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MG Midget and Sprite General - General Painting Advice

Hi all!

winter saltyness having taken it's toll slightly (added to some VERY pretty cars at this months Yorkshire MASC meeting) I've decided it's time for a respray.

Now I'm going to be doing it with the car still on the road, am going to go back to metal on some panels that need it, but not on others that don't ( I did the wings not long ago - they're good, will just key down for new primer)

So - presumably etch primer is best for the metal, any particular sort? going to be doing it in celly as it's less poisonous, and going to be doing it outside as well.

reckon i'll need about 2L of paint to get coverage on the whole outside.

any tips or tricks?

thanks!

Rob

Rob Armstrong

there is a good guide here http://www.theminiforum.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=27741
Rich K

"while still on the road"
"doing it outside"

those statements make me worry that you'll get a lot of moisture in/under the paint as you go.

Advice: primer is not necessarily water resistant, so be sure to get primer on bare metal as quickly as possible (of course) and then top coat on top of that also as quickly as possible (because rain, dew, and so on can cause corrosion to start that will bubble/blister later on).


paint a ton of very thin top coats and then when you are done you can cut it back as much as needed to make everything smooth (working outside it is impossible to prevent things from getting in the drying paint). Thin coats dry faster, and a lot of them give you more material to polish through later, as needed, to remove those hairs, dust, sand and bugs that get in.

By the way, when you get specs of dust, or whatever, you can sometimes remove them with a razor blade scrape, like you are scraping something off of glass (leaves a tiny pit), rather than sanding (which can leave an uneven area around it), then fill the tiny pit with touch up paint or the next coat.


Norm
Norm Kerr

To allay your fears Norm - I'll do the back-to-metal in stages, then flash over with rattle cans for the interim. Then, once all the panels are done, I'll sand off the thin covering and do the whole thing in one go. from metal up, with lots of coats as you say. It's living in a garage while all this is going on.

Cheers for that link Rich :)

Rob
Rob Armstrong

Another link for you:

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/spray-painting.htm

Good luck!
John Payne

Hi Rob,

Last time I sprayed my car I bought my paint etc from AEMC on Clifton Moor (York). They advised me on what I needed, and mixed the colour to order. It's suprising what finish you can achieve by spraying in your garage. The finish comes from the flatting off and polishing though, so be prepared to put in some hours!

If you need any more advise/help I can be contacted at wigleyhgm AT btinternet DOT com

David

David Wigley (MK2 Sprite)

Just to reiterate Norm's comments on temperature and humidity, it's important your primer and colour coats go on when the panel temperature is around 20 degrees farenheit and in a dry atmosphere. If you look at a temperature map you'll see that it really only reaches those figures around July and August. Painting in the open outside of those values you will get micro blistering - when the primer and fillers absorb water and are trapped under the top coat. Always buy more paint than you think you'll need. 2 litres sounds a little tight. For a full respray I'd probably use 4-5 litres of primer and the same for top coat nominally mixed 50%.

F Pollock

oops, I think Mr. Pollock meant to say, "celsius" instead of "farenheit".


...Mr. Napoleon and his "new-fangled measuring units".


Norm
Norm Kerr

Yes, quite right. 20 degrees farenheit is a little too cold.
F Pollock

Norm and David,

I would have to disagree with the lots of thin coats and that the finish comes from flatting the paint back. It is possible to get a very good paint finish straight from the gun with cellulose but you need to get the knack of putting the paint on heavily but not so heavy that you get runs, that applies to all paint I think. I always used a 50:50 paint/thinner mix and chose the thinner to suit the conditions fast, medium or slow depending on the temperature. Use a slower thinner the hotter it is. If your getting an orange peel finish then you're putting the paint on too thin or using too fast a thinner.

BTW when I sprayed my mk1 Sprite it got 10 coats of Lancia Rosso Corsa (Corsica red) and the attached image shows the car as painted. Images scanned from a photo from 1985.

David Billington

David, gorgeous paint job!

And, true enough about the best way to paint, but working outside, instead of a proper paint booth, does add an additional bit of challenge from stuff in the air that will constantly land on that wet paint!

Norm "not man enough to take on that challenge, to paint outdoors" Kerr
Norm Kerr

If you can do it somewhere where you can keep heat on it,


Not even so much for drying, as that will happen in time anyway, but when the paint is applied cold to a cold surface you will end up chasing runs everywhere.

A bit of heat allows everything to go tacky pretty quickly.

if outside, id suggest a parrafin blow heater, and heat the panel you are going to paint at a bare minimum
PeterJMoore

Norm,

If I had no choice and had to spray outside I would try and buy/beg/borrow/steal a large temporary gazebo or similar. I know someone that has one that would easily take a sprite and give room to move around for spraying. It's something like this one.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gazebo-Marquee-Party-Tent-Panels/dp/B000T9ITVE/ref=sr_1_2?s=outdoors&ie=UTF8&qid=1298053044&sr=1-2

I know what you're saying about things getting in the paint as I've had it happen when painting a stand to take my dvd player, record player etc on a cold winters day some years back. I thought as it was around freezing so no problem with insects, I was wrong. Something about the smell of thinners must get them going as a few tiny flies appeared and landed on the paint leaving slight trails. Not much to do but leave them and the paint to dry then wipe their remains off, you'd wouldn't know they'd been there unless you knew where to look.
David Billington

Blow away in Yorkshire I'd guess ......
rachmacb

thanks chaps :)

I have a Gazebo but it has no sides on it, easily sorted though with some sheets, tho I'll watch out not to poison myself. unless it's windy, in which case neither the Gazebo or the paint has much of a chance...

Is is going to get a load of moisture in it when I spray it? I reckon if I'm reasonably quick with it it should be OK - unless the micro-blistering thing is instant.

I've even decided on a colour, Nissan midnight blue - only issue is it's a pearlescent one - can I od that in celly? if not I'll get the same colour in normal celly, the painty man should be able to mix it...

Rob Armstrong

Well, It's worked. It's definitely blue now :) Not had a chance to cut it back yet so still kind of a semi-matte finish given by the anti-bloom thinners (no blooming though)

:)

hooray for respray in a week. Ended up getting my paint form somewhere in newcastle (Eswick) for 20 pounds a litre instead of 36 in york...

Rob Armstrong

Going to look super when you have cut it back

nice colour

Sounds like a nice price too, well done
Bill 1

Cheers Bill. For anyone else who is watching, I bought 4L of blue and used about a litre a coat. Only had time for 2 coats though so I'll be back doing some more when it's a bit warmer...
Rob Armstrong

Just keep an eye on your car when you park on Elswick Rd. Not exactly the nice end of the town!! That same shop ( auto parks express, I think) used to sell a multitude of body panels as well. I restored my first car (a mini) using their panels and paint!


Paul
Paul Barnes

yes. I went with a mate who sat in the car....

they had a mini wing in there as well when I was in, and some angry people :s cheap though.
Rob Armstrong

Hi Rob, looking at you great website, I need to pick your brains re: wiring of your light on the number plate on the back of the car, I have taken of my bumpers like you, and fitted a new number plate light, but not sure about wiring it up, can you tell me what you did?

cheers Jack.
Jack New Forest

It's wired to the sidelight circuit - I think it even uses the same wires as the old 'spaceship' lamps, which are connected to the sidelight circuit as standard, somewhere in the boot on a lucas bullet connector.
Rob Armstrong

Rob,

I've never used anti-bloom thinners and didn't know that was the result it gave as a finish. Good to see some progress and hope the final coats go on well. If you have a bit of spare paint it would be interesting to see the finish with normal thinners when the weather is dry.

I sprayed a mould last Friday and got a beautiful finish on it straight from the gun and I just thinned some old paint I have with some cheap "standard thinner" from the local motor factors.

Some years back the guy that previously owned my house got asked if he wanted some paint, as the local body shop had more than the HSE allowed it to store, he said yes and they dropped it off while he was out and he ended up with a stack of paint tins at the back of his garage about 2' deep x 3' high x 10' long, virtually all cellulose type paint. About 6 of us from the AH club got together one day and sorted all the tins into basic colours and took what we wanted. I still have a number of tins and need to decant the contents into new tins as the old ones are rusting badly. Getting difficult to buy empty tins these days as the factors seems to use a cheaper short term storage plastic tins in place of proper metal. Some of the stuff I have is Dockers which someone said was taken over more than 40 years ago. Some of the Dockers came in tins like small milk churns.

The stuff I sprayed on Friday was Pinchin Johnson Paints Flowline half hour enamel Chrysler UK "Firecracker". Got to say the old stuff smells much better than the new.
David Billington

I think half the issue was the fact that it was only 7 degrees when I sprayed it. Apparently you can get gloss thinners as well to make it super shiny, but went for the antibloom because of the temperature. I've had good results with standard thinners as well, when I did the wings and valance last feb, with some cellulose that had been on a shelf for 25 or so years - older than I was! That stuff certainly smelled 'interesting'...
Rob Armstrong

Rob,

I think some of the stuff I have may be older than I am and I'm 46, some less old but not by much. Shades of "Apocalypse Now" and nothing like the smell of Napalm in the morning.

Much of the cellulose I've kept to finish wood items as it dries quickly and finishes easily.
David Billington

This thread was discussed between 16/02/2011 and 08/03/2011

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