Morris Minor Owners Club

i have some body panels to prep and paint to match the car, is there an idiot guide to spraying so i get a reasonable finish. obviously not going to achive a perfect finish as it will probably be done outside due to lack of facilities, and this is not a problem as i just want a cheap way of making it look ok from a reasonable distance.
john

There is some good stuff on painting on the club technical tips CD-rom. As for painting outside there are some good tips here :- http://www.citroen-restoration.co.uk/ds/painting.php

I'll post more links when I get home, but the main thing is preparation. Get the panels perfectly smooth before priming (filling and sanding, if necessary before primer) then sand with progressively smoother paper up to 600 or 800 grit till the primer has a sheen on it. Panel wipe the panel to remove contaminants.

Then a dust coat of the colour, let that dry and then the top coats. Its perfectly possible to get a great finish at home- even when spraying outside (on a calm day), even from spray cans. I painted several panels on my traveller myself and these came out looking better than the existing panels on the car that were previously professionally re-sprayed. I use cellulose paint, some panels were done with cans, some with paint from a spray gun. If you get enough coats of paint on you can wet sand with 1200 grit to remove orange peel, then G3, t-cut and it will look mirror smooth.

Have a go, if you mess up you can allways flat it off and try again!

thanks for the info and the encouragement. am certainly going to try! nothing to loose really.

There is more detail I've forgotten. Will post more in a few days. Jonothan may be along to offer a few hints and tips ;)

I'll go along with John's advice only if the panels are new, you may wish to prime them yourself. I'd flat with a minimum of 1500 grit paper wet with a small amount of soap in to let the paper glide over the surface, and end up with a good quality polish. The more coats of paint you apply, so long as you let them dry between applications, the better, as with cellulose the finish is achieved by cutting and polishing.

the DS painting thing is exactly what i was looking for, really straight forward and very well explained, thanks.
i had better get on with it then!
john.

Yes, please post some pics of your work!

jonathon wrote:I'll go along with John's advice only if the panels are new, you may wish to prime them yourself. I'd flat with a minimum of 1500 grit paper wet with a small amount of soap in to let the paper glide over the surface, and end up with a good quality polish. The more coats of paint you apply, so long as you let them dry between applications, the better, as with cellulose the finish is achieved by cutting and polishing.

Yes - just remembered - if you have new panels they may have been supplied sprayed with some kind of black primer. Remove every last bit of this godawful stuff - it caused me no end of grief due to poor adhesion and reactions with later coats.

Phil.

sounds like you had fun!!!!!
luckly for me they are not new! just need to remove more than black primer then.
could be worse as it is a couple of rear wings and they are quite manageable.
john.

p.s. i cannot do smilies while replying! only on editing which is a pain am i missing something or what?

you may have missed the add Smiles button in the bottom lhs corner of the reply box

not missed it, it just does nothing when i press it!

If you're spraying existing panels, then you may get away with priming the repaired/de-rusted areas and blending the new topcoat over the repair into the old existing paint. Thats what I managed to do when I repaired the front passenger side wing. If you get any reaction with the existing paint then you'll have to strip to bare metal, etch primer, filler prime etc.

I'm considering doing a web page on my painting experiences so I don;t have to keep remembering the details and things that went wrong. Something along the lines of the excellent DS site but more Minor oriented- including bits on how to repair a wing etc rather than throw it away becaus of a hole or two.

Do you happen to have a pop-up blocker?

and also you could just post a link and would not have to keep repeating yourself. sounds like a great plan, especiall with pictures!!
thanks again, john.

chickenjohn wrote: I'm considering doing a web page on my painting experiences so I don;t have to keep remembering the details and things that went wrong. Something along the lines of the excellent DS site but more Minor oriented- including bits on how to repair a wing etc rather than throw it away becaus of a hole or two.

Ooh, please. I need to repair the rear edges of both front wings and could do with some tips. I just did a wire brush and filler job two years ago thinking "I'll do it properly next summer", but I might actually have some time in the next few weeks.

Onne wrote:Do you happen to have a pop-up blocker?

just standard google toolbar. when i pressed qoute it comes up with the Emoctions to choose from on the left. this is going well off topic though, but at least i started the thread

john.

As a painter of more years than I care to think about I would say the advise on the DS site is basically pretty sound.

I do, however, echo the advice above about final flatting p1500 (wet and soapy) is preferable to p1200. You will recover the shine easier.

The method of flatting runs is a bit odd. Simply use perhaps p1200 on a block (wet and soapy) and it will remove the high run quite effectively.
Celly dries quickly and the next day is plenty long enough to leave it.

Mopping the finish back with a polisher is a bit of an art - My advice FWIW:-

Don't use a lambswool mop, use foam or you will friction burn the paint. (Nu-Tool sell a cheap and cheerful polisher)

Avoid body lines and edges or you will polish through in a flash

Use plenty of water (I use an spray bottle filled with water) and keep moving. Farecla G3 is a good general pupose compound. You can finish with something finer if you wish but it isn't usually neccessary.

The other bit of general advice I offer is NEVER flat body filler wet. P38 and similar polyester fillers absorb water like a sponge and take a long time to properly dry out. You will trap water under your nice new paint.
You can buy production paper in a range of finer grades and this is just the job for final flatting your filler DRY.

The DS site advocates the use of stopper on the primer coat. This stopper is more or less thick primer in a tube and I have never enjoyed great success with it. It either sinks or does nothing.

I would suggest a 2 component polyester stopper such as "Top Stop Gold" which is basically a superfine blended filler to eliminate your final blemishes and pinholes - This goes on before the primer of course.

Just my Two Cents based on making mistakes and *sometimes* learning from them

John