with the hard sanding and getting the booster cover flattened out (60 and 100 grit), so now it's on to 220 and 400 sanding.

(07-03-2015) Fist booster cover is painted

After hours and hours of prep work - sanding with 100 until flat, then 220 and finally 400 to get a nice brushed metal appearance.  The paint isn't perfect, but I think it looks really good.  Now to do it all again for the other leg.

(07-02-2015) Prepping the booster covers

In the picture above you can see the booster covers in the center of R2's legs.  The one furthest away has about an hour of prep work done to it with some fine grit sand paper and some fine steel wool.  Even the one that looks clean and shiny still has lots of work that needs to be done before it's ready for paint.

Usually when you paint something you can "hide" problems with high-build primer, or a filler of some kind, but with these I plan to use a candy (clear) paint to allow the reflection of the metal to give depth to the paint - so the sanding and prepping of these booster covers is going to take quite a while.

(07-01-2015) Legs finished

Now both legs are painted.  The second leg didn't turn out quite as good as the first, but any problem areas will be covered up by other stuff and no one will ever notice.

I ordered a 10 ton press so that I can press in the bushings for the ankles, but it will be really handy in the shop for other things as well

I'm not sure what I'll do next - since I'm waiting on the press to arrive to continue working on the ankles and feet, I may try prepping and painting the booster covers next.