Turned out nice again
Once I began my ‘localised paint repair’ to the Scimitar’s offside front corner I realised the job would spread like a disease, first becoming a front-end respray and then taking in everything south of the glass down both sides as well. My limitations as a painter were a worry; partly because of limited experience, partly because of sub-standard equipment and partly because of missing genes – I just do not have the almost obsessive-compulsive character of the best painters.
However, I think I got away with it. With plenty of high-build primer and some really careful use of the right grades on my 6in Mirka sanding block – my new best friend – I started to reach a state of contentment with the car’s many long, curved surfaces. Yes – even the bit that I mentioned last time, where the spiral air-hose jumped off the gun and marked the still-wet primer on the front wing.
A simple but repetitive case of sand, re-prime, sand, re-prime…
Preparing for the application of the top coat was surprisingly nerve-wracking. I hoovered my dusty garage, began draping everything in polythene sheets and masked the car with surgical patience. A good tip from my pal Stephen, who also loaned a better spray gun than I was using for the primer, was to feed electrical cable under the rubber seals where I had to paint to the edge of the panel, for instance at the bottom of the windscreen. With the seals’ edges raised a few millimetres and masked with tape, paint could blow in underneath, avoiding an unsightly line.
Next, I rigged up a bank of arc lights to fight my garage’s natural stygian gloom. Seeing how much paint is landing is vital if disaster is to be avoided. I turned on the air-fed mask, mixed the paint and hardener, added a splash of two-pack thinners and began. Dust coat first to give the next coat some grip, and all was well. Time for some real painting. And almost immediately, disaster struck.
My powerful little compressor had painted panels before, but never three quarters of a car in one go. It overheated, stopped and declined to restart, with a large area still uncovered. I had a second compressor running the mask and had to attach the gun to that one as well, but it wasn’t man enough to get the paint atomised. Just as I was about to cry, the main compressor came back to life. I had to adopt a new technique – three long passes, then rest for 30 seconds, then another three passes, and so on, round the car. And again for a second coat.
There were a few little runs and sags, but overall it worked. The paint melted into a shiny if orange-peely finish and hardened off. I removed the runs with a nifty little file, and wet-flatted the area around each one with 1000-grit paper. But then a holiday weekend arrived, so I put the car back together (sans badges) and drove it to Northumberland in the sun. It’ll get an all-over wet-flatting, mop and polish, but from a few yards away it already looks better than I’ve ever seen it look.
Worth the effort? I think so.