14 replies to this topic

[NuFab]

Hi everyone,

 

I bought a mk1 Mini a very long time ago, and gradually replaced just about every panel, with the aim of then getting it painted. Its the only shell I've ever welded, but I'm fussy about this kind of thing and I feel I've done a good job of it. It needs painting inside and out, and a bit of sandblasting on the seams etc beforehand.

 

Back in about 2020, after the first lockdowns ended, I went and got a couple of quotes to get the paint done, at Mini specialists. I won't say where I went, but at one place the guy in charge was pretty rude and didn't seem particularly interested. He barely even looked at my photos of the shell, and gave a really high quote. The next place was much better; they seemed really enthusiastic, were cheaper, and showed lots of examples of past work. 

 

Of course, more lockdowns came, and on top of that we decided to extend our house, which took up much of my time and the Mini sat in the garage being neglected.

 

Last year, I made contact with the place that seemed good again, but they've not come back with a quote or a date to do the work.

 

I'd really rather get a Mini specialist to do the work, but are they all so busy they can ignore people asking for their sevices? Are they put off when a customer has done the bodywork themselves?

 

I feel like I'm at a point where I either paint the car myself and put up with a poorer paint job, or sell it all and buy a Caterham or something. 

Edited by NuFab, 09 January 2026 - 02:47 PM.

[stuart bowes]

I'm doing the insides myself, brushed on red oxide as a base, will rub down and do a good-enough job with rattle tins (inc boot and in engine bay)

 

that's not to say it's the best method or anything but my reasoning being, it's 90% covered up anyway, and it saves some of the cost

 

the outside is the bit where I'm going to worry about quality, we do have a proper spray gun / air line / moisture trap, etc and a space to do it in.  if that doesn't come out right we might consider getting it rubbed down and blown over I guess.. 

 

but short version, maybe save some cost and time by at least doing the insides yourself 

Edited by stuart bowes, 09 January 2026 - 03:51 PM.

[slidehammer]

I have found that a lot of places don't want full resprays these days. They make more money on small crash repairs and bumper scuffs. 

When I had my last shell resprayed the place I had recommended farmed it out to another body shop and I ended up dealing with them direct.

Whilst they did a good job, they took far longer than quoted and the price went up!

 

I agree with the above paint the less visible parts yourself either with a gun or good quality rattle cans. You won't notice the difference once the car is built up.

[Gaz66]

I'm doing the insides myself, brushed on red oxide as a base, will rub down and do a good-enough job with rattle tins (inc boot and in engine bay)

that's not to say it's the best method or anything but my reasoning being, it's 90% covered up anyway, and it saves some of the cost

the outside is the bit where I'm going to worry about quality, we do have a proper spray gun / air line / moisture trap, etc and a space to do it in. if that doesn't come out right we might consider getting it rubbed down and blown over I guess..

but short version, maybe save some cost and time by at least doing the insides yourself

This is exactly what I'm going to do. You never know we might just pull it off! 😁

[Midas Mk1]

Red oxide does nothing these days, it doesn’t contain lead.

Epoxy is where it’s at now, wouldn’t use anything else on bare metal. It’s amazing what you can do with cans, what I used for my last two repaints, key is practice, decent 3m mask (do your research) and decent quality supplier of base and clear. You can’t tell it’s not from a gun, to the point people don’t believe you 😅

Edited by Midas Mk1, 09 January 2026 - 09:25 PM.

[Ethel]

I haven't painted anything in donkey's years, but being able to flat & polish was key to getting a decent d.i.y finish. A few years back there were quite a few TMF'ers getting reasonable results from roller painting.

[DeadSquare]

Read, "Fletcher S Supercharged Mini"

[stuart bowes]

Red oxide does nothing these days, it doesn’t contain lead.

Epoxy is where it’s at now, wouldn’t use anything else on bare metal. It’s amazing what you can do with cans, what I used for my last two repaints, key is practice, decent 3m mask (do your research) and decent quality supplier of base and clear. You can’t tell it’s not from a gun, to the point people don’t believe you

 

Just covering the metal and stopping the oxygen getting to it is 'something' isn't it, it's still paint, you can't say it does 'nothing'  .  it may do 'less' I suppose

 

Anyway the plan is still epoxy for the outsides where the weather is a real issue instead of just a bit of damp occasionally

 

the underside, I did with truck bed paint as the reviews on that said it was extremely weather resistant and strong, plus that's quite easy touch up later as it's in a place where it's not at all visible and it's just black.  (I'll be keeping an eye on that over time)

 

I used red oxide to prime the insides mostly because it's cheap, supposedly protective, easy to brush on nice and thick and get right into all the gaps from all the various angles where spray paint can be awkward (also of course carefully getting seam sealer into every single join)

Edited by stuart bowes, 15 January 2026 - 09:25 AM.

[gav]

Red oxide does nothing these days, it doesn’t contain lead.

Epoxy is where it’s at now, wouldn’t use anything else on bare metal. It’s amazing what you can do with cans, what I used for my last two repaints, key is practice, decent 3m mask (do your research) and decent quality supplier of base and clear. You can’t tell it’s not from a gun, to the point people don’t believe you

 

Any pics?

[shera12]

Yeah, sadly that’s pretty common. A lot of specialists are busy and prefer full jobs they’ve done themselves, so owner-welded shells can get pushed aside.

You might have more luck with a good local paint shop rather than a Mini specialist. You’ve done the hard work already don’t give up on it yet.

[NuFab]

Thanks for the input everyone, thats really helpful.

 

There is another place very near me that does all kinds of bodywork, as well as saying they do race prep and full restorations.. https://greenstotalc...recentre.co.uk/ ... If anyone has any experience with them I'd value any feedback. I might pop in and speak to them at some point.

I do have an air compressor, but it's ancient and I've never used it for spraying. I expect it'd need a good moisture / oil trap in the line. It's a 50L tank, so might work ok if I paused as I worked my way around. I've no idea on what paint is required though, or the safety concerns... other than not touching 2K.

 

 

Red oxide does nothing these days, it doesn’t contain lead.

Epoxy is where it’s at now, wouldn’t use anything else on bare metal. It’s amazing what you can do with cans, what I used for my last two repaints, key is practice, decent 3m mask (do your research) and decent quality supplier of base and clear. You can’t tell it’s not from a gun, to the point people don’t believe you

 

If I did it with rattle cans, how many to do a full car?  And where did you get yours from Midas Mk1?

 

 

 

 

[Ethel]

As above, since lead in paint has been banned red lead is just a colour. It is likely a petty point as the paint will likely still be formulated to do a similar job. Zinc rich paint will offer some benefit, but it would be worth extra consideration if you want to paint over it.

 

Auto paint suppliers used to make up custom aerosols. I don't know what the situation is with newer paint technology, but there are online suppliers offering them.

[Rubbershorts]

Hi NuFab. I've rattled canned a few bits on our car. The full boot, under the bonnet and the outside of the bonnet. Plus a couple of other bits. You can as mentioned get a pretty decent finish, if you can finish the paint properly after it's dried. The results I've had have been average until you do the polishing work after. I've attached a couple of pictures to show the results. The under bonnet is as it came out of the can as the extra polishing work wasn't worth the effort. The outer bonnet picture has had a further rubbing with compound since this picture to remove some fine swirls. I'd say the bonnet for one side was 2 cans of colour and 1.5 cans of lacquer. Obviously there were primers etc but I can't remember how much I used. I've only worked with the colour/lacquer system so I'm not sure how easy it is to do with a straight finish colour (with no lacquer). 

 

One thing I will say, and hopefully someone has a solution to this problem, the rattle cans for me don't offer much resistance to anything solvent you may wipe your car with. Say for instance you wanted to clean an area with an Isopropanol wipe, to apply a decal etc., it will damage the surface. Maybe it hardens up further as more time passes. I'm not sure yet, we'll have to see. 

 

Just added a picture of the A panel. As this was a small panel it was easy to get a good finish. This meant no compounding afterwards. 

 

I reckon I could do the whole car in bits, but not sure about the roof. I'm planning on buying a small compressor set up though, as I do find it hard work trying to get coverage with the cans I use. I've bought the cans from two different places. 'Carmeleon' in Keighley, and 'Paints and Lacquers' in Halifax. The Halifax option is the one I use now as the cans are a lot more reasonably priced.

 

Hope all this helps. Daz

Attached Files

•  instasize_260114122651.jpg   18.16K   11 downloads
•  instasize_260114122634.jpg   26.06K   12 downloads
•  instasize_260114123712.jpg   17.47K   11 downloads
•  instasize_260114125844.jpg   21.07K   11 downloads

[Shooter63]

Hi NuFab. I've rattled canned a few bits on our car. The full boot, under the bonnet and the outside of the bonnet. Plus a couple of other bits. You can as mentioned get a pretty decent finish, if you can finish the paint properly after it's dried. The results I've had have been average until you do the polishing work after. I've attached a couple of pictures to show the results. The under bonnet is as it came out of the can as the extra polishing work wasn't worth the effort. The outer bonnet picture has had a further rubbing with compound since this picture to remove some fine swirls. I'd say the bonnet for one side was 2 cans of colour and 1.5 cans of lacquer. Obviously there were primers etc but I can't remember how much I used. I've only worked with the colour/lacquer system so I'm not sure how easy it is to do with a straight finish colour (with no lacquer). 

 

One thing I will say, and hopefully someone has a solution to this problem, the rattle cans for me don't offer much resistance to anything solvent you may wipe your car with. Say for instance you wanted to clean an area with an Isopropanol wipe, to apply a decal etc., it will damage the surface. Maybe it hardens up further as more time passes. I'm not sure yet, we'll have to see. 

 

Just added a picture of the A panel. As this was a small panel it was easy to get a good finish. This meant no compounding afterwards. 

 

I reckon I could do the whole car in bits, but not sure about the roof. I'm planning on buying a small compressor set up though, as I do find it hard work trying to get coverage with the cans I use. I've bought the cans from two different places. 'Carmeleon' in Keighley, and 'Paints and Lacquers' in Halifax. The Halifax option is the one I use now as the cans are a lot more reasonably priced.

 

Hope all this helps. Daz

 

If you can get a finish like that with rattle cans you might want to take up car painting for a living, you'll never be out of work, I've seen so called concours with paint finish well below that.

 

Shooter

[Rubbershorts]

Hi NuFab. I've rattled canned a few bits on our car. The full boot, under the bonnet and the outside of the bonnet. Plus a couple of other bits. You can as mentioned get a pretty decent finish, if you can finish the paint properly after it's dried. The results I've had have been average until you do the polishing work after. I've attached a couple of pictures to show the results. The under bonnet is as it came out of the can as the extra polishing work wasn't worth the effort. The outer bonnet picture has had a further rubbing with compound since this picture to remove some fine swirls. I'd say the bonnet for one side was 2 cans of colour and 1.5 cans of lacquer. Obviously there were primers etc but I can't remember how much I used. I've only worked with the colour/lacquer system so I'm not sure how easy it is to do with a straight finish colour (with no lacquer).

One thing I will say, and hopefully someone has a solution to this problem, the rattle cans for me don't offer much resistance to anything solvent you may wipe your car with. Say for instance you wanted to clean an area with an Isopropanol wipe, to apply a decal etc., it will damage the surface. Maybe it hardens up further as more time passes. I'm not sure yet, we'll have to see.

Just added a picture of the A panel. As this was a small panel it was easy to get a good finish. This meant no compounding afterwards.

I reckon I could do the whole car in bits, but not sure about the roof. I'm planning on buying a small compressor set up though, as I do find it hard work trying to get coverage with the cans I use. I've bought the cans from two different places. 'Carmeleon' in Keighley, and 'Paints and Lacquers' in Halifax. The Halifax option is the one I use now as the cans are a lot more reasonably priced.

Hope all this helps. Daz

If you can get a finish like that with rattle cans you might want to take up car painting for a living, you'll never be out of work, I've seen so called concours with paint finish well below that.

Shooter

Ah nice, cheers Shooter. The images are pretty small, so difficult to see fully, but from what I've learned and done so far they aren't too shabby.

Edited by Rubbershorts, 15 January 2026 - 06:44 AM.