Bonnet Respray

[legin]

I'm just about to have a go at spraying a spare S1 bonnet that I have. As this my first venture with a spray gun I have no idea how much paint/thinners/lacquer to buy.
(Any tips appreciated)

[WildfireS3]

Fot the bonnet, I would go with half a litre, unless you are going Cooper Green or Mica Blue, as the opacity of those colours is very bad and more coats may be needed. Again half a litre of lacquer is good. I would flat down well and fill the stone chips with filler first, or you will get dents in the paint where they are.

[legin]

Thanks Wildfire.

Tried to get the paint at Halfords "All colours for all cars" they advertise - except TVR is seems. If I had the paint code they reckon they could get it but I'm not sure I have the right number. There is a plate in the engine bay which says P422-1179. Is this the code (its Oceanic Blue)?

[M@H]

legin said:

Thanks Wildfire. Tried to get the paint at Halfords "All colours for all cars" they advertise - except TVR is seems. If I had the paint code they reckon they could get it but I'm not sure I have the right number. There is a plate in the engine bay which says P422-1179. Is this the code (its Oceanic Blue)?

Do Halfords do proper Auto Paint (not the stuff in spray tins)..!?

[S1 Paul]

I got some paint for my car from a place in High Wycombe called Colour Match Centre (01494 446580).I had to persuade him to look on his screen after he first said that TVR don't have paint codes but Italian red was there and the code started with P146 so you could have the correct number to give him.
I believe he does do paint by post.

p.s.
there is a website www.colourmatchcentre.co.uk

Hope this helps.

[WildfireS3]

I wouldn't get paint from Halfords, I get mine from professional paint suppliers. ICI paint. You need good paint and a decent spray gun, as well as compressor.

Then you really should have a infared lamp to cure the paint. After this you flat it down with P1800 or P2000 Wet and dry to remove any "orange peel effect" Then polish up using Faraclea G7 and finish off with 3M Machine glaze.

[legin]

Managed to get the paint from a place in Lewis (just outside Brighton) in the end.

Had a quick go yesterday however I can't get the lacquer to go on with a glass-like finish. I rubbed down the base coat until it was completely smooth before applying the lacquer but I still get an orange peel finish on the finished article. I even tried leveller but that didn't seem to do anything.

Am I missing something?

[WildfireS3]

You should give the paint and the lacquer at least 24 hours in a good heat to cure. You don't need to rub down the base coat. What you do is take some P2000 and lightly remove the orange peel effect on the lacquer once it has dried out and cured. You should get a bucket of water, and put some fairy liquid into it and use P2000 wet and dry paper. Be very careful arounf the edges. If you dry the surface you will see the low spots that hevn't been flatted.

Once you are happy, get a rotary polisher with a suitable foam mop on it and wet the mop. Then apply some Faraclea G3 or similar to the surface. Then polish. You'll need to work the surface to get a good shine. But beware as GRP heats up a lot quicker than metal and you can burn the paint eaisly. Then repeat with 3M Machine glaze or Faraclea G12.

When I did my mini, it took me a month from start to finish to get it done as I did the edges by hand.

It is also very important that you have a good spray gun. You need to find a blaance between the consistancy of the paint coming out of the gun and the rate at which you move it. If the flow is too great you will get runs in the paint, but if the flow is too dry you will get a hard but powdery finish which will never flat out. I generally put a few dry coats on and the gradually build up tpo a gloss.

[legin]

"You should give the paint and the lacquer at least 24 hours in a good heat to cure" - today should be good then!

Appreciate the advice and I'll give it a go. BTW, where can you buy P2000 wet and dry? Smoothest I've seen is P1500.

How do they do this in the factory? I can't see they hand finish every car like this..........

[z_chromozone]

Reduce the orange peel effect by lowering the solids in the mix, I found better results come with doing more coats of less paint.

Adding an extra 10% thinners in the mix is often a good way to practice with the first few coats so you don't get too much build.

Z

[WildfireS3]

legin said:

"You should give the paint and the lacquer at least 24 hours in a good heat to cure" - today should be good then! Appreciate the advice and I'll give it a go. BTW, where can you buy P2000 wet and dry? Smoothest I've seen is P1500. How do they do this in the factory? I can't see they hand finish every car like this..........

Not sure about the factory, but I've seen really good sprayers spary with almost no orange peel effect at all. Then he lightly runs wet and dry over the car and then polishes.

If you look at modern cars a lot of them do have orange peel quite badly, especially when you compare it to a hand finished car.

What area are you in? If you're in Surrey I can give you the number of a very good paint shop.

I tend to give the lacquer a good 24hours with bursts of the infra red lamp to get it to harden. I'm actually doing a mirror at the moment.

[kentishs2]

I gave my new audi TT mirrors a quick paint to match the car before fitting to my S and used an aerosol primer and an aerosol gloss top coat to match (from halfords) and used a hairdryer between coats then after 2 days used 1500 wet & dry on a couple of areas and then T-cut (gently) and finished with a wax polish. I wasn't really bothered about the finish too much as I'm having the whole car re-sprayed soon but the end result for my small effort was as good as the original paint finish of the car. So, I was fairly pleased. The key thing to remember is don't rush it by applying too much paint, it's better to build up a few coats and polish up later to get a good finish.