1960 MGA Restoration

[Luv2Wrench]

3 hours ago, hursst said:

Thanks Jeff, I will use your technique.  I'll have to buy even more lint free towels, then, I probably don't have enough for the whole car at this point.

"lint", that reminds me, you need tack rags.  You'll be shocked how much those will pick up after you think the surface is clean.  Light touch with the tack rags and get 3M if you can find them.  Very light touch because if you press down you can get a bit of the sticky stuff on the surface. 

Another thing I remembered is that you can do a pass with no paint.  This does two things.  First it lets you see how you'll need to hold the gun to get in various areas, how far you can reach, etc, etc.  Second the air from the gun will blow dust/trash off the surfaces.

 

The most important thing to remember is that you've shot a ton of primer and the base/clear should actually go down easier so relax.    Plus, any mistakes you make can be corrected.

 

[hursst]

Jeff, yes, I have a box of tack rags ready to go.

 

I'll consider the dry spray technique as well.  Will definitely do a logistical dry run or two to make sure of easy access to everything.  Thanks.

[hursst]

I'm pretty happy with the test fender and I want to move along.  Set everything up loosely in the garage today.  Going to clean my parts tomorrow with the proper materials, do a test run, and get everything into place.  Sun AM (the best weather of the week) I will attempt to paint the brackets that won't be seen/don't matter that much, as well as the back side of the front valance panel.  These pieces I can mess up in every bad way possible and it doesn't really matter, so this will be a test and actual run at the same time.  I will also apply clear coat to the inner fender brackets, since they can be seen if you look in the fender well., as just the base paint is very flat and won't look right.  We'll see how it works out...

[Laughing Coyote]

Take your time and don't rush. Do nice smooth passes with the gun and don't move it to fast. You will know when the paint starts to go down nice. Try and keep the same distance from the pieces through out the painting and clearing process. Not to close or to far away. Good luck, I'm sure you will get the method down and it will come out nice. It's easy to get excited when it's paint time.

 

[hursst]

Got my first round of painting complete (mostly) early this morning.  I did 3 coats (Photos 1 & 2).  Everything appeared to go on great, with one exception.  A few lessons learned 1) I've been hanging these small pieces from the garage door tracks.  I cleaned the tops of them, but did not clean the springs.  I came in contact with the springs when moving the parts around, so I got a little grit on the horizontal portion of the panels in the middle of Photo 1.  No problem, as I can denib it and it won't be seen anyway.  2) My spray pattern worked well and the paint looks good (to me), except on one of the inner fender pieces, where I created some heavy runs (Photo 3).  I guess I sprayed too slowly on this one, but curiously, I only had two small runs in the other piece.  I guess my technique isn't quite there yet.  I will say, I did have some minor problems spraying these parts as they are so light.  If you just spray them while hanging, they will swing around due to the air pressure, so I had to hold them by the attaching wire and do the best I could in keeping the part steady.  I'll have to use a razor blade, cut down the runs, maybe sand, and respray that one part.

 

I painted from about 6:45am to 7:30am, temperature was 77 degrees, humidity about 69%.  It's now 78 degrees and 70% humidity.  It rained last night, so humidity is high and temp will be about 93 outside today.  The temp inside the garage will not go above 80 during the day and the highest humidity I've measured over the last week is about 72%.  I used high-temp basemaker with the base paint, which is rated at 80 degrees.  Also, I sprayed at about 27psi at the sprayer.

 

My next task will be to clearcoat the parts that look good.  Due to the temp and humidity, I wanted to ask the group how I should handle that.  Should I spray clear around 10am, which should be the recommended time to clear (2 hours after paint), or should I hold out until maybe 7 or 8pm tonight where it should be an environment similar to 7am was.  That will be about 11-12 hours from paint to clear coat.  Is that too long?  Any other advice or tips about when to spray clear, my psi, and preventing runs, etc?  Overall, pretty happy with my work, especially since these parts don't matter that much and I've never painted a car before.  I'll still be able to get plenty of practice painting my inner fenders and insides of the body, other areas that won't be seen, before I tackle the outside panels.

[hursst]

Ok, I attacked the runs with a razor blade and that worked perfectly; no sanding needed.  I was able to get a hold of a local friend who is highly experienced in this work to get his advice on clear coat.  He said best to spray it now, considering the temperature has stayed relatively low and it's best to spray sooner than later in order to get a good chemical bond.  So, went back out and sprayed clear on everything.  I originally was thinking about skipping the clear on the parts that won't be seen, but it looks so flat when not cleared, the clear should add some additional layers of protection, and its low cost and low level of effort, so I think I will just clear most of the car.

 

Some additional lessons learned, I realized that since I have the garage door up about 1 foot for the filters, there is now a gap at the top of the garage door where the top row of the door curves into the track at the ceiling.  This is letting some bugs in, so will need to plug that area next time with a big comforter, tarp, or something, as I noticed no bugs when I started early this morning, but I had a few bugs by 10:30am.  Had a few bugs or maybe contaminants that ended up on one of the pieces, so I'll have to see what it is and what happened after everything dries.

 

At first glance, everything looks great, but we'll see when it dries and I can get it out in the sunlight.  Here are the panels I painted (Photo 1 & 2); should be a difference between this photo and the non-clear coat photos in the previous post.  Last, here's a photo of the section that had the bad runs, after the razor blade treatment, more paint, and clear coat (Photo 3).  If you look very closely, you can see some minor blemishes, but since this is part of the inner fender splash guard, you won't see any problem from just looking at the car.  Very pleased so far, I hope the rest of the paint work goes as well.

[MjSieler]

Awesome progress. Thanks as always for sharing. 

[STEVE POLLARD]

Looking great !!

[keiser31]

SWEEEEEEET!

[Luv2Wrench]

Great job Chris, looking good!

 

The small light parts are a pain.   I did what you did in adding "tails" to the parts so I could hold them while spraying.  Later on I started tying the tails to the floor.

I had issues with the gaps around the garage door as well.  I was running positive pressure ventilation so it kept bugs and stuff out but it would end up sucking the paint back through the shop and back into the fan!   You'll learn what to block off, not that big a deal.

 

 

[hursst]

Went out to do forensics on my paint work today.  Overall, it looks pretty good.  I was a little light on the clear coat in some areas, so I'll have to work on that.  I did have some type of contaminant in the clear coat on the corner of one of the brackets.  Small grey dots, almost looks like grease.  I remember seeing them appear as I was spraying, so it was something in the gun, not from outside.  Maybe it came from my paint stirrer, something that dropped in while I was putting the lid on the sprayer, not sure.  Again, it won't be seen, so not going to worry about it, but good lessons learned.

 

Want to keep the momentum going, so next, I plan on spraying the inside of the two rear fenders and I'm going to take a little risk and do the battery box cover and the gauge cluster, two areas that will be seen (Photos 1 & 2).  I can always slow down, make repairs, and respray if I get into trouble, but these are small pieces that I think I can tackle.  I need to do some more light sanding on the battery box cover, it's not quite good enough, and I need to do some spot primer and more sanding on the gauge cluster, as it's tough to sand well with all the nooks and crannies, without sanding thru in a few areas.  Hope to be able to paint all these parts sometime in the next 3 days.

 

I'm going to place all screws and bolts into any threaded areas to keep them from getting gummed up with paint, but I will paint the numerous large fender fasteners separately, without clear coat, then use them again to thread into the body holes when it comes time to paint the outer front body structure.

[Laughing Coyote]

Make sure you wipe all your parts down with a degreaser and a clean lint free rag. The dots were more than likely from some oily residue left on the part. If it was in the paint when mixing it would be all over your parts. Nice even strokes, Not to slow and close or you will get runs, not to fast or you will get thin coverage and a grainy appearance. Take your time, you'll get it. 

 

Fish eyes are a type of coating defect which is characterized by circular voids or separation in the coating. Fish eyes are small, crater-like openings in the finish after it has been applied. They are usually caused by oil and grease on a coating substrate.

[hursst]

Thanks for the tips.  I am using some quality Eastwood degreaser, then wiping it off with a lint free towel, then running over it with a tack rag before I painted anything.  The defects are not in the paint, they were not there after I painted.  They only appeared when I sprayed the clearcoat.  I've attached a photo, which isn't that great, but you can see the little black smudges.  These are definitely not fisheyes.  Somehow, I avoided fisheyes completely on any of the panels.  Pretty sure I saw something coming out of the gun while I was spraying.  This did not happen on any of the other panels I painted.  Either way, I'm not concerned with this piece, as it won't be noticed.  I will do a more thorough job of cleaning and flushing my paint gun, paint cup, and lid to hopefully avoid whatever this was again.

[Luv2Wrench]

If you plan to wet sand and buff later, make sure you get plenty of clear on there.  I think I did 4 coats and in the future will do 6 (2 a day, spaced out by a day out in the sun).  Pay particular attention to edges as they're easy to miss.  I usually shoot the difficult parts first and then the rest of the part.

[hursst]

I will not be wet sanding or buffing the parts I just did, only the parts that will easily be seen; mostly the outer body structure.  Thanks for the tip, I think I may go to 6 coats of clear, then, as I could easily see myself sanding thru 2-3 coats.  Yes, I try to load up on painting/clearing the nooks and crannies first, or "cutting in" as some folks say.  I'll make a conscious effort to make sure I hit all edges pretty well.

 

Quick update, I sanded the battery cover and gauge cluster today.  It looks like I forgot to sand the battery cover entirely before, so I knocked it all down with 400 grit.  The gauge cluster is close now, but needs a lot of very small primer touch up.  I also have some heavy scratches from all the fitment tests I did on one of the inner fenders that I will have to sand and touch up with primer before I paint, but should be able to have everything ready in a day or two.

[hursst]

Trying to keep the momentum going now, starting to get to the fun part where I can start putting parts back on again (apart from the chassis work I already did).  Today I sanded all the parts again, they all need a lot more work than I first thought.  I focused on the gauge cluster, as that is the most difficult one to sand (Photo 1).  The reverse of the gauge cluster should be semi-glass back, as all body parts were shipped from the stamper in a semi-glass paint/primer (the manufacturer's (Pressed Steel Company) version of body in white).  Sanding the reverse of that panel is very difficult and had to be done with a small piece of sandpaper by hand, going all around the many nooks and crannies.  Got it finished, taped off the front part as not to get overspray on the nicely sanded front portion (Photo 2), and applied some Eastwood semi-gloss black chassis paint, which should be a decent match to the original paint (Photo 3).  Pretty easy since it can't be seen and I didn't bother going thru the massive prep that I would do with the other parts that need more protection from the elements.  I did the same thing to the battery box cover quite a while ago, but it now has a lot of overspray and residue on it, so I'll sand it a little and quickly hit it again to make it perfect.

 

Now I can start some side projects gain; first one will be applying the rubber dust shields to the inner fender brackets that I just finished painting.

[MjSieler]

For those difficult to sand parts could you use a scotch scratch pad? I saw this done on a Paint Society YouTube video for a complex-shaped front bumper. It looked like it conformed well to the various curves.

[MjSieler]

It’s a bit late for your situation but I painted my dash’s back side white to make it easier to see the various gauges and wire connections once its installed.

[hursst]

-Not sure what the grit would be with a scotch pad and what kind of contaminants could be on it. I guess it could work, but without knowing the grit, it may produce too coarse a sanding, or not coarse enough.

 

-As far as the back of the gauge cluster, white would make sense, but I always defer to original as possible when I can.  Nothing that a good flashlight, head band light, or shop light won't be able to solve.

 

Didn't do any sanding or other prep today, was a little busy with other things, but did find some time to put the rubber splash guards on the two front inner fender splash panels, now that they are painted (Photo 1).  I would have thought it would be easy, but it was not.  Had to go thru all my tools to find the right combination of things that would work in order to be able to fold over the two sections of the fasteners that protrude from the back.  Took a good 45 minutes to get the first one done as I experimented.  Ended up with these tools and wood blocks to back the fastener from the other side (Photo 2).  I think I got some tennis elbow and carpel tunnel trying to keep everything lined up on the blocks while using 4 different tools to fold over the sections.  After the first two, I found a good method and rhythm and the others went much faster, but still took a lot of effort.  Here's the finished effort (Photo 3).  I still have the two rear ones to do, which are smaller, but I quickly realized that with my shoddy welding work, I had to fill in one of the holes and forgot to drill it back out.  One the other one, I drilled a hole that is too small for the fastener, so had to stop for today.  Easy problems to correct, so will try to get the holes drilled tomorrow and probably switch back to prepping the inner parts of the fenders to get ready for more paint.

 

It hit me this week that I may actually be able to finish this car in a reasonable amount of time from now, so I think I will plan on having this car finished for Fall Hershey 2024 and shoot for a First Junior.  That will make it an 8 year project, which is one year shorter than my last restoration.  

[Axial_Flow]

15 hours ago, hursst said:

-Not sure what the grit would be with a scotch pad and what kind of contaminants could be on it. I guess it could work, but without knowing the grit, it may produce too coarse a sanding, or not coarse enough.

 

 

Some information about Scotch-Brite pads vs grit:

SCOTCHBRITE GRIT CHART

7445 - White pad, called Light Duty Cleansing - (1000)

7448 - Light Grey, called Ultra Fine Hand - (600-800)

6448 - Green, called Light Duty Hand Pad - (600)

7447 - Maroon pad, called General Purpose Hand - (320-400) Most common type

6444 - Brown pad, called Extra Duty Hand - (280-320)

7446 - Dark Grey pad, called Blending Pad (180-220)

7440 - Tan pad, called Heavy Duty Hand Pad - (120-150)

[hursst]

I had numerous folks on the MGA forums tell me that the back of the gauge cluster was always a darker brown (primer) from the factory, not black, but then the guy who said black was correct showed a photo of an original that was black, so who knows?  The "brown" replies outnumbered the "black" replies by 5:1, plus on the BarneyGuru site, it says brown, so I decided to change to brown (Photo 1).  No extra work as I hadn't removed the tape from when I painted it black.

 

I cleaned and taped up the outside of the other rear fender, but I still have to sand the inner portion of that fender with some 400 grit before it's ready for paint.

 

Next, I removed most of the body fasteners from the rear fenders and pressed them into a box (Photo 2).  I'll first clean them with prep, then loosely install them in the body of the car to fill up the threaded portion where the fenders will attach to the body.  I'll paint the fasteners along with the body when that time comes.

 

Last, I finished drilling those two holes I needed for the rear fender splash guards, touched up the paint a little, then installed the other rubber splash shields (Photo 3).

 

I still need to clean up the back of the battery cover, probably with a quick 400 grit sanding to level it out, then hit it with some more semi-gloss black before I paint the front.  I will attempt to have both rear fenders, the gauge cluster, and battery cover ready for paint for early Sunday AM.

[Luv2Wrench]

Looking great Chris!

 

What you have there is what I call "Finished Parts".  I love finished parts.  I love saying "finished parts".   There's just something about getting a piece of the puzzle completely done to where all that is left it bolting to another piece.

 

I love the Scotch-Brite pads.  Surprisingly enough, Home Depot carries them.  I'm sure Lowes does as well.  You can order them on Amazon in bulk as well.  I keep mine in ZipLoc bags so that they don't trap contaminants while hanging out on the shelf. 

[Laughing Coyote]

5 hours ago, Luv2Wrench said:

 I love finished parts

And the other plus is you don't get dirty putting them back on like you did when you took them off.

[hursst]

Thought I would be busy with other things today until about 1:30pm, but that changed, and I was free after 9:30am, so decided to hit the MGA hard today.  Finished all the sanding, some touch-ups, more sanding, a lot of cleaning, and some masking off.  I then re-painted the battery cover reverse semi-gloss black to clean up a lot of mess and overspray from previous work (Photo 1). 

 

Next, I decided to go right into painting today instead of tomorrow.  Spent a lot of time cleaning and prepping and got this round of parts ready.  The painting started out great, but ran into a big problem about 3/4 thru the job.  My sprayer started spraying out chunks of garbage consistently, along with paint.  I stopped the work and cleaned up and took apart my paint gun.  Here's what I found inside the reservoir and gun (Photo 2).  I believe that there was still some dried paint left on the reservoir lid that loosened up and became weaponized when I tilted the gun to get up and under the inside fender.  Had to use some needle noise pliers to reach the garbage, like playing "Operation," then I disassembled the gun to clean it all out.  I then thoroughly cleaned the lid of all paint.  Again, I'm glad I planned to start with parts of lesser importance, as I have room to make these stupid mistakes and it's not a big deal.  A lot of it was on the front of the battery cover, so I used the razor blade technique again, once the paint flashed.   Hit it with more paint after words.  Worked perfectly, you can't even tell where the garbage landed.

 

The paint went on extremely well, no runs, fisheyes, not problems from then on.  I'm amazed at the quality of this paint, it looks great, it flows beautifully, and it seems to have a mind of its own and finds its way to a nice, even surface (Photo 3-5).  Still not worth $1,200, though!  I'm also very happy that my painting skills and techniques seem to be working very well.  I was worried I would really mess things up, but I'm just barely messing things up, so very pleased.

 

On to the clear coat.  Same thing with the clear, perfect flow, self-leveling, it turned out much better than I expected with that aspect, but I did run into some problems where I ended up with about 6 spots that are either small fisheyes or possibly dust or grit.  Luckily, they are very small in diameter.  You could see them in the reflection after I laid down the clear.  I will have to wait until it cures and get it out in the sunlight to see what's going on.  These parts matter more, especially the gauge cluster, so I'll have to see what the problem is, then either try to razor blade the garbage out, or sand a little and try to respray some, if it is fisheyes.  Of course, at this point, I noticed that I had forgotten to address the upper garage door gap that is created when I raise it about a foot to put the filter frame under the door.  I suspect I am dealing with more dust and grit because of this error, so that may have been the cause.  Another lesson learned.

 

Next will be painting the taillight escutcheons and the front inner fenders, so I'll still have room for screw ups and errors if I'm still making them.

[MjSieler]

Despite your challenges, that’s some nice work.

[MjSieler]

Should have thought of this when I first saw that chunk of goo in your gun. Are you filtering your mixed paint into the gun’s pot? These are very inexpensive filters and would/should have caught that and other unwanted debris.

 

Edited July 22, 2023 by MjSieler
Forgot picture (see edit history)

[hursst]

Yes, I'm using the same exact filters, which tells me it had to have come from the reservoir lid.  After I thoroughly cleaned the lid of all residue, I did not have the problem again.  It had to be old dried paint that was reanimated and fell down into the paint reservoir.  I appreciate the tip, as there is always something I could forget about!

[hursst]

Got the battery cover and gauge cluster out in the sunlight today to get a good look, now that they have dried.  I found about 10 dirt/dust/artifacts in the battery cover and about 6 on the gauge cluster, so I'll have to do a better job with cleaning and sealing my "paint booth."  Luckily, this was all small time stuff, no fish eyes and they aren't really visible to the eye, unless you really look.  I took a razor blade to them and got them more smooth and flush and I may touch one up a little, but they are actually so small, you need a magnifying glass to make them out, so I'm not that worried about it.  I don't think anyone else would notice unless I pointed them out and you ran your fingers over it.

 

On the positive side, the paint and clear turned out amazingly well.  I'm actually in disbelief.  The clear coat flowed and settled so well that it will need zero wet sanding and buffing.  I didn't even know that was possible.  Zero orange peel; the surface is like glass.  The photos don't do it justice, but here is the battery cover (Photo 1) and gauge cluster (Photo 2) out in the sun.  Photo 3 is a "before" photo of the gauge cluster when I started; quite a difference.  I took the liberty of starting to add the some of the finished pieces back into the cluster such as the tach, speedometer, horn button, ignition lock and key, and dummy radio speaker grille.  I forgot to paint the radio blanking plate that goes to the right, and I'm missing a gasket for the map light at far right, so those will have to wait.  Need to clean up some brackets for the other gauges and add some of the knobs and I can get about 80% of it finished.  The other pieces are knobs with attached cabling that must be installed after the gauge cluster is installed in the car.

 

For now, I'm going to store these pieces and bring down the next round of pieces to get them ready for the next round of paint.  Going on vacation soon, so might not get to them for a week or two.

 

 

 

Edited July 23, 2023 by hursst (see edit history)

[hursst]

Have been working on the gauge cluster here and there and started on prepping the two front fenders.

 

On the cluster, I was able to install the two other gauges, the map light switch and bulb, and I was able to create and install the upper gauge cluster piping that will mate up with the upper cowl body trim.  I was going to try to use the original piece, but I could not get it clean enough and white enough, with 60+ years of age behind it, so I replaced the vinyl fabric with a new piece that will go well with the other trim pieces (Photo 1).  Here's the gauge cluster so far with the new trim in place and the other additions (Photo 2).

 

On to the front fenders.  Unfortunately, I found a stress crack in my poor welding at the lower rear flange of the fender.  It must have happened during the last round of test fitting (Photo 3).  I'll have to grind it out and put in some better welding, then finish it up again before painting.  This will set me back a little while, as it will take a little time to get it back to where the fender will be ready for paint again.  Probably no work will be done for at least two weeks while I'm on vacation.

[hursst]

Back home now after two weeks on the road and doing lots of other car repairs on my other cars.

 

Was able to apply paint and clear today to the front inner fenders (Photo 1), the rocker panel trim pieces (Photo 2), the taillight plinths (Photo 3), and the radio delete plate (in the middle of Photo 1) that I forgot to paint last time.  Had a lot of very small problems, but came out okay in the end.  Still getting some unwanted grit and dust here are there, but I think that will come out during wet sanding (when I'm doing the parts that really matter on the exterior).  Unless I have a $100,000 paint booth, I guess I'm bound to have a few minor issues with this.  I had some problems on one of the plinths.  It needed some extra sanding, then it needed more primer, then I accidently bumped it while it was wet, so had to paint one side of it about 5 times to get it right, but I'm still not sure until I get it dried and out in the sun.  May end up having to do it over again.  As the front fenders are quite large, I had some space issues and found myself bumping, grazing, and rubbing some of the parts with the hose or myself, even though I was trying to avoid it (I guess I didn't try hard enough).  All problems were minor and easily corrected, except the plinth.

 

Next, I'll be moving on to the inner portions of the doors, the outer door pilar pieces, and maybe the inner part of the trunk lid, if I can get everything to fit in the garage properly.  I'm really going to try to make a push to get this whole think painted before Oct 1, to try to avoid the colder weather, but it's been tough to find more time to work on it, due to many, many other car and home projects that have unexpectedly popped up, or are higher priority than the MG.

[hursst]

Baby steps today, got the radio delete plate inspected and installed in the dash (Photos 1 & 2).  Turned out fairly nice.  Will work on inspecting the rest of the parts and getting them back into storage so I can start with the next round shortly.

[hursst]

Did a thorough review of my last round of painting and found some issues I'm trying to correct.  First, I painted my taillight plinths on hangers, which didn't work well because 1) I think I kicked up some dust from putting them on/taking them off the garage door hanger rails, which caused some dust to float thru the air and 2) by painting them while holding the hanger, I did not get enough paint on one of them, which I discovered once I got it out into the sunlight.  I've since sanded about half of it down and will attempt to repaint the poorly-covered area, then clear coat again.  Lesson learned, no hangers, only horizontal surfaces from now on, where applicable.  This will also lessen the chances for runs, which I've luckily had almost none so far.

 

I also am still seeing a small amount of contaminants in my paint after the fact.  I think this is due to 1) Not cleaning the garage door hardware properly (I thoroughly cleaned them this morning) and 2) I think that since my parts have been in waiting in primer so long that a lot of dust and residue has built up on them which is not all coming off when I wipe them down with solution and tack rag.  I think there are still some minute dust fragments on the parts before I start painting.  I think I'll have to hit the parts with a very light sanding to loosen up some of the junk, then wipe, then tack, then feel each piece by hand with no gloves to ensure a smooth, uncontaminated surface, then wipe and tack again with gloves on to remove any oils, and I think I'll have more success.  Luckily, there are no fish eyes, no adhesion problems, and no large chunks, it only appears to be very, very fine, circular particles that appear to have been on the surface before painting, so no damage done yet, since I've been working on largely unimportant surfaces. Very happy I've focused on unseen areas so I can get all my mistakes finished (I hope!) on pieces that won't be seen.  I will eventually end up wet sanding the plinths as they have some slight orange peel and some small contaminants, which I should be able to de-nib off and sand/buff to a good final product.

 

Today, I've prepped the inner doors, trunk lid, and door pilar panels and may attempt to paint them early tomorrow AM.  It's 90 degrees and high humidity right now, so no way I can try today.

[Laughing Coyote]

Your making good progress. Dust, lint, and dirt always finds away into your paint. You just have to minimize it the best you can. You have to keep your painting room clean like an operating room. It's a pain to keep up on it, but that just helps you in your final shoot. Keep at it your doing a good job.

[hursst]

Was able to complete another round of painting this morning.  Got the inner doors, inside of the trunk lid, two door post panels, and I repainted the one taillight plinth I had messed up earlier (Photos 1-3).  Tried to do some extra cleaning, but still got about the same amount of particulates in the paint.  I will say that they are quite small and not a huge deal.  I should be able to clean most of them up with some de-nibbing.  I think that my garage is just permanently dusty due to years and years of fine sanding.  I think my strategy will be to do 3 or maybe 4 coats of clear on the exterior panels so I can de-nib and sand out all these particulates. Overall, pretty happy, the paint looks really good overall.

[Luv2Wrench]

Paint looks great and it looks like you're getting that hang of it, congrats!

 

Time for a thousand questions, lol.

 

Is the fan blowing air into the booth or pulling it out?  Are you running the fan after you spray?  Can you post a close-up of the particulate in the paint?   It looks like you've wet the floor, have you tried putting plastic down on it?   Are you wearing a Tyvek paint suit?   One of the things I read was that once you have a nice clean both the remained of the junk in the paint comes off you!

 

I had issues with the garage door opening but they were a bit different. I chose to go with a positive pressure paint booth (fan blowing in) because I had read that a negative pressure booth needs to be sealed perfectly or it will pull air (and possibly junk) into the booth.  Any leaks in a positive pressure booth will go out of the booth which keeps stuff out of the booth.  The downside to that is, of course, you can get overspray outside of the booth in your shop. 

[hursst]

Jeff,

    I have the fan pushing air out with HVAC filters filtering the air coming in from under the lifted-up garage door (by about 1 foot).  I've sealed the gaps in the garage door and back window the best I could, but there will still be some small gaps.  I am wetting the floor, but am not putting plastic on the floor, logistically and safety-wise, that won't work.  I am wearing a high-quality paint suit.

 

  I may be pulling in some junk from my negative air system, but I think a + air system might not work for me, as I have lots of other stuff in the other garage bay that can't be over-sprayed.  I am also not set up for a + flow system, as I'd have to devise a new filter system and try to figure an exhaust system to go with it, which won't be that easy as I only have a garage door in front and one back window to deal with.  I think I'll have to do another thorough cleaning job, do some detailed cleaning on my equipment and maybe do an even better job of sealing the garage from outside air leaks before I start on the really important parts.  I think I'll just have to do the best I can and live with it.  I hope with some de-nibbing, proper wet sanding and polishing, I can get most of the problems out.  I think I may just be happy to get a paintjob that is 80% as good as a pro job for $1,300 by doing it myself, versus $12,000 or so to pay a professional.  Thanks, as I always, for being willing to assist me on my first paint job.

[JV Puleo]

You are doing a really fantastic job. I had an MGA in the 70s ... purchased because the man I worked with (a really talented mechanic) saw it and said it was the best one he'd seen in years. It had a crumpled front fender which is why it was in a scrap yard. I assure you that it didn't look anywhere near as nice as yours...and I suspect never did, even when new.

[hursst]

Today, I reviewed my last work.  I messed up one of the door pilar pieces by dropping it and broke one of my bad welds where there is really thin metal, so I will have to reweld this area for a 3rd time, clean, sand, primer, and paint again in the near future.  Everything else turned out fairly well; the particulates in my paint seem a little less and quite small, so I can work with them.  I think my plan for the outer panels and body will be to spray four coats of clear, two first, let dry over 1-2 days, de-nib, then do another two coats, de-nib again.  That should give me enough material where the two clear coats over the first two de-nibbed clear coats should fill in any imperfections after de-nibbing, and wet sanding the final clear to make it properly shiny should eliminate particulates in the outer two layers.  I'm also going to continue trying to clean more thoroughly as I go and hope to minimize this issue, but I see no way to eliminate it, as I cannot get my sloppy garage clean enough for a perfect paint job.

 

Next round, which should be Friday AM, I'm going to paint the inner hood and the hood release and trunk release rods, which are both body color.  After that, that's it for the ancillary body pieces.  I'll then move on to painting the mostly unseen portions of the body such as all 4 inner fender areas, the engine bay, under the body, and the trunk.

 

Going thru all of this, I've been inspecting the outside areas of all these panels that will be the most visible on the car, and a lot of them will need more work, like more primer, I found a crack on the primer/filler on a fender, and some of the sanding is not quite good enough, so this will be more work to make it right before painting.  

[hursst]

1 minute ago, JV Puleo said:

You are doing a really fantastic job. I had an MGA in the 70s ... purchased because the man I worked with (a really talented mechanic) saw it and said it was the best one he'd seen in years. It had a crumpled front fender which is why it was in a scrap yard. I assure you that it didn't look anywhere near as nice as yours...and I suspect never did, even when new.

Thanks JV, I appreciate it coming from someone whose work is of your caliber.  I guess the owner or restorer will always be the harshest critic. 

 

I was once at a car cruise in when I guy came in with a '58 Impala that was easily a 390 out of 400 point car.  Some of the flaws were maybe a mm with of black trim paint missing in one of the trim spears, a small scuff in the window trim that you could really only see with a magnifying glass, and a slight amount of road film at the bottom.  The owner called it a piece of junk and that he's going to have to fully restore it.  Maybe he was pulling our leg, but he seemed very serious.  

[hursst]

Was able to spray the rest of the ancillary parts today.  Sprayed the inside of the hood (Photo 1), the hood and trunk latches (Photo 2), and the trunk latch retainer clip.  The inside of the hood was challenging, as there is a wooden block with a horsehair pad on it, tucked under the very front, as well as many raised support pieces that have lots of grime under them and are impossible to reach, unless I wanted to take the next three years with a dental mirror trying to see under there to clean them.  There were a lot of small pieces of horsehair finding their way around the hood.  I did the best I could with it, but there will be a lot of de-nibbing.  Still turned out okay overall.

 

Next step will be to roll the body out and thoroughly blow it with compressed air, as the body is nothing but nooks and crannies.  I'll have to do a good inspection, as there may be a few areas that need some more primer or touch up before paint.  

Edited August 18, 2023 by hursst (see edit history)