• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

It's gettin' done, slowly...

Share this page

Looks great Pat. On a seperate note I'm wondering why you had so much VOC exposure? I've been doing this for a long time using the hobby air full mask and never get any exposure, you can't mess with isocyanides.

On yet another note I sent the pic of your parts in the bedroom to my wife, I have parts of several cars all over the place in the house and garage. See it's not just me :encouragement:
 
Well, I absolutely can't believe it's been since March since I updated my rebuild progress. After I finished painting the body with basecoat/clearcoat, I decided to dig back into my engine and fix that nasty oil leak, which I posted on separately. Leave it to say that if you don't change out the aluminum plugs in the cylinder head and back of block, you are flirting with disaster. Both leaked on my new rebuild. Water in the oil was a drag until I had head drilled and tapped for a black iron pipe plug. The aluminum plug in back of block leaked and I thought it was a leaky rear seal. Very expensive and tiresome to repair a rear seal on a new rebuild when all you needed to do was replace the aluminum plug. But, enough lamenting.

With Mike (Tugboat) and Jerry (from Loomis) helping, I got body on frame and fit apron, doors, front wings, and bonnet. Then I sanded/scuffed, masked, and layed down a nice BRG stripe on the car. This was a ton of work and I'm not sure I'd do it again. Smart guys lay down the stripe first and then paint the car, although that method would have it's challenges too. Suffice it to say that BRG is like black and will find it's way under the masking and contaminate your other scuffed paint. Then, the only thing you can do is paint more white in those areas, as sanding BRG just spreads it all over the place. Then, more clear coat, of course. I am through three gallons sprayable of clear (at least) and about 2 gallons sprayable of white basecoat. For an overall paint (under, over, inside, all over), that is still a lot of paint.

I practiced cutting and buffing and after I got the hang of it, the results were brilliant. I'm excited to finish the rest of the panels in next few weeks. It takes about two hours per panel.

So, here are the results. Some photos for you all to enjoy. I'm hot to catch up with Jerry (Knucklehead) but doubt I will.

Pat







and now for some photos after sanding with 1000, 1500, and a nice run with a blended wool pad and Wizards Mystic Cut compound.




 
Pat very nice panel fit, you got the spare tire cover to fit perfect. I can tell you did a good job with the sanding, cutting, and buffing. The straight line reflection in the last picture on the body stripe on the deck lid proves it. Great work.
 
A work of Art!
Nice job Pat. My B/E needs buffing and I am scared!
Paul
 
Wow, that looks great. I thought mine looked good, but I know yours does. -Remember, we are not in a race until we see each other at a light!
 
Pat,
You better start over with the stripe, I like the other color!!!!!
See you Wed for the lesson.

Jerry
 
Pat
WOW!! O.K. I will let you paint my 250.....
the paint work is just perfect. Next year you will have to enter it at Pebble Beach....
 
Pat came over and showed me how to polish the new paint. Of course I picked a door that the shine showed some indentations which will now require a respray. But Pat does make it look easy. He has the right buffer and goop.
It is very nice when you find someone else that can share experience.

Jerry
TR3A
 
Tips on Cut and Buff of Clear Coat, for all you home painters.

I just finished wet sanding to 1500 grit and buffing with blended wool pad. I'm pretty happy with the hood - it is my last panel to cut and buff. But, I learned a few things that I thought I'd share.

First, if you are trying to remove orange peel and flat a panel, you need to use at least 1,000 grit to cut the peel. You can then finish with 1500 and maybe then 2000 grit. You can't cut peel with 1500. You just remove the tips but it won't be mirror flat. Honestly, for most of my work, 1500 was OK but it doesn't give you that show car finish.

Second, if you are using a basecoat/clearcoat system and putting new clear coat on your old clear coat, (for whatever reason), you'd better be sure to put the new clear on thick enough that you don't cut into the old clear below when you are wet sanding. If you cut into old clear below when sanding, you will get ghosting. Ask me how I know this? If you look at the bonnet shots below, you'll see that there is some lightening of the green stripe in a couple locations. I had done some touch up in those areas to improve the stripe and only put two coats on clear on those areas. I cut into the other clear and the finish isn't as perfect as I'd hoped.

Basically, for home painters, I think you can't have enough clear on the car. Repainting panels is very much a drag. Ask me how I know this! Then, ask Jerry (knucklehead) too!

pat


Ghosting in bottom right corner


Ghosting in bottom left corner



Overall, I'm pretty happy with the paint job. I'll never do a longitudinal stripe at home again. If I do, I'll paint stripe in single stage so it's sandable before application of clear (if you sand basecoat, you need to apply more before you clear it - typically you can sand and clear a single state paint and then clear). And I'll stripe car before color coat, not after. Striping and panel alignment (to ensure strip looks right) was 10X more work that I ever thought it would be.
 
BEAUTIFUL Pat. As you know I throw in the towel! I will not paint another car in the garage (Just ask my Wife).
 
The nice job that Pat is doing is such a pleasure to see. He can really call the car HIS. I can't wait to go on a rally with him. My Paint won't be as good as his, but I bet I can go faster!

Great work Pat.
jerry
Loomis
 
Jerry said:
... It is very nice when you find someone else that can share experience.
Click to expand...

+1 nice job and good explanation on the ghosting. Thanks guys.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top