Little Details Make A Big Difference
There's a ragged seam underneath your car. Why not hide it?
Little things add up. When you go to a car show and look at some of the beauties, it's often the little, mostly-unnoticed things that make a good car look great. Here's one of those little things.
Lurking beneath your car, right below the rocker panels, is a "pinch seam" where parts of the unibody were welded together. It's about an inch high and typically is pretty rough. Go take a look. You might not have noticed it before.
With mine so freshly painted, the seam really stood out so I decided to do something about it.
I started with some tape to make sure I was going for the right area. It's good to have a reference to keep it lined up. I didn't want to touch any of the rockers, yet didn't want to miss any of the ugly seam.
With it taped, I used some 100 grit sandpaper and steel wool to clean and rough up the area, then rinsed it and wiped off any residue. It only took about ten minutes on each side.
I added some masking paper above the tape to make certain no overspray reached the pretty red.
I had some of this left over from a different project. In the past I would have used newspaper, but not many papers get printed any longer.
Like with the sanding and cleaning, this only took a few minutes.
It only took half a can of flat black paint to do several layers. Give it a thick coat because this is one of those few times where you don't have to worry about runs.
Enjoy a cold beer, then strip off the paper and masking tape.
There it is - a nice, clean line that adds a tiny amount of extra detail to help your car stand out from the others.
Will people notice it? Nah, but that's why it works. They might have noticed the ragged seam but now there's nothing for them to see.
It's a very subtle detail that only took about an hour. Even if nobody else appreciates it, you will.