10 replies to this topic

[Elfie]

Over the winter I am wanting the front face of my elf stripping down, rust treating and re painting. An easy option would be to send it in to a garage to get it done by a professional but I have no idea how much this would cost. If it's over around £200 i'll try and find someone who can help me and try and do it myself.
Any ideas of cost?
(By face I mean by the grille and round lights round to the wheel arches)

Edited by Elfie, 09 November 2006 - 06:56 PM.

[mini-gti]

how far are you planning to go????

if back to bare metal them it would be worth putting in the extra sandin time and goin back to the seams on the wings, otherwise you'll start getting into blending and such,
and irregularities in paint shades will show up alot more when you 'blend' them rather than having a crisper break usin the seam line

but it would be a fairly easy task if your confident in your abilities

gaz

[Elfie]

Well at the moment it doesn't actually have any seams due to a bodge i suspect by the previous owner.
I think I'll give it a go, I'll ask around my motor club and see if anyone can give up a day to give me some guidance. It will be totally back to bare metal as some rust is starting to come through the paint, want to catch it early.
Thanks,
Ben

[mini-gti]

oh ok back to the door gap then, it all depends on how good your sprayin is, you can blend it on panel if you think your up to it

what ever you do, DONT hard mask it!!!!!!! especially if your blending, not that you should be going any where near you masking when your blending

what you need to do is something called back masking, you stick the tape on then roll back the leading edge to form about a half inch round, tacky side out, you only need about 4mm of tape left stuck to the panel, you'll need to use minimum of 1 1/2 inch tape for this but easier with 2 inch, you then using little bits of tape (10mm x10mm approx) to make life easier you hold back the leading edge of the tape back to the panel, you need to make sure you maintain the nice smooth roll, then you tape your paper onto what was the leading edge, this will leave you with a nice soft edge is is much easier to polish out than a hard solid edge, which believe me is a pig to get rid of!!!!

gaz

[Elfie]

Ahhhhh I get ya,
That is useful, ill definatley use that, thankyou very much
I think I will just go back to where the seams used to be, because i want to see whats behind the bodge anyway, so ill strip it all down, rub off rust and follow the prep and painting guide. I just need to select the right paint.
I'm very pleased with the state of the paint on the rest of the car considering it's very old, it is just the front face that is beginning to show bad signs.

[mini-gti]

you'll have to go back to the door gaps then because you wont be able to blend on the remaining section of the panel thats left at the top of the a panel. unless you flat down the door and blend onto it then re-lacquer

gaz

[midridge2]

when ever you blend paint on a panel, always tcut or buff the panel first so that the old paint that you blend over is a cleaner colour the match is better then than a new paint colour fading into a old paint colour.

[mini-gti]

just out of interest why would you tcut or buff a panel if you are then going to scottch/flat it down???

gaz

[midridge2]

as said, if you are blending a panel in with new paint, were you soft mask it the new paint will go up to the masking, when you take the masking off to flat/buff the edge the paint that was not sprayed over is old and dirty/faded, you can get a transition of shades as you look along the panel, new paint, the bit were you have faded into with the new paint and then the old paint.
you say why if you are going to scotch or flat it down, do you mean do this after you have painted the panel?

[mini-gti]

you said in you post tcut it first, surely you'd do this after????

gaz

[midridge2]

i am not sure if i am reading off the same page as you are,
when the panel is all ready for painting but before you have soft masked it, that is the time to t cut/buff the full panel.
when you have painted the panel and the paint is dry depending on the edge left you can wet flat or t cut or buff the panel over the new paint,
remember that when you fade paint out you are spraying over the old paint with a 90% thinners mix and it will be very thin to cover the old paint so if the paint is faded or dirty looking it will show as a different shade to the new. also it saves having to buff the whole panel after painting were you might buff through the old paint and then have to repaint the whole panel.