Bodywork Basics

Achieve a better-than-new finish in your shed without expensive equipment

Respray your classic without the need for expensive equipment.

Painting is the part of a restoration that’s most likely to be farmed out to a professional. There’s a good reason for this. That top thousandth of an inch of paint is the veneer by which your car will be forever judged. DIY skeptics will tell you that it’s hard work, it’s expensive if you cock it up, it calls for specialist equipment and it’ll expose you to lung-withering substances. They’re only right about the first two.

Safely achieving a glassy and long-lasting paint finish is well within the scope of the home mechanic. Spraying is a learnt skill honed through practice – not something you’re born with. Once you’ve mastered the basics, it’s the same for all types of paint.

We’ve covered filling, preparation and masking in depth in the last four issues of

Practical Classics. It’s a boring cliché but nonetheless a fundamental truth: achieving perfect paintwork is all in the preparation.

The difference between backstreet blow-over and concourse-winning beauty is down to the work put in before the final gloss. That means spending time making sound the infrastructure, then using fillers and filler primer to achieve a perfect surface. Only once the primed surface looks as good as the final finish should you unleash the topcoat.

Preparation is down to hard graft and uncompromising standards. Painting is down the technique and practice. Bodywork expert Chris Spencer of Flat Cap Classic Cars (flatcapclassiccars.co.uk) shows us how it’s done.