Howdy all: OK, here's the deal: My '62 BT-7 is very close to being where I want it mechanically, so my attention is shifting now to the body. I don't want to sink the money into a restoration-quality paint job this year; maybe next year or thereafter so my plan is to polish up what I have. I'm familiar with polishing compounds, sealer, wax, etc. Questions: I have some minor scrapes that have gone down to the base metal and have a light amount of surface rust. More a patina of rust vs. an eaten-into corrosive rust. My plan is to do a hand wet sand of the scrapes and then paint, but in what order? Sand, prime, touch up paint? Or use a "stripper," ie solution that takes off old wax, then a clay bar/polishing compound, then sand/prime/paint? What's the best sequence? Finally, anyone know of the best touch up paints & primers? I just want the best possible result for the least outlay of $$ for this year. I can spring for a primo paint job later but if I sink more money into the car this year my domestic bliss could be jeopardized. Any tips would be most appreciated, many thanks,
-Tom

Tom -

What type of paint system is on your car now, base coat/clear coat, single stage, stock enamel, laquer ? Knowing this will determine the best method of preparation.

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Dougie

Dougie: My paint seems to be pretty basic stuff, nothing fancy like clear coat, etc. The car's original color was Healey blue, but a previous owner (there have been at least 2 that I know of) painted it black. The paint quality seems OK, but there was overspray in a couple of spots (e.g. the engine side of the firewall) so I'm pretty sure it wasn't a super high quality job. Still, there clearly was some disassembly since the original color doesn't show through when the metal cockpit trim is removed, for example. So I highly doubt there's any clear coat, I think it was just a basic paint job many years ago.

Tom, are you planning on painting the whole car or just trying to blend in some panels. Since you don't sound particularly experienced with this, you might actually get better results by painting the whole car than trying to match and blend different panels. Were you planning to use a spray gun or spray cans. You can buy a very inexpensive spray gun for less than $25 that will do a remarkably good job. If you just want to cover the car with a durable coat of paint and not worry if it is shinny I recommend spraying it with a ureathane epoxy. It is a high end primer that is easy to spray and can be tinted to any colour you want. Its final gloss will be like a satin finish. It will wear like crazy and when you are ready for quality bodywork and paint later on just sand this epoxy and paint over it. If you want as shinny a finish as you can do yourself, then I recommend a single stage, ureathane colour coats. If you spray this real smooth, it will come out shinny. If your spraying is not smooth, you can wet sand it and buff it. Anyway your prep on the car is to sand it as smooth as you can with 400 to 600 grit paper.(you do not have to sand it wet since you are not going for a concours finish). Give the whole car a good coat of primer. Sand it smooth with 600 paper, clean everything real good and spray your final paint.

As to your original question, do use a good degreaser/wax remover before you start your work, waxes and such can just get rubbed into the paint/surface when you sand, which can cause problems with the later paint application.

I did some fairly successful touch up work mixing a couple of duplicolor paints to match my Healey blue, then putting it in an airbrush thinned out with a little reducer and blend it in, finishing with a wider mist coat of paint reduced about 3-4 to 1 over a wider area to blend it in.

Many thanks all for the replies, they were very helpful. I'm not of a mind to do a total spray of the body, really because I suspect the paint (which has been neglected for 3 years while I finished out the mechanicals) will blossom with some elbow grease for...1-2 years? The polished product will not remotely be concours but good enough to shine and look pretty good, my threshold for now.

So based on your responses and some additional internet research here's my intended course of action. Please comment if I'm off base. Assume the basics: Nothing done in high heat, products applied in a garage (no sun), high quality products (e.g. no dish soap to wash the car),etc.:

1) Wash car, chamois dry.
2) Use a car wax/bug/road tar stripper. Dry.
3) Sand with fine grit paper the dings & scuff marks that are already down to metal. Some references say wet, some dry, and some recommend finer grit than those mentioned above. I'll probably go with the higher labor/finer grits just to see how good a product I can get. Let dry, clean.
4) Prime. One source said a couple of light coats with adequate drying between.
5) Sand again (?). Clean.
6) Touch up paint. Again, a couple of light coats were recommended. Sand again (?). Better to brush or spray? My dings are small, but spraying seems better to me.
7) Not sure if a clear coat makes sense. No idea if what I have has a clear coat but I'd bet a paycheck not.
8) Let all dry 30+ days, no wash or wax.
9) Then do the traditional wash, sealer, wax, etc.

Comment if you'd like. If not, many thanks again.
-Tom

Sounds like a plan, when you sat scrapes you are touching up are they like single line scratches or larger scuffs to the finish?

Sometime you can do a pretty good job on single line scratches and stone chips by carefully building up the paint with a fine brush until it just exceeds the level of the existing paint--then carefully polish smooth, the new paint if allowed to set for maybe a few hours to a day (depends on the paint) is usually softer than the old paint on the car and polishes down pretty easily. Success with this method is somewhat dependent on the type of scratch, skill of applyer, paint you are using, paint you have on car, etc.

This and any other touch up generally works better on solid colors than metallics, which are a pain to match up.

Assuming you don't have clear coat now you don't need to worry about it.