GT6 Type of paint to use on GT6

[svtmikey]

I am getting to the point of thinking about primer and paint on my 69 GT6 and I am wondering what type of paint I should use.
It has been quite a while since I painted a car and I would like some suggestions as to what is easiest, what works best, and of course what looks best.
I want to keep the car fairly original so I want to paint it the "horrible" Jasmine (34)yellow.
Also where would you suggest for the best place to purchase the paint?

Many Thanks

Mikey

 

[LarryK]

My 73 GT6 that I had, was originally enamel. The wood inside was clear coated in lacquer. If doing your own, you might try using some on something else to get the hang of it because the older enamels were a one shot deal.You will get a % of orange peel which has a reducer available. Lacquer used to be the way to go in the 50-70's, easy and could be sanded and polished. I paint full older cars with enamel and touch up dents and crunches with lacquer. I found the lacquer very easy. Some places will not sell it anymore for EPA reasons, but they do have a new lacquer to replace the old.
When you buy the touch up paints they are usually lacquer.
If doing a show car you will probably want to use a 2 part epoxy type base coat clear coat, but depends on what type of show.
My GT6 was the Yellow Ochre and my Spit 1500 was the Butter yellow.
Ask your parts dealer, a real parts house, not AZ, Parts Am, or Advanced for a referral to a good paint store. You can even go to a good paint /body shop and get their suggestions for a supplier. All the dealers and body shops have to get there paint somewhere and it will be local.
PPG/DuPont are readily available in my area. Sickens is available, a good show paint.
You'll probably get more hits on this as everyone has there own technique and color they want.

 

[kodanja]

I used 7 coats of lacquer with clear coat on mine & the paint didnt fade even after being exposed to the elements for 6 years!

she was a driver!

 

[svtmikey]

Ah yes it is flooding back to me...the first car I painted was my 68 Cortina, enamel and I did get orange peel. My dad got the great idea that rather than sanding, we should spray a coat of thinner on it......lesson learned, don't always listen to your dad. He was a great electrician, but not so hot as a paint man...heck of a mess.
There is nothing in Point Roberts where I live, so I will go into Canada, which is the closest civilization, and see what they say at the body shop.
Laquer seems to be the way to go....but a couple of questions.

Why 7 coats? And with clear coat, don't you have to fine sand it or polish it to get it to shine?

Thanks
Mikey

 

[tdskip]

My dad got the great idea that rather than sanding, we should spray a coat of thinner on it......lesson learned, don't always listen to your dad. He was a great electrician, but not so hot as a paint man...

LOL.

 

[kodanja]

my bad!!!!
No clear coat on that car!

that was my TR6 w/enamal then clearcoat

the Tr6 used
this

:thumbsup:

 

[dklawson]

I think what you spray is a function of the the environment where you will spray, your budget, and your expectations.

Lacquer is still available from some places but it is hard to get to. It is the most forgiving in how easily it is repaired and how easily you can buff it to a high shine. However, I find it brittle. Stone chips are easily created.

Acrylic enamel is not hard to work with. You may indeed get orange peel, but with practice this will be minimal. Once you allow sufficient time for the paint to cure you can wet sand and buff the enamel to remove imperfections. Enamel isn't too hard to repair with good results.

Single stage urethane is not bad either but it's takes a bit more practice. If you use a system compatible with a clear coat you can apply clear over the color OR you can mix 50% clear into the third color coat you put down for higher gloss. Expect that you will wet sand with 1500 or 2000 grit followed by buffing. This can be done within a day or so of spraying. Repairing urethane so nothing shows is more difficult than the two above.

Base/Clear... I have no experience with. Others will have to comment.

I think you'll also find the paint systems I listed are in order of increasing cost. I hope to be spray painting a hardtop this weekend. I've been waiting for 4 weeks for a warmer, drier weekend. I will be using a new paint this time. I purchased my materials from TCP Global instead of my local PPG supplier. I'm hoping their paints will work as well as the PPG and DuPont products I've used before. TCP's paints are significantly less expensive, even with shipping. If you're interested, let me know and I'll update this post/thread with my results.

 

[billspit]

I've done a little bit of painting. First car was single stage PPG Delstar/Delthane hardner. It wasn't too hard, but you get better with practice. I had a $100 Sears spray gun. Oddly, some days paint seemed to flow great. A few days later it was crap.

I painted my truck bed with Dupont base coat/clear coat (don't remember the specific system). It was much easlier. I did get some runs in the clearcoat, but wet sanded them out.

I am seriously considering using the Global paint on my next project.

 

[glemon]

I thought single stage urethane blended and repaired pretty easy when I used it on my TR4A years ago, this was when the stuff was pretty new, but the new blended right in with the old totally undetectable when I did some touch up.

As far as price difference, in some placea and vendors lacquers have gotten more expensive.

There are also off brands and lower priced branda of the first tier stuff, for eample I think PPG also makes Omni, which is much less, I have gotten mixed reviews on these lower priced paints talking to body guys, some say pretty much the same, but harder to get a perfect match on repairs, others say it doesn't lay down as good, less pigment so more coats of paint.

Paint can be awfully expensive. The last car I painted I went down to the body supply shop (where they don't have prices on anything) picked out PPG epoxy primer, and a PPG primer surfacer and a few supplys, they rang it up, over $800 and that is without the topcoat paint.

I do recommend starting with a coat of epoxy primer, it sticks to whatever you paint it on (if properly or at least decently prepped) and what you paint over it sticks to it. The last thing you want is paint lifting, or pealing.

I like the idea of the last coat being applied with thinned out with clear rather than a pure clear coat, may have to try that.

Lastly, if a DIY job solid colors are much easier to work with than metallics, which are a royal pain, you can't sand out runs, you get tiger stripes if you don't lay it all down the same. But with solid colors and modern paints you can fix most application problems with a little (or maybe a lot in some cases)elbow grease.

 

[svtmikey]

Guys,

Lots of great input!
I went to the tcp global web site and it looks like a great site.
The even had color chips for the Triumph Jasmine yellow. I don't know if that means they can get me the color or they just have the chips though. I think I'll try acrylic enamel, again and try the wet sand polish route.

Thanks again for heading me in the right direction.

Mikey

 

[dklawson]

If TCP has the chip for it, they should be able to mix that color. They have stock colors that are pre-mixed and less expensive. If you are not finicky about using an exact Triumph color you may find you save a lot using one of their pre-mixed yellows.

I will be using a black from their "Hot Rod Flatz" collection on the Spitfire hardtop. If the weather holds and the wind is not too strong on Sunday I should be able to offer some first-hand comments on their products.

 

[dklawson]

This is an update regarding paints from TCP Global.

I bought a quart kit of satin black from their "Hot Rod Flatz" collection. I was using a single-stage, 2-part acrylic urethane. I had a heck of a day with painting but that was no fault of the TCP product (wind and lots of it).

The quart kit came with a quart of paint, a small container of hardener, and a small container of reducer. The reducer is really optional as the paint is somewhat thin. It sprayed well and leveled reasonably well. It probably would have leveled better if I'd added a bit of reducer to the first coat.

Unfortunately for me, in spite of my efforts to put up plastic sheeting to block the wind and wetting the ground to keep dirt from getting airborne... wind blew a fair amount of trash into/onto the paint. Being a flat/satin black I'm not supposed to wet sand and buff the paint. However, I have no choice. I may end up having to sand this down and apply clear over it... giving up on the satin look.

Anyway, my first impression of the TCP Global paints has been favorable in spite of my bad luck with the weather.

 

[svtmikey]

Doug,

I have been anxiously waiting your update. Too bad about the wind!!! I think I will go with the TCP products. I like the fact you can buy a kit, and don't need to order everything individually. To be honest, I'm actually tempted to change the colour to a black as well rather than the Jasmine Yellow I had planned since every other car I have had has been Black. I always tell my wife that any other colour is just a faded shade of Black anyways!...it drives her nuts...
Thanks again for the update!

Mikey

 

[dklawson]

Remember if you do change the color that gloss black will show ever imperfection. I was trying to spray a satin black to achieve the look of a soft top and to conceal any blemishes in the paint and my prep work.

I was pleased with the TCP paint. The ironic thing is that I went to the trouble to put up plastic sheeting to protect the hardtop and if anything... it's like it funneled dirt and trash into the paint. I needed to paint the front swaybar so I figured... why not satin black since I'll be spraying anyway. I hung the bar from a tree outside my makeshift paint booth. I airbrushed the swaybar and it it's perfect. No debris at all even with no protection. Go figure.