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1960 Sprite Bonnet painting

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ScottTR6

ScottTR6

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My father restored his Sprite about 25 years ago, I am now lucky enough to own it, but it now needs a fresh paint job. Only rust is in a couple areas where the beading joins the panels together. They appear to be spot welded on the underside, and have some cracks evident beside the beading on the top. What is the best way to correct this, do the three pieces need to be completely seperated with new beading installed? I notice that the beading is still available, but the bonnets are not. Thanks for any suggestions, or advice from those who have gone through this.
 
Before I would attempt to disassemble the hood I would do two things. The first would be to discuss this issue with someone that has done this kind of thing with a Bugeye that has years of expertise with this heavy gauge metal and removal of fender beading.. Second if you do decide to disassemble the hood I would make dies out of plywood prier to disassembling the hood so that when you have the new parts the hood lays in the wood die exactly how it was before, so you minimize distortion in the reassembly for exact fit.
 
No no no. Sand blasting can be done in small areas with out a problem. Have the area sand blasted then two part epoxy primer, the let who ever is going to paint the vehicle press on.

Just for info, I have sand blasted spots as small as a dime.
 
Might even be something that tip on soda blasting involving a box of baking soda, a plastic straw , and a air blow gun might be good for. I'm sure I saved the link on that one.
 
Never heard of soda blasting. Any information or pictures would be greatly appreciated.
 
Same as sand blasting but uses soda, like arm and hammer bakeing soda. Will not take paint off but does remove rust.

Google it.
 
Re: Soda blasting. I bought the soda blaster from Harbor Freight that had good user reviews. Was blasting my wire wheels, and it took forever. The blast stream was about the size of a pencil eraser tip, so you had to make hundreds of passes to blast anything. Did a reasonable job of removing existing paint, given the limitations. Strong enough to remove paint, but not corrosion. Jim
 
RickB said:
For goodness sake, doesn't anyone use the Google any more?
Click to expand...

what's the google?
 
Ahh, I was backwards then, removes paint but not rust?
 
Yes, it does a decent job removing paint. Blasted the paint off of 4 wire wheels but it took me all day long. Left a nice smooth finish, although did not have any effect on the rusted areas. Jim
 
Used regular old bilders sand on Miss Agatha and a two inch blast hose. No problems. left a nice simi-rough finish for a good bite for the two part primer.
 
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