14 replies to this topic

[LouisT]

Evening guys,

how much paint will i need to do the following,

exterior
interior
and underside,

both primer and colour

cheers

Louis

[jcsmarttec]

If your doing it in base coat. I would say you need 4.5 liters that will mix 2/1 with thinners. That's more then enough. As for primer I would say 3.5 liters. That will give you a full coat of primer and a good deep colour. Then I would give that 2 dust coats of clear coat and then 2 full coats. ) enjoy.

[SolarB]

I've just used 8 litres of cellulose (16 by the time it's thinned) for everything except the roof, and I haven't got much left over. I was surprised how much paint the engine bay and the underside required.
If I ever paint another Mini all over I'll buy 10 litres, which should leave me a litre or two for future repairs. The cost of an extra few litres is pretty small once you price up how much the preparation and other consumables have cost.

[LouisT]

I've just used 8 litres of cellulose (16 by the time it's thinned) for everything except the roof, and I haven't got much left over. I was surprised how much paint the engine bay and the underside required.
If I ever paint another Mini all over I'll buy 10 litres, which should leave me a litre or two for future repairs. The cost of an extra few litres is pretty small once you price up how much the preparation and other consumables have cost.

cheers for that,

im a few months off painting but just needed to know for when it comes to it,

got the whole prep to do yet as ive only just got my mini,

Louis

[SolarB]

No problem.

Post up a photo when it's done.

[luigi86]

if your not overly experienced I would buy a good 2pak high build primer and a decent 2pak base coat, with matched thinners and 2pak laquer,

celi is hard to work with and unforgiving, hence why 2pak was invented

[panelbeaterpeter]

if your not overly experienced I would buy a good 2pak high build primer and a decent 2pak base coat, with matched thinners and 2pak laquer,

celi is hard to work with and unforgiving, hence why 2pak was invented

Bad advice, if you're not experienced, 2k isn't ideal at all, plus you need expensive respiratory equipment or it is very dangerous stuff.

Cellulose is very easy to use, and is very forgiving. Mix it 50:50, point and shoot. If you mess up it's easy to sort, just let it dry (about an hour), flat back, and go again. With 2k you have to leave it at least a day to cure, then repaint the whole panel, or if it's metallic, maybe a few panels.

If you have no experience, you shouldn't be painting top coat at all, take time primering, and try and get the primer as good as you'd like the top coat. Once you can get a nice smooth coat of primer with no runs, you'll be able to get an ok finish with topcoat. Cellulose is a great starter paint, buy a decent filter mask, a half decent gun, air equipment and off you go.

And yes if you're painting the whole car inside and out on top and underneath, you'll need 10 litres, un thinned. Yes thinned that's 20 litres.. bear in mind you want about 5 coats of the stuff. I ordered 10 litres for a repaint and had about half a litre left, which is perfect for any chips scratches etc that will undoubtedly occur when building up.

[WRLondon]

diamond,
i was thinking about 5 litres to paint a mini

but then again its a cab so maybe?

[Shifty]

You could do an exterior paint with 5 litres, its only if you're doing a full shell you'll need more.

I'd also be looking at giving it a coat of Bar-coat(or a similar isolator) before painting as well.

[panelbeaterpeter]

diamond,
i was thinking about 5 litres to paint a mini

but then again its a cab so maybe?

If it's just the outside, and in celly, then that sounds about right!

[SolarB]

I'd also be looking at giving it a coat of Bar-coat(or a similar isolator) before painting as well.

Very good point, I forgot about that. Wish I'd known about the existence of Bar-coat 6 months ago.

[LouisT]

whats bar-coat?

[Ethel]

Bar coat creates a barrier to reduce the risk of the new paint reacting with what's underneath.

[SolarB]

Bar-coat (which I think is a trade name) is alcohol based, so you'll need the approipate cleaner for your gun. It is supplied ready mixed and is applied in one thin coat and as Ethel says, it greatly reduces the risk of having a reaction between different types of paint. Well worth the effort and extra money, particularly on an old car that may have a variety of paint types. If you don't bar-coat and have a reaction when you spray, you'll wish you did.

[AVV IT]

You could do an exterior paint with 5 litres, its only if you're doing a full shell you'll need more.

I would have to agree, I used 5 liters of cellulose to do just the exterior (excluding primer & not including the roof) & to be honest I thought I was "scrimping" a bit with just 5 litres!! I'd reckon that you would need more like 10 litres if your gonna do the whole shell! I can't possibly see how you could do the whole shell with just 4.5 litres and get anywhere near a decent coverage, (I know of people that have used that much to do just the front end!!) I suppose you might be able to get away with it if you're a pro, as I guess you would waste a lot less paint??