Paint and Body Prep -- Air Dryer Install

Well, with the car driving now I'm starting to focus my attention on getting ready for the paint and body work.  I am also looking towards interior finishing and I've started getting quotes and will be sending out my speedometer and steering wheel to get refinished by professionals.

I plan on painting the car myself, so I need not only enough air (I have plenty of that with my super duper compressor) but also clean and dry air.  I have a water separator/regulator at the compressor outlet.  I am working on a ~20' copper tubing run that will go to a manifold to separate air into tools and paint equipment.  The copper will also act as a heat sink which will help condense the water.  I have drains on the copper tubes.

This manifold will allow draining of moisture and also allow multiple tools at once.  The "branches" are angled up and over the supply line because water can't go up :)

For the paint air, I also bought an electric air dryer which will lower the temperature of the air to right above freezing which will help the water condense.  And finally I have another regulator, water separator, and coalescent filter which would remove any residual water and oil in the air.  I may even run a ball type air dryer on the air line right before my paint gun.  All of this combined with the Vegas lack of humidity and I hope to have dry and clean air for good painting.

Here you can see the electric air dryer and final filter for the paint.

I also got a package from New Zealand.  I have been looking for these pop outs for almost a year now.  They go in the rear passenger windows to help air flow.  They are not original to MY car, but are original accessories available back in the day.  There are plenty available online but they usually are in poor shape, the glass has scratches, or the chrome has pitting.  These were New Old Stock (NOS) parts that a guy had installed on his car for a very short time.  They have little to no wear.  I basically got a brand new set of pop out windows for just a bit more than I would pay for a shotty pair.  These were a great find.

Remember when I built my work bench?  Back in November.  Well, ever since then I've had an annoying splinter in my left hand thumb.  It healed around the splinter but it was straight into my finger.  I tried everything to get it out.  Soaked it, picked at it, used a baking soda blend to exfoliate the skin around it.  I recently used a "drawing salve" that was a sticky petroleum based product that is supposed to draw out splinters.  Or so said the internet.

Anyway, it got to the point where it was painful to turn knobs, or squeeze things, or put pressure on it if I hit the splinter the right way.  So, I made a point of doing some more digging with a needle, tweezers, and nail clippers.  I got this splinter out and it was a full 1/8" long!  No wonder it hurt so much it was in the meat of my finger.  Glad to have it out!

I'm waiting for a special solder to arrive before I can solder the copper pipes together.  It has a special blend of metals for high pressure air.  So, once that is complete I am going to start looking at scheduling my media blasting, draping plastic in the garage, and buying primer!