(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.