Painting And Stripping

[AlanBartlett]

I've got to that stage where I'm not sure whether to get it all running now, or strip it all back down, cleaning and painting it? Has anyone else been in the positon? What type of paint would I use?

[Keith Andrews]

It is a matter of manipulating ones motivation...
Human nature...
As resto, rebuild, biulding a hot rod etc has different parts
One starts with a hiss and a roar, and at 1st sees grat progress then a piont is reached where there are months of just pottering on one realy doesnt see a lot for effort, this gets depressiing...then suddenly a big difference is made then back to the pottering.
To keep motivation one can manipulate these 'stages'

Get it basically running..maybe not road worthy, but on can then make a list of stuff to do and get road worthy, and actually use it...
a great moral booster
At this piont one then becomes dissatified with bit 'n peices, maybe the dash or engine compartment...so a Sun cleaning tidy up.

So now it is reasonably tidy and ccan be used...also one has learnt a very good background how things work, come apart, get serviced and stuff

Armed with this knowledge and confidence It is now time for the resto...and the engine drive train everything are all in good working order

Painting is best done with body off the chassis, and running gear out.

Stripping (paint) very much depends on what u are stripping and what sort of paint is on it and the condition of the paint, and what type of paint you are going to use in the final finish.
Methods of stripping vary from chemical dipping to paint stripper, heat, and sanding disk on a grinder, using an orbital sanders
Method depends on condition, type of paint and how many layers

Painting....metal
Assuming starting from scatch..bare metal...
Do not leave metal open to the air...kill any surface rust, rebuild (mig or tig weld) any rusted out parts and seal ASAP with good epoxy paint...Spray, brushing creates more work down the line.

Wood...use good preservative and undercoat with a compatable undercoat that the final paint is going to be.

Be aware that paint types are not always compatable....one can get to the final paint, then find this reacts with paint (old) underneath and cause a fry up...this is where the paint underneath wrinkles up as if u have used paint stripper.

2 pot paint systems are not recomended to use in the home booth without special remote air source...the have dangerous iso cyanates.

For a home paint job, use a laquar...this is very forgiving when painting, and a bad orange peel job can be fixed . Thu modern ppl say they do not last as long, not as good gloss etc...do it right and it does...and that is not hard.
Laquars and enamels are out of fashion because the modern 2 pot enables a fast turn around in commercial paint shops due to paint not needing to dry, but chemical reacts to harden off fast for the next layer...
And unlike enamels and laquars the next coat has to be applied within a short time otherwise delamination of paint layers occurs later.

Spray painting the final its self is not hard, a little practice and one picks up the knack quickly, once one knows what to paint 1st ...most of this is picked up when applying the hi build undercoat layers
The final finish...and I cant empase this great enough, depends on the preparation of the undercats and blocking down....perfection is required and no short cuts
The quality of the spray gun u use for the final coat is also important.
So much so, a good painter will never let ANYONE even touch or hold his finishing gun.

Now u are thinking..." I cant afford a good gun, compressor etc"
It works like this...and thu costs here will be very different to what will apply to u, the principle remains the same

A full spray on my Camaro, top , chassis, engine bay etc
Paint, masking taped every peice of sandpater, sanding blocks $930 (a top qualty paints and espensive)
My time..(not including stripping) 50 to 60 hrs ...free.... blocking and painting undercoats etc
Cost of gun $375, hoses water/oil filters $150
Compressor $1200 This u can hire or borrow.

To get done professionally between $6000 and $8500

Apply this to a Bradford
Paint/materials $600
Time still 60hrs
Get done professionally $3000 to $6000

U end up with the tools needed to paint, plus a nice job at less than 1/2 of a professional job.
How to prepare undercoats, block down, tricks to painting we can deal in more detail later...do it right and you end up with very little extra effort, a paint job that will stand up to scruteny in any musem or show.

My son (19) has just done this with his boy racer car..other than a couple small areas he didnt block as well as he should have...its way better than most