Car paint for Dummies!

rockdemon

rockdemon

Administrator
Staff member
Hi All,

I have a little compressor, and a spray gun, I have a p6 which has some scratches which are going to need touching up, panel repairs which are going to need painting, as well as some very small rust spots on the roof that need sorting before they spread.

I'm guessing in most of these cases i'm going to need a high build primer followed by a top coat of some kind after the preparation?

So then the real questions begin...
What's 2k, 1k, waterbase, cellulose and what would i really want as an amateur giving PAE a touch up? I can't afford a respray in the next few years so my focus is on stopping rust in it's tracks whilst not making it look scruffy in the process!

Any tips for getting paint mixed up to the right colour? Any recommendations for getting paint mixed in the loughborough/leicester, maybe notts or derby area?

Thanks!

Rich
 
Rich, I was at a similar position to you last year and looked into paint myself. I'll start with the boring bit that I found out - my understanding of it is for anything other then cellulose paint you'll need breathing apparatus with a separate air supply so that kind of rules modern paints out for home use. I didn't want to use cellulose for various reasons so decided to start saving instead.
 
So I guess given that, I need to understand what cellulose does/behaves and problems you can encounter? Brian Northampton was explaining the other night a little about painting with cellulose, but i dont really have the full picture as to what I'm doing, or what i should be doing i guess more to the point! :)

Rich
 
your local car parts shop if they do paint and many do may be able to colour match paint and put it in aerosol cans for you , this will be for you the best and safest way of doing it.maybe even halfords can do this now,regards rich
 
Hi Rich, when I was looking to match the colour of my doorcards i went to colourtone in Manchester. Talking to them they can match any colour and then put it into a spray can for ease of use.
 
if ur worried about two pack,and not a professional sprayer and dont want the reactions and sinkage of cellulose,,why not try single pack acrylic??
behaves like celly but easier for amateur use and more durable
buffs up like glass toooooo

i can say this with confidence cos im a qualified car sprayer,,try it,,you will like it
 
Sounds interesting.are there any issues with fumes?

I know very little about this and am blissfully unaware of problems that occur with cellulose :)
 
Well no luck at Morelli's - some mumbo jumbo about the EU, but he did say other people still sold Cellulose and acrylic 1 pack...

Apparently halfords do mix paint but no sign of what type it is... from what i've seen online though their quality varies from good to awful depending on which monkey's doing the mixing....

Rich.
 
rockdemon said:
Well no luck at Morelli's - some mumbo jumbo about the EU, but he did say other people still sold Cellulose and acrylic 1 pack...
Click to expand...

ISTR that you can't buy cellulose for spraying cars any more. If you want it to paint a boat you're OK though, which does sound exactly like the EU to me.....I'm sure GrimV8 will know all about it.
 
Chris kindly sold me 2 fiberglass wings which will be going on temporarily so I get to practice on them at the very least before fixing my front wings!
 
harveyp6 said:
rockdemon said:
Well no luck at Morelli's - some mumbo jumbo about the EU, but he did say other people still sold Cellulose and acrylic 1 pack...
Click to expand...

ISTR that you can't buy cellulose for spraying cars any more. If you want it to paint a boat you're OK though, which does sound exactly like the EU to me.....I'm sure GrimV8 will know all about it.
Click to expand...

Morelli are more likely to be focuses on waterbased now, possibly still doing small amounts of 2K for those that don't want to change till it's the only option but wouldn't be shocked if they don't anymore :)
Allways baffled me why they didn't encourage folk to use celly but then I guess they prefer somewhere to do the painting that dispose of waste the correct way and filter their booth exhaust to the environment in accordance etc etc :|
Not too clear on the regs as being in the trade enables me to buy stuff without the quizzing.

I presume they can only sell certain paints to the DIYer which is why Halfords offer a service although I favour independant paint factors myself for reliable colour and service. I have to use a specific supplier for celly as my main shop stopped doing celly many years ago now.
Saying all this I only use celly once in a blue moon now for a small repair if the car's already painted in it. This week I'm doing 2 Rover P2 front wings in black though.
Last repaint I did for originality and for ease of repair when at the race track with a rattle can or brush, was almost 10 years back on this 911R :)
http://news.sky.com/home/classic-cars/m ... ry/1283955

Don't forget sites like below are very useful for DIY tips as they generally use gear that you can buy yourself :)
http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/spray-painting.htm
 
Thanks some useful stuff there. I hadn't spotted that on the mig welding site. That's going to be useful.

That air propelled spray can looks interesting... Any experience using one?

Thanks

Rich
 
I've used one, but not to spray paint with. We used it for applying an anti corrosion treatment called ACF 50 to our helicopters. It gave a good spray pattern and it had the advantage of being able to maintain it's pressure via the refill facility, so it never got the dribbles like aerosols do.
 
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