Busy weekend. Our friend M came down for the weekend from Seattle, which was awesome. It’s always really great to see him, and being able to hang out with him for almost two days solid was a rare treat.

I’ve been painting the Mini’s roof. Yesterday, I did a final sand with 240 grit sandpaper on a power sander, and applied the first coat of paint (with help from Ei-Nyung & her younger brother). It was a bit too thick, and got a bit “orange peel”y, but it was a good start nonetheless. The problem was that the nice glossy white revealed a couple noticeable divots in the otherwise smooth roof. So, I mixed up some more Bondo, and filled ’em in, then sanded it down. Put another coat of paint on this afternoon, which was basically just mineral spirits with the paint that I wrung out of the roller yesterday. Really thin coat – maybe too thin.

I let that dry for a couple hours, and then gave it a once-over with 600 grit sandpaper and a spray bottle of water. It’s about half sanded. Needs another pass just to get the blobs out. I don’t think the paint had fully hardened either, so it felt a touch gummy. Still, the roof of the Mini is distinctly white now (Canvas White, according to the paint can), and needs about four to six more coats with a wetsanding every two coats. I think it’s gonna be really great when it’s done.

After doing the roof, there’s some spots I’m going to try to fix on the burgundy part of the body, and I’m hoping that I can match the paint so I don’t have to paint the whole car, but who knows? Either way, it’s not that bad – it’s time-consuming, but satisfying and fun.

I think in the end, the roof, the side mirrors, stripes on the hood and the wheels will all be this canvas white color, and the rest of the body will be burgundy.

Then, I just need to get to the mechanic, and have them figure out why the clutch is slipping once the car’s warmed up. Talk about having my priorities backwards. Heh.

Also spent about an hour and a half pulling up weeds, and ended up with blisters on my right middle finger. Fun times. Tomorrow, I go back to work, where I have literally nothing to do.