1843 replies to this topic

[rounders]

Right thats it, hurry up and finish your Mini because mine is on its way to you.

Truly superb why cant the pros do work like that?

[domdee]

cant wait for the rebuild

[Petrol]

That is a lovely finish!

 

Nice to see someone doing the polishing before doing the fit-up for a change. it's the only way to get that perfect uniform finish.

 

Ben

 

It's pointless doing the fit up then covering everything with white compound. It doesn't half make a mess on rubber seals! 

 

Right thats it, hurry up and finish your Mini because mine is on its way to you.

Truly superb why cant the pros do work like that?

 

It's that time consuming it's not really cost effective. When running a business you need cars in and out as quick as possible. It's a shame but a lot of skills these days are gone and I'm not just talking about cars. For example, if your washing machine or TV breaks, it's often just replaced. We live in a disposable world.

cant wait for the rebuild

 

Nor can I but I haven't got much to bolt to the shell. For those that have been following the build, it's no longer going to be a 1275 injected sports pack, more of a hybrid and significantly more retro. I have a lot of bits to source and many problems to sort out.

 

Some more pics of the flatting process

 

This is the OS A panel, you can see where a bit of crud has landed and caused the clear coat to circle around it.

 

 

It's important to have good lighting to see exactly what you are doing -

 

 

The vertical fluorescent is invaluable for this, so is this halogen light I bought from B&Q

 

 

This is the main block I use for flatting

 

 

Since there are a lot of curves on a Mini, I also use these foam pads as a backing for the wet and dry

 

 

Various sizes come in handy

 

 

This is the A panel flatted back with 1500's wet and dry, used wet with car shampoo as a lubricant

 

 

I have left it to dry so you can see the deposits. The white stuff is the clear coat that has been removed. In doing so it has removed any orange peel and also the debris in the paint.

 

More pics and info to follow if it's useful

 

 

Pete

[Ben_O]

 

 

More pics and info to follow if it's useful

 

 

Pete

 

Defiantly keep the pics and info coming please Pete.

 

Personally, i know the process well and briefly made a living doing paint renovation but i do believe this is a very important part of the refinishing process and would be very useful to see how it's done and what the process involves.

 

Ben 

[Mini Waco]

Thank you for teaching your skill and product use.   I believe your patience is the main characteristics that is being lost in our microwave world (everything expected in a a minute -USA specifically).   You mentioned "Some areas had gone on a bit dry as well resulting in some orange peel".   How does this happen, from overspray?

[Petrol]

I'm taking photos of the wet sanding / compounding / polishing method I use. I will post the lot up with details including info on how to deal with orange peel and overspray.

 

I keep getting side tracked with other jobs at the mo but managed to get the Mini outside today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pete

 

 

 

[Down&Out]

 

 

 

More pics and info to follow if it's useful

 

 

Pete

 

Defiantly keep the pics and info coming please Pete.

 

Personally, i know the process well and briefly made a living doing paint renovation but i do believe this is a very important part of the refinishing process and would be very useful to see how it's done and what the process involves.

 

Ben 

 

Its definitely. Sorry, but I keep seeing you write 'defiantly'. To be defiant is to refuse to do something or to be rebellious!

Didn't want to deviate from the topic but it's starting to niggle at me.

Other than that I agree, this is all useful reference material.

[big-jay]

Stunning Pete !

And to think you painted it in your garage at home...amazing !

[domdee]

Amazing!

[Jase]

Pete, I'm painting my car in celly. Can I apply a lacquer over the top of this in the boot? Just want a hardwearing easy to maintain finish in there?

 

Thanks for the fantastic information.

[Petrol]

Hi Jase, what kind of lacquer - 1K or 2K?

 

Pete

 

(Wet sanding / polishing info will be posted up soon)

[Jase]

I'm not sure Pete, never applied lacquer to celly before. I don't have an air fed mask so I guess this would dictate what I can use.

[Petrol]

You can apply a 1K lacquer straight over celly

[Petrol]

Ben’s absolutely right about wet sanding and buffing the shell before it’s fitted out. This is the mess I made.

 

 

Might be worth a mention about factory paint first. I wouldn’t recommend trying wet sanding on any mass produced car since the clearcoat is very thin. They obviously do this to save money. Whilst you can polish out minor scratches with compound, wet sanding is pretty much out of the question. All cars off a production line have an orange peel finish, even BMW’s and Mercs. The reason they do this is to hide any imperfections or flaws in the shell itself. There are however cars built that have a totally (well, more or less) flat, smooth finish. Bentley being an example but their painting process is a closely guarded secret. I do however know they machine polish their shells after paint. I have had a good look around a brand new Bentley and it appears that they either wet sand, and / or compound the paint. The reason for this is there are tell tale traces of orange peel in areas that are really difficult to get to.  

To answer Mini Waco’s question – When you apply paint you need to get just the right amount on to enable it to flow out. Too much and it runs, too little and it doesn’t flow out. When it doesn’t get chance flow out because it’s not gone on thick enough (or dry) it leaves an orange peel finish. It’s not easy painting a whole shell and getting everything spot on as there are lots of things that effect the finish. No of coats, thickness of paint, time between coats, paint viscosity, temperature, amount of thinners etc etc.    Overspray is something different. This happens when a coat of paint almost dries then particles of dry, airborne paint land on it. The surface feels rough when dry and is easily rectified. A claybar (Google that one if you are unsure) with appropriate lubricant will often remove overspray. If not a mild cutting compound will get rid of it.

In this pic you can see where the paint has gone on a bit dry and left the orange peel finish

 

 

I put quite a lot of clearcoat on the shell so was confident I could wet sand it. The idea of wet sanding is to get rid of any bits, smooth out any imperfections and give a uniform finish. I started with 1500 grade wet and dry which is as coarse as you really want to go. It’s important to do this wet with soap as a lubricant. It’s best not to press hard – let the paper lightly cut the surface. What you are looking for is a matt, flat finish like this.

 

You can see in the pic that I have used the block with the 1500’s to rub up and down. This avoids flat spots in the curvature of the panel. Also notice that I haven’t flattened right up to the edges as it’s very easy to go through the clearcoat. This is due to the pressure of the paper being focussed on a small area.

The next stage is to rub down with 3000’s grade wet and dry again used wet. This is to remove the deep scratches created with the 1500’s. It leaves a slightly more shiny surface – I took some pics but they look exactly the same as the 1500’s flatting. Once this is done it’s a case of buffing it up. As I posted earlier, I use 2 heads on the rotary polisher - a compounding head with Farecla G3 (coarse) This removes the scratches that the 3000’s wet and dry left. The compounding head is quite hard so it’s best to go easy on the corners. This is followed by the polishing head which is much softer and the Farecla G5 I use on this is a lot finer. I used this head to go right up to the edges.

There are many different ways of burnishing paint. Rotary polishers make short work of it but you need to keep them moving otherwise you will go through or even friction burn the paint. Dual action (DA) sanders are a much less aggressive option but take more time.

 

You can of course hand burnish paint but it would take ages on a full shell.

Hope that helps

Pete
 

 

[69k1100]

Oops. Realized I'm 51 pages late.

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Edited by 69k1100, 15 November 2014 - 09:17 AM.