First of all, I wish everybody here a healthy, enjoyable and trouble free 2012, to you and your family.
I was a bit surprised myself when I saw that it was already that long ago when this thread was last updated. I have been busy with a few smaller projects in between, so it is high time that this one got picked up again.
However, it has not been abandoned completely. The front seats received seams, made of solder of 0,4mm thick. The back seats have been covered with fabric, and just need the seams to be applied. Pictures follow when this is done.
The body has been sprayed, finally... I sprayed with ordinary Tamiya grey primer. This primer coat was done a little bit thicker than usualy because I wanted to be 100% certain that all plastic is covered so the later varnish would not be able to react with the plastic. Then a layer of Tamiya matt black went on, straight from the spray can. This coat was smoothened with 2000 grit, and a second coat went on, again straight from the Tamiya spray can.
I then sprayed a layer of DuPont automotive clear varnish. It was left to dry for 24 hours and I polished it with 2000 grit, followed by the complete assortiment of Micro Mesh pads (grits 3600 until 12000). I was not satisfied with the general result (still some light trace of orange peal in some areas) and therefore I polished with car polish.
It is not 100% perfect, but for a first try of the automotive product more than satisfying. I am not going to polish any further on the body because I fear that I will go through the varnish at some point. A second coat of varnish would become too thick in my opinion.
Next step: finishing the back seat seams, and applying the roof and door jamb internal fabric.
