Last weekend, with most of my interior sent off to various shops, there wasn’t much for me to do. I took the opportunity instead to knock out a few smaller items on the list. For one, the finish on the V-Mount’s ducting wasn’t the cleanest. I had a hard time polishing it completely mirror. I removed the ducts and added a brushed look by sanding in one direction with a fine-grade scotch-brite pad. I also trimmed the top edge of the ducts with a nice seal.
Moving towards the rear of the car, I actioned another small issue… the tow hook. The car originally came without one in the rear, so I bought it new from Mazda; however, it was unpainted and bare steel. The idea was to coat it in paint that was similar to the raw, steel color, since I actually liked the way it looked (until surface rust started forming, that is). I decided to try out Dupli-Color’s Stainless Steel paint.
After some sanding, a few coats of self-etching primer, more sanding, and finally a few coats of the Stainless Steel…
…the tow hook was refurbished.
The Stainless Steel paint contained a heavy mixture of metallics, which made laying down several, thicker coats difficult. I ended up having to clay bar off all the extra “grit” from the metallics once the paint was dried.