GT6 partial restoration

[Dave the tram]

 This continues from the previous post titled ‘Help’ now that I am progressing a plan. The forum pointed me towards Tim at Willow Triumph in Darlington and well worth transporting the car from Derbyshire to get his knowledge and expertise. As ever, the rot went a bit deeper than I first thought, but no nasty surprises. He fitted 2 outer lower repair panels to both rear wings, making any required inner bits. Note he even added a bit of metal into the door just to improve the gap.

 

Other side done the same plus a few other minor bits and pieces. Then the front end of the chassis was rebuilt as it was pretty rotten and badly aligned. New crossmember, one gusset and new hinge boxes.

It arrives back home tomorrow. Tim talked me out of a home cellulose respray as with the poor quality of paints available and it being my first attempt he thought the results might be disappointing for a lot of work put in. He suggested doing all the prep and primer myself and finding a paint shop to do a 2k finish, hopefully for about £1000. The bodywork and transport has eaten into the budget somewhat but worth it to get the important stuff done right.

I have no experience of spraying (but have researched quite a bit and done some decent work with rattle cans in the past) and am angling towards two or 3 coats of 2k acrylic high build primer that can take a 2k finish, as this primer is safer at home.  I’d ventilate the garage well and use a charcoal cartridge mask. Any thoughts on this from other’s experiences very welcome. Got a random orbital sander for the donkey work and rather than spend many hundreds on a good compressor for just one priming job, I’m looking at a LPLV R500 gun (1.3mm nozzle) that needs 4 cubic ft per minute and a Hyundai 25L job for £150 that produces 5 and a bit cfm. Looking at YouTube clips R500 gun seems to spray well with a low air flow and is sold as suitable for acrylic primer. If I do decide to use a spray shop for the top coats I’ll obviously liaise with them on preparation and waive any warranty.

All thoughts welcome

Dave

[Dave the tram]

Think I’m going to have to change tack here. The plan was to do the filler and primer ready for a paint shop to do the finish in 2 pack. I now realise that the advice about using ‘safe’  acrylic high build primer at home is no longer an option - unless anyone can tell me otherwise. The only company I found that did such primer with a non-isocyanate hardener was Jawel, but they no longer do it. As it’s also proving very difficult to find a paint shop to take this on I’ve pretty much decided to revert to cellulose and do the whole job myself.

About to order all the kit and materials.

Dave

[DJB350Z]

Where and what have you ended up purchasing to do the job?

The bodywork you had done looks tidy.

[chrishawley]

Such a big topic! And opinions can vary according to each person's experience/skills/resources.

The Courier had a series of articles over the past year or so by Darren Groves. Well worth a read as they cover much that the new-to-painting person might wish to know.

With suitable precuations it's perfectly possible to use 2k in a DIY enviroinment. PPE, of course, but most of all - air flow and air extraction. Something like an 18 inch extractor fan can pull clean air in pretty quickly, suitably mounted. As I understand it it's long term, peristent, exposure which is the problem for professionals doing the work day in, day out. For a single project total exposure can be minimal by comparison. Of course, if one had a pre-existing respiratory condition, asthma or chronic bronchitis, then one wouldn't want to get involved with spraying of anything, be that 2k or cellulose or whatever.

Opinions vary, but I reckon that 2k has so many advantages over one pack paints that it's well worth going to the effort of arranging ventilation/extraction such that 2k can be used.

[Dave the tram]

Thanks for that contribution Chris. Haven't bought any gear or paint etc yet as I’ve been away - I have another week to ponder this. Perhaps I’ll look into the cost and feasibility of a decent extractor fan for my garage. The potential exposure would be low if I go with my original plan of doing the prep and spraying the primer, then finding a professional to do the finish. I might find that if spaying the primer works well, then I might consider doing the lot myself if finding a spray shop continues to prove difficult. I’ll look up those Courier articles to add to my endless YouTube research.

Dave 

 

[DJB350Z]

On 12/03/2023 at 12:36, Dave the tram said:

I might find that if spaying the primer works well, then I might consider doing the lot myself

Pretty much my plan of attack.