Morris Minor Owners Club

hello, my series 2 is undergoing its second restoration & as I now have a garage I want to make a good job of it, my question is for the best results do I take the whole car down to bare metal? I intend to rid the car of underseal, the A,B & C pillars have all rotted but only surface rust on the doors. Wings & boot to be replaced.

Bilt Hamber products to be used for rust prevention, then epoxy primer & top coat.

Paul

If you think there may be surface rust on some of the panels, then, for best results it is better in a full restoration to go back to bare metal as blending in paint repairs can sometimes cause old layers to lift etc and you may have hidden rust under the paint.
Etch prime any area soon after bare metalling them and removing any rust.

Thank you for your reply, if I take that route, once i get the paint off do i have to clean it down with anything before applying the etch primer? as you can see I am a bit of a novice.

Paul

What ever you are using to strip the paint, wire brushing ( on a drill/ angle grinder ) , a strip and clean disc or paint stripper,
it pays to clean the metal thoroughly.Get the primer on asap or you will turn your back and surface rust will start appearing again.
Meths, panel wipe or cheap thinners ( try your local car paint supplier or decent auto factor/ car spares ) and use plenty of kitchen roll/clean rags or special pads, depending on the depth of your wallet.You can spray on the meths with a small garden plastic sprayer.

If you use paint stripper ....be obsessive about cleaning, particularly the panel creases/ gaps.There is likely to be a paint re-action if you are a bit careless.

Bob

that's great, thank you. ps do you know what they mean by epoxy primer?

Bobs advice is good!

I use Nitromors to strip the paint and a scraper, then go over the whole body with a DA, starting from 60 grit , then 120 then 240, at which point the panels are cleaned with panel wipe (spirit wipe) twice and then a few minuted after the second panel wipe, the etch primer goes on.

sorry but what's a 'DA'

DA stands for Dual Action. Mine is as air powered orbital sander, it oscillates as well as rotates and is supposed not to leave visible scratches once the primer is on- the fine marks from the sander are randomised by the orbital as well as rotary action of the tool thus being less noticable.

Seems to work very well.

Nothing wrong with going down to bare metal if it's rusty... but if a panel isn't rusty, why would you want to run the risk of making it rusty. Okay, a bare metal respray will get fantastic results, but putting more paint over paint can infact add extra protection. Personally I think you can get away with using both and use each to it's best advantage to get a great looking finish and the best protection.

You're right, in a way, Dean. If the car in question is in its original paint, i.e. only one coat of cellulose, then just a re-spray may be the way to go, with localised bare metalling to get rid of any rust spots.

But if it is like my Traveller and especially the convertible ( two or three re-sprays on each car), you are better off going down to bare metal to avoid reaction and pickling of the new paint lifting many old layers. I've had this problem when trying to blend in localised paint repairs to the Travellers bonnet. And as for my convertible, it had a coat of 2K over the top of two previous layers and the 2K was cracking and lifting in places, and dull. So I took it back to bare metal.

oh eck, don't confuse me, all that i know is that the roof was done in 2 pack after the trimmer dented it whilst fitting the roof linning but i think the rest of the car was done in cellulose as it dulled after a couple of years without washing it. . . . . . ahem

You will need to strip to bare metal then! And cellulose is fine if washed and given a coat of wax 4x a year.