paintwork

[Jamie]

Just needs a bit of cutting compound..........

   


Jamie.

[mk1-mark]

That cracking is caused by multiple paint layers shifting about under the final top coat. It is very, very common when more modern paints have been applied over enamel or old cellulose. There is absolutely nothing you can do to stabilise the existing paint, rubbing it down & filling it will temporarily mask the problem, but sure as eggs is eggs, it will do it again after a few temperature cycles.

What to do all really depends on what YOU want YOUR car to look like. Personally I reckon that cracks & crazing show a car has seen a bit of life, if it was me, I'd leave as is. However if you are wanting your car to look smooth & shiny, then your ONLY option is to strip back to bear metal & repaint using the paint system of your choice.

[DavidL]

Anyone here got recent "back to bare metal" coach painting experience?

[mk1-mark]

Fairly straight forward really, strip the old paint back to bare metal either "the hard way" using stripper, scrapers & sand paper. Buying some decent paint stripper like this will help, the DIY stuff is useless.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Paramose-Pain...:rk:1:pf:0

A different, but NOT much slower option is to strip the body down to its component bits & get it blasted to remove the old paint. Baking Soda seems to be "the popular choice" at the moment, but glass bead or fine sand is fine as long at the operator knows what he is doing.

Your final stripping choice is dipping. NOT one I'd recommend.

Once the paint has been stripped, make good any duff metal (sounds easy doesn't it). Then onto paint.

Etch prime, then a high build primer is a great start whatever you are going to paint with finally a very good flat with 600 or so grit. Your top coat options are enamel (original), celulose (very tricky nowadays & finding someone who can paint celly well). 2 pack, is the easiest to spray & is easily cut back after painting, but benefits from baking in an oven, I have no experience of the modern water based systems, but imagine they will not be far off traditional 2 pack.

What you pay for a decent paint job is a totally open ended question. From £400 for a crappy back street or mates rates job to £5,000 for a concourse special. Most of the cost is in the preparation a lot of which can be done at home.

[Reckless Rat]

My Swiss friend Marcel, a qualified "carrossier" painted the 4 wings and headlamp shells of my RP this June in exchange for a free holiday. After preparation they received one coat of black undercoat (helps to hide chips) then two coats of two pack gloss black. The first coat was left to dry and then flatted off with 1200 wet/dry before applying the final top coat. I built him a spray booth in the garage using plastic sheeting and then the items were left to dry naturally for a further 24hrs (seeing as the ambient temperature was about 30°C)

I'm very impressed with the finish. I just need to do something now about the rest of the car!






It's worth mentioning that two pack (or 2K) paint uses an isocyanate hardner, which is deadly. Proper breathing apparatus and full body coverings are de rigueur.
If spraying paint in your garage or workshop it is advisable to create a sealed area otherwise it will go everywhere. Wet the floor to keep the dust down.