3 replies to this topic

[afswift]

Hi, going to give my mini a respray,

Is it worth stripping it right down to a shell and painting the engine bay as iam changing colour from red to blue?? Or has people not bothered??

Also if i do take the engine out what do i need to prep the bay??

[Retro_10s]

For a Respray I would strip the car down completely, take the lights, bumpers, trim, ariel, seals etc off.
You don't need to take the car back to bare metal unless you have rust.... in which case, take the area with rust down to bare metal (and about an inch around it too), treat , it and primer it up.

For keying the current paint on it, use something like 600-800 wet and dry WET,.. this will get riud of all the 'shine' of the paint. when you have a Matt surface, degrease the shell, (white spirit is good but let it dry properly as it leaves greasy residue that evaporates a little slower.) you're ready for primer and then paint.


For the engine bay...Take everything outta the engine bay... EVERYTHING! makes life much easier.

then you need to degrease the engine bay with degreaser and a wire brush, once you've got the messy stuff off... degrease again with out the brush. then prep it using a fairly heavy grit of Wet and Dry/Sandpaper etc to get the crud off and key the surface. Any rust should be taken back to bare, clean metal, treated and reprimered.

then spray it up using whatever type of paint you are going to be using, for example, High temp, celly, 2k whatever. don't forget to bung up any earthing points with paper or something to stop the thread getting painted... otherwise your earths will be knackered and need cleaning etc.

We can offer lots of help, but also try the search function.. lots of people ask about prep+respray and i think there's a fair few threads about it.

[OllyD]

Definately strip it down completely, especially if you're changing colour.
The person who resprayed my car from blue to yellow just 'went round' everything, and it really showed. I had bits of blue poking out everywhere that he'd missed in nooks and crannies.

I've now stripped down to a bare shell, and i'm gonna make sure i get every last bit of the old paint. It'll be worth the extra hassle in the long run.

[cooper_shaz]

As above, but it also depends on what it is you want to achieve.. and other factors like how long can you do without a car..
for some it is their daily transport..

Another alternative is to spray the underside of the bonnet, tops of the inner wings etc and for the lower parts use satin black paint in the engine bay to cover the old colour..

It all depends on the length you are willing to go to and the finish you want to achieve, time and the skills you have..

Edited by cooper_shaz, 28 July 2006 - 10:06 AM.