BODYWORK RESTORATION PART 6

Having spent the past five months learning about making effective metalwork repairs, we’re rounding this short series off with a look at the part which is arguably noticed most – preparation for, and application of, paint. Clearly, I cannot tell you how to prepare and paint a car in one five-page feature because covering every aspect would take a book, or at the very least a full series in its own right. This is also an area where incomplete or over-brief advice could do more harm than good. I’m therefore not going to attempt to do that. Rather, I hope to give a bit of basic advice, and pass on a few hints and tips which I have picked up over the 35+ years that I’ve spent writing about classic car restoration.

PREPARATION IS KEY

First and foremost, I cannot emphasise enough that proper preparation prior to painting is absolutely vital. It’s easy to imagine, as you spray on a coat of paint, that it will somehow cover or hide all those bits which aren’t quite right. Believe me, it won’t. In fact, if anything it will make the blemishes stand out even more.

The surface to which you are applying the paint doesn’t just have to be totally and perfectly smooth, it also has to be solid. Going over existing paint is fine, provided that paint isn’t hiding issues which might cause adhesion problems or rust breakthrough. Enough of the original paint also needs to remain for it to be possible to smooth it off to a solid, even surface; an area that’s covered in defects that reach all the way down to the