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Ok, so I am going to paint my car.

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crj7driver

Jedi Trainee
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Alright, the budget is not going to allow for a full blown $3-4000 paint job and the discount place won't touch it because it is torn all apart. So as the saying go if you want something done right do it yourself. When I was at the Colorado Concourse talking to Lee Janssen, I found out he painted his turbo TR6 in his driveway. If you check out the pictures on his site. It looks really good, no orange peel, dust marks etc.

I realize I will probably need to color sand to get a good end result.

My question is after I deal with all the rust and panel replacement, should I get the body media blasted or just sand the old paint down to the original?

I would have less metal prep to do I if I just sand it, but then I have a some unknown as to the stability of the surface.

BTW, I am looking at spaying a Base and clear coat.

TIA
 
You must want to punish yourself real bad to try and paint your own car...Welcome to my world. I would recommend you speak with your local PPG distributor or what ever brand you plan on using. There are primers available to paint over almost all existing primers and paint if you know what is there now. If you do not know what is there, there is always a risk of incompatibility. The surface also has to be flawless or defects will show through. It is a great deal more work but I have found it better to strip down to bare metal and build up from there. By stripping down to bare metal you will know your primer, color, and clear coat will all be compatable with each other and not peel off the car after your second coat or worse your final coat. (Been there) If you haven't painted a car before I would suggest using color that can have clear coat overlayed after spraying color or not depending on if you have to take the color off and start over. I hand sanded all the panels but thinking back on it all media blasting would have taken a lot less time. Unless you access to a good compressor and pro spray rig orange peel will be a fact of life start exercising to build up strength in your arm because the sanding process will never seem to end. There are health issues with certain type primers and paints as well. Be sure to purchase and wear at all times the proper respirator for the primers and paints you are using AS well as eye protection. NEVER TAKE THEM OFF when preparing, mixing, spraying, entering or leaving spray area until after the room is well ventilated.
 
I don't know if you will be this lucky but a couple of friends in the New Orleans club participated in the area vocational schools class on painting your own car. They had to pay a nominal fee (just a few hundred bucks) to use the equipment and have the instructor walk them through the process. The process took several weeks but the end result was some of the most stunning, professional-looking paint jobs I have ever seen, and the pride of having these guys do it themselves and know it was done right. No covered over rust, minor body work completed and knocked out gorgeous paint jobs. Too bad they were all on MGs.

See if you have such an offering in your area.


Bill
 
Thank you for your advice. After I talked to a body shop they made it sound like some black art and how bad it was to go to bare metal. Which is opposite of the little that I do know. I have been getting very friendly with my local auto paint supplier so that I get the right things.

Also I am trying to find so individual/class to help me in the process
 
Sound advice. I just finished painting my TR6 2 weeks ago. I used the 2 stage process - color and clear. I had experimented using the single stage under the hood to find the correct color of dark metallic green. That said.... I used the Nason brand of primer sealer (1 qt), color (3qt) and clear (1 gallon). Add to those the proper amount of reducer and cataylst. The budget was less than $400 total.
Clear is tough to get right. Yeah, the organge peel spirit was hanging out. The HVLP gun was a nice unit and able to remedy the problem. I had to re-spray my doors because of runs....ugh. ONLY thing I found out was (as stated above) put on the first couple of coats VERY VERY lightly.

All in all I'd do it again.
 

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Jeff3113

Looks very nice. It also confirms the suspected quantities. A few questions for you. What brand/model of gun did you use? What size compressor did you use? Lastly, since it looks like you did it in your garage, how did you ventilate it?

The car has a nice thick layer of something on it, and probably some rust in unknown areas, so it looks like bare metal it is.
 
The thing about painting the car yourself, is you do not have to do it all at once. While it may take longer, you will have full control of the process. I was tempted to paint over what I thought was good paint, but discovered the presence of rust under that "good paint". So I plan to use machine sanding, chemical stripping, and media blasting and chemical treatment of surface rust.

I plan to break the project into several, logical steps. For example the tub will be put on it's side, and the bottom stripped, treated for rust then a couple of coats of epoxy primer then 2-3 coats of a single stage color. Turned upright and then take on the sides, then the rear inside, middle , and front. All done the same way as the bottom.

By the time you (and I) get to the outer visible panels you will have much better skills to take on base and clear coating.

With the proper equipment, patience and attention to detail, and practice you will do fine.

If you have doubts, spend some money and do a fender (do not fear if you screw it up, it can always be redone). In short time you will decide if you want to do the whole car.

There are lots of sites that can help you in learning the process. Here is a couple I found handy

Amber and clear coat cj5 Body and paint forum
 
The gun was a generic gravity feed HVLP from NAPA ($120). The nozzle was a 1.3. Personally, the DuPont supplier(NASON) had a better selection - around $110-150. I should have bought the gun there.
I have a 20 gallon 2-stage cast iron compressor. At gun pressure was 18 psi. It ran for almost the entire time. I was told to start with the primer, let it flash and then keep going - bearing in mind the flash times for each component. The key was with the hood and trunk removed (and treating them like separate items)it was able to keep up with the air volume. I lined the garage ceiling and sides with 1 mil plastic sheeting and watered the floor to keep dust down. Only issue was the few bugs that came in. They tended to stay away from the fumes.
I had the entire door open to let it vent out. The mask I had was recommended by the paint shop and I was not able to smell much of the odor. I had my wife helping mix up the paint, clear and such... outside away from the spraying.
I put on 5 coats color and 3 coats clear - about 3 hours.
Whew.......
 
I painted my car five years ago. Had to use PPG Omni because nobody could mix Concept in Mallard. I used urethane, many many coats of uretane. Omni does not cover well, but the finish is excellent. I wish I had used a clear coat because the paint oxidizes very quickly.
Whether you paint over your existing paint depends on, as mentioned earlier, the quality of your base. Also, if there have already been several repaints, I would strip it. Too much paint on the surface will cause imperfections.
You mention that your budget is forcing you to paint it yourself. Media blasting isn't cheap and will only remove the paint. Sanding is a lot of work and very slow. Chemical strippers are faster, messier, and more hazardous.
Sand blasting is very effective,but you stand a huge chance of metal warping if you don't know what you are doing.
I stripped my TR3 last summer with chemicals. It worked well, but again was a lot of work.
If you have access to Auto Restorer magazine, I would read all past issues with body work/paint articles that you can get your hands on. Without this magazine, I'm certain that my car would have looked like it belonged in a high school parking lot(when I graduated, not today), a heap with nice wheels.
 
Interestingly, an old pro body man in my area will strip an old vehicle with an unusual technique. He uses razor blades . That is, he uses a single edge (actually hundreds of single edge) razor blade, with a holder of course, to peal the paint off the car. He is able to get down to bare metal on 95% of the body and uses other techniques to remove that last little bit in the tight spots. The technique works, is clean and does no damage to the metal underneath. I have watched him ply his trade and it seems very effective.


Bill
 
All good advise and if you are going to paint over what you have for the most part, be sure and use the PPG Barcoat,, it's about $30 and will seal many things and you won't get wrinkles everywhere you have feather edged paint and primer. Put on the Barcoat just before you paint each part. I try to have a couple of parts at a time to paint rather than all at one go, plus if the base coat is screwed up you can wait a couple of hours and sand it down with soup and water and 600 grit and respray. Tackle the inside of the hood and truck to start, this will give you a chance to fine out how to control your spray tip for tight places. Good Luck and it can be done, who will ever know you had to do the door 5 times when you get finished. Wayne
 
Watched a friend do that on a Corvette. Didn't see the car before he painted it, but he claimed he didn't use any filler. I question that, because his hand was about as steady as the barber's in High Noon.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Thank you for your advice. After I talked to a body shop they made it sound like some black art and how bad it was to go to bare metal. Which is opposite of the little that I do know. I have been getting very friendly with my local auto paint supplier so that I get the right things.

Also I am trying to find so individual/class to help me in the process

[/ QUOTE ]

No black art to stripping it down to bare metal. It's alot of work and you just may not like what you find. In my case I found bondo in all the anticipated areas. Also do not keep it to bare metal to long because the rust devil starts to take over even on the least humid of days. Take your time, read as much as you can, and by the time your done you will have mastered another skill.
 

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[ QUOTE ]
Interestingly, an old pro body man in my area will strip an old vehicle with an unusual technique. He uses razor blades . That is, he uses a single edge (actually hundreds of single edge) razor blade, with a holder of course, to peal the paint off the car. He is able to get down to bare metal on 95% of the body and uses other techniques to remove that last little bit in the tight spots. The technique works, is clean and does no damage to the metal underneath. I have watched him ply his trade and it seems very effective.


Bill

[/ QUOTE ]

That's the method used by the guy who did the work on the TR8. Very effective, indeed.

Mickey
 
I did not paint my TR4A thinking it was too hard and I wanted it to look nice. Then this past winter I had to do some major body work on my truck. Being a truck I decided to paint it on my own since I did not care about the finished product. After haveing painted the truck I thought 'this was easy and it looks as good as that expensive paint job on the Triumph' All that to say that next time I would not hesitate to paint my own car. So take your time, use the HVLP gun, make the first coat lighter then the subsequent coats and you will be happy with the results.
 
[ QUOTE ]
If you have access to Auto Restorer magazine, I would read all past issues with body work/paint articles that you can get your hands on. Without this magazine, I'm certain that my car would have looked like it belonged in a high school parking lot(when I graduated, not today), a heap with nice wheels.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not sure if it is polite to discuss specific commercial products on this site... but any thoughts on AutoRestorer magazine? The above is pretty positive, and I have gotten cards in the mail. $34 per year; not bad if the magazine is good.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
mike
 
we've done paint before, you may want to go to this previous discussion by going to the search and type in 112004.
rob
 
AutoRestorer is, in my opinion, the best magazine available for the restorer. Excellent tech articles, unbiased product reviews(no advertising), how to's, and question/answer. They have restored several cars over the years with detailed articles on the progress.
They don't deal a lot with British, but don't exclude us.
It really doesn't matter, since much of the restoration process is the same from camp to camp.
I've subscribed for over ten years. I let my subscription lapse for one month, and they happened to have an aticle on the TR6 that month.
 
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