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Primer & Paint Work.

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And if things work out properly. I need to wait several weeks for paint to get harder before I do strip job, will be green wit htwin 6.5" bright yellow stripes. See www.themite.com and pics on last web page. Color Stripes bright yellow instead of white with Rostyle wheels instead of wires and that's how Bugsy will look in final form. Hey it's taken me 9 years to get to this point. And the restoration goes ever on. Found a soft rusty spot LF Footwell that was not there 8 years ago when I went through that area originally. That will be a subject of work next year.
 
looks great Jim - keep those pics coming
 
Jim,

The paint job looks really good! Could you give us some details about the prep process you did? Like whether you took it down to bare metal, what primers you used, what grits you worked through, etc. to get ready for the painting process. I've read a bit about this on the Mopar site where the whole $50.00 paint job first got started, but it would be helpful to hear what you found to work on your Spridget to get ready to paint using the roller method.
 
Prep work consisted of sanding, sanding, and sanding. I used one of those combo Black & Decket Finishing/Orbital Sanders with the Pointing Oval Sanding pad most of the time. I progressed from really rough stuff 50 grit, majority of work was done with 80 grit progressing to 120 and then hand sanding to 220 prior to painting.

Really tough rust stuff I handled with one of those zip wheels, plastic abbrasive pad that goes on a drill, or if it was really bad, grinding down welding slag either a grinding wheel on a angle grinder or a flap disk on the angle grinder. Filling screw holes for eg. insert screw into hole, cutoff with dremel tool, use welder if appropriate to secure screw in hole, grind down using grinding wheel followed by flapped disk. Usually grinding down created sufficient friction that screw and surrounding metal are merged together.

Anyway, BE Bonnet was surface rusted and underneath I wasn't sure what type of surface was underneath. Remeber this bonnet was sandblasted, primered, and sat for 20 years. Bondo underneath was unsanded in many areas and I had to grind away just to see what was underneath. In many areas I went to bare metal and primed with simple Rustoleum Primer in a spray can, Simple and easy, sanded with 150 and then 220 to smooth out and remove surface "dust" from priming.

On the body, paint was in not all that bad shape. I simply sanded, fixed bad areas, welded in patch panels, ground, and ground, filled and sanded. Just takes time to get the base prepared. Your end results are totally dependent on the quality of the prep work you do underneath. You can't cover crap base with extra paint. You've got to be smooth underneath to get a good finish job.

Expoxy and build up primers. Would have loved to have used them and sprayed them. Would have had a much better job. Unfortunately, wife's asathma and intolerance for stinky, smelly stuff plus the need to protect oneself in using these great products precluded their use. I've got a one car attached garage under the house. Smells go straight up and I could not risk compromising my better half's health. Another is cost, epoxy and buildup primers are not inexpensive. Byproducts are hazardous to the person behind the sprayer.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this subject. I made a decision that no matter what I do and how much prep work I put into Bugsy, he will continue to rust. My job is to slow down the decay and self destruction process. I do not have an unlimited budget and I'd rather be driving than painting and sanding.

Others on this forum ascribe to a different philosophy and want their car concours. Each end of the scale has merits and this hobby has room for all. I'd love to have Bugsy be restored to Miss Agatha's condition or be able to restore like Frank C. is able to knock out in short order. I don't have the facilities, environmental conditions, time, or budget to do it all. Spridgets even in concours quality seldom exceed $5,000 maximum price. Bugeye's are the exception. I did the cost vs. value equations and a $2,000 paint job did not work.

I love being able to tinker in the garage with Bugsy but more importantly I'd rather get out and drive him. Rustoleum Technique works well for what you get out of it. Bugsy came home with 5 different colors of paint on the body and was ugly. I drove him for 6 years in multiple shades of paint as I could not afford multiple thousands of $ for someone to spray him properly. I discovered the Rustoleum Blog and tried it. It worked for me and I was finally able to get Bugsy all into one color. He is a 10 footer and that is all he will ever be but I do love driving him. Bugsy is 40 years old and the bonnet is 50 years old. These aren't new parts and my skill level is not that great but I am all in the same color with only a few rusted areas still to be fixed next winter. Again, get it done and get out and drive. Enjoy this LBC Addiction, we all get different things from it. More importantly we have fun. Get out and drive!!! Off of my soapbox.
 
P.S. Happy to take any quesitons on roller method. Technique is fairly simple and easy. email: thistle_3619@yahoo.com
 
Jim:

Thanks for keeping one more old car alive and enjoyed!
The car doesn't know the difference, and you're happy.
NO ONE ELSE MATTERS!

:driving:

You are doing the hobby justice.

Dave :cheers:
 
Thanks for the details on the paint prep. I have a Porter Cable right angle orbital sander that will work great to get the rough stuff out of the way.

I've seen the mere discussion of "50 dollar paint job" on other forums bring out the most bitter on-line pro and con arguments you can imagine, but when I am ready to paint my BE, that is the technique I'll use. I'm already "upside down" enough already in the investment I've already made in rehabbing my BE, so I've just not been able to justify sinking thousands more into the project for a decent paint job. Also the thought of getting a scratch or dent in a zillion dollar paint job is not fun to consider either.

Now, if that money were to be spent on a hot rod 1275 to replace the 948, that is a whole other matter!
 
The pictures look great and I wish I could see the car in person.

For those who aren't interested in the DIY Rustoleum method, there are other ways to save some money. Look at using the "stock" colored paints available from TCP Global. They run about 1/2 the price of what I have paid for PPG products. However, I'm on the east coast so cross country shipping adds to the price.
 
Thanks Jim for the write up. Im ready to tackle this and plan on getting a camera to snap shots from the beginning to end. My only holdup now is the weather. Im in Ohio also but right up next to the lake and it looks like we are going to get hit with rain and probably one more last hit of snow before I can plan anything. Like they say here in Cleveland, every 5 minutes the weather changes cause of the lake.
Im thinking about renting a storage garage for a month if I can find one cheap to use as a paint booth. Even rolling it on I dont want to do it outside in the elements because of blowing dust, dirt, leaves, whatever. I think I will look for a good palm sander and different grades sand paper, get some primer and get to it. My car runs mechanically great, yet when people see it they think its a piece of !@#$%^&* cause of the paint and lite surface rust. I know with primer paint it will look better and I'll feel better cause the metal will be protected to a point. My car is Damask Red which is a dark red to almost burgundy so Im wondering if the roller method supports darker colors better or if it even matters?
 
I have built paint booths of plastic sheet and wood (inside my garage). Each time I think I have invested about $200 in materials for the booth which later is disassembled and used for other purposes.

In hindsight I probably should have bought one of the plastic tarp based garage kits from Harbor Freight (something like their item 42211). The HF garage costs about $200. The obvious advantage would be that it could be erected and disassembled as needed. The downside is they say it weighs over 170 pounds and I'm sure it requires a fair amount of space for storage.
 
Just a little side question here...

What do you do about the little scratches in the paint that inevitably happen?
The Sprite I recently bought has a fair paint job, gut there are a couple scratches in the paint on top of the drivers side fender. Maybe an inch long and down to metal. Ideas please?
 
You know the infomertials that come on with that guy that sells "Oxy-Clean",..he now has a commercial for this miracle pen that works just like a marker and fixes the scratches like new. Something tells me that he is full of it with his miracle pen.
 
Billy Mays here with the fabulous amazing incredible MIRACLE PEN!!!!!

What would you pay?
$100... $50... $25

Wait, there's more!!

Be one of the first 500 numskulls to call and we'll send you TWO - not one but TWO miracle pens absolutely free, just pay a 'moderate' shipping and handling fee...

No need to specify color, the miracle pen 'knows' what color it is matching and the paint job comes out looking just like new!!!

The miracle pen lasts forever and will match any color.
Take the second one and sell it on ebay!!!
Give it to a friend for their birthday!!!

Hurry, at prices like these this miracle won't last long...
 
With Rustoleum Method, open the can of Rustoleum Hunter Green Gloss in my case, sand and prep the area, thin 50% with mineral spirits and roll on. With the mineral spirits the paint flashes well and dries in a few hours.

Other thought and I just did this to my rocker when I changed the location of the hold down latch I simply filled the screw hole with a screw, ground down to flat, primered, and used Rustoleum Gloss Hunter Green in a spray can. No not perfect but easy access to paint and touch uo. Wet sanding a few days later and it all blends in.

The trick here is that when initially applied the paint will have lots of tiny bubbles. This is the thinner flashing off. I go back over after 5 minutes with a very light touch with the damp roller and smooth things out. I come back to that same area in 20-25 minutes and paint will be fairly level and again apply an even lighter roller to any bumps/bubbles that remain. Roller is not dry but paint has been rolled out essentially so you are simply usingthe roller to smooth. Same techniques works well in redoing kitchen cabinets. Paint with normal humidity and temps in the 40/50 range will take a minimum of 6-8 hours to properly dry and several days to get really hard.
 
Sweendog,

I've just worked with Green so I can't vouch for lighter colors.
 
Re' temps in Cleveland. I've applied Rustoleum thinned 50% in the garage with temps in the 30's. Just takes a little longer to dry. In fact the slower drying time possibly makes the paint harder.
 
Rick it sounds like you're looking for information on touching up OEM type paints and that's getting a bit off topic so I won't give a lengthy answer here.

When I touch up areas, the method depends a lot on the type of damage. For scratches in OEM paint I use prep sol on the area to remove all possible wax, oil and dirt. I mix up a bit of the color paint and use a fine artist's brush to apply it in multiple layers (filling the scratch) until it's above flush. After a few days I use a kit I got from Eastwood that has little cookies of sticky-back 1500 grit paper on a firm carrier to level the touch-up paint. Once sanded level I polish the surface with 3M Finesse-It to restore the shine. On larger areas I resort to an air brush.
 
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