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MG TD TF 1500 - Restoring paint on older restoration

Anyone have any thoughts on "touching up" an older hand rubbed lacquer finish? Stone chips are the primary damage, but there are 1-2 one square foot or smaller spots that also need attention, as well as the edges of the bonnet around the hinge. I would rather not remove fenders. Is this possible?

Thanks in advance,

Randall
J. Randall Pitts

Hmmmm...Hand-rubbed lacquer isn't used much anymore....
How old is the paint job?
If it really is lacquer, there aren't many shops that even know how to do this, and you may have to go to a a single-stage acrylic urethane, with a hardener....
That will give you the "wet" look, and I don't think it will react with the old-lacquer...Color matching will be critical.
Base-coat/clear-coat, uses a reducer that might cause bubbling of the old paint....
Some members may know of a shop that can still do lacquer.
Edward
E.B. Wesson

No idea where you get the matching lacquer, but, for what it's worth I invested $10 bucks and bought a Harbor Freight air brush (yes, $10 bucks!). I had a few small chips in my new paint. I first wet sanded them down to primer to smooth the edges of the chip. For deeper ones I then filled in with Sikkins Kombi Putty. (You should ask an expert what's comparable and safe for your paint! Maybe a glazing putty of some sort?) I then wet sanded down to 2500 grit expanding the area of original chip out into good paint a few inches. Then I layered in a few coats of base color with the air brush blending out as I went. (Don't use mask tape, it just leaves a line impossible to sand out later. Don't worry about overspray. Wasn't a factor with airbrush.) Followed with clear coat. Both color and clear were reduced for the air brush by trial and error. Then I color sanded the whole thing and brought up the shine with compound & rotary. I challenge you to see the original chip! (And I ain't no expert, trust me! Practice on scrap a lot first and it can be done.)
Ed
efh Haskell

Lacquer can't be done up here anymore, but I thought the U.S. still allowed it?
It is fairly easy to 'blend', but the color match has to be pretty dead on... I've blended mine, but it is black....and I just pick up 'rattle' cans across the border......

I went down the driver's side fenders, running boards and rear fender with a sander, then blended in the black.....

gblawson(gordon- TD27667)

...masked....

Then wet sanded with 800/1000/1200 then polished with a rubbing compound...then waxed....

Working with lacquer at least is really quick....dries in a very short time....

gblawson(gordon- TD27667)

are you sure it is a lacquer finish and not an single stage acrylic enamel? regards, tom
tom peterson

You can use and get lacquer, as I just painted an entire TF1500 with black acrylic lacquer, PPG DTL 9300. Other colors are hard to get but you can maybe get them in nitrocellulose through Bill Hirsch. There are a couple suppliers in Hemmings Motor News that still carry the acrylic stuff. You may have a local jobber that will mix other colors, but that is kind of a long shot. Mr. Haskell's note on how to do it is right on target. A rattle can or an HVLP gun will give too much overspray and ugly spatter. You can use two guns. The first one would put out a very fine mist of thinner and then after it flashes you put the base coat color on. This is all pretty trial and error due to thinner speed, air pressure, ambient temperature, etc... so it takes a lot of time to nail it. One thing of note is that the wings may have been painted with enamel for chip resistance while the rest of the car is in lacquer. It's easy to test. Just put a little thinner on a small clean rag and touch it to the paint in a concealed spot. If you don't get any color transfer, you have enamel. If you decide to paint "over" it with a more modern paint, you will probabaly have to seal it with some hardener type primer in order to avoid crazing, bubbling, etc...that might occur. I hope the car is black,as that makes this alot easier to match! Lacquer is getting to be tough to procure but it is forgiving to paint with.
Mike D.

MW Davis

You can get acrylic lacquer from Tri City Paint-tcpglobal.com they can match your color if you know what it is or match it from a small painted part. They are very helpful if you call them on the phone. I think lacquer is very forgiving and not too bad to touch up with as long as you have the correct color.
JB
J K Barter

The various color numbers for Ditzler, Dupont, etc...are noted in some of the MG books I have. If you know your color, I can look it up for you and that will help with the suppliers. Mike
MW Davis

A TC in the area had a rear fender repaired with lacquer. A very experienced body/paint man did it, and the first time the color was off when all was dry. I was not there when it was done, but the final result was perfect. So it can be done. George
George Butz

TCP global is where I got my BRG acrylic enamel. Their paint is so reasonably priced.

I've done a few bikes with their paint plus my TD.

But matching???that could be tough.
L Rutt

My TD was done in acrylic lacquer 20 years ago and has picked up a few chips. It's Ivory and current Ford color Wimbilton White (available from dupli-color in spray or touch-up bottles) matches perfectly, really. The problem with touch up is when the lacquer dries it shrinks a lot so you have to put on 4 or 5 coats before it fills the chip level. Then you can wetsand and rub it out and it blends in beautifully. If you first fill the chip with spot putty then sand it and do your touch-up you can do it with one or two coats. the spray cans work fine for one foot sized areas and it rubs out great. It looked so good that I rubbed out the whole car! California has a lot of controls on lacquer products. ahh for the good old days!
Chuck

cj schmit

This thread was discussed between 07/11/2011 and 18/11/2011

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