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Putting lipstick on my pig

Started by alabbasi, 21 November 2007, 02:18 AM

alabbasi

Quote from: WGB on 23 November 2007, 12:12 AM
Will the paint flow at these temperatures.

We have the opposite here - it's 37 degrees celcius today which is the old 100 Fahrenheit I believe and paint doesn't like that temperature either.

Bill

It should be fine as long as the temp is above 40 degrees f. I'm going to be using a fast reducer for both the base and the clear. Humidity is more important as I can raise the temperature by adding heaters.
With best regards

Al
Dallas, TX USA.

alabbasi

Well, it's finally sanded prepped and painted. We had to fill in some chips and dings which took quite a lot of time. I then removed the remaining chrome, mirrors and lights and wet sanded the scratches from the courser paper.

Where the paint went down to bare metal, I hit it with spot primer and sanded it again one more time with 320 grit paper. After that, we gave the car another wash and then wiped it down with clean terry towels and masked it.  Finally we hit it one more time with a degreaser and wiped it again with a tack cloth.

The first picture of me with the 6.9 completely stripped and masked. It was getting dark and the picture came out funky.



The lower panel (behind the bumper) was really grimy and rusty, I sanded it as best as I could and the used epoxy primer to seal it.



A quick picture of the rear.



The base coat went on well, you cannot see well in the picture because of all the solvents in the air, however the paint looks really good.



The temperature was cold outside so we used an electric radiator to pre-heat the the shop before painting started. This raised the shop temperature to about 68 degrees which was almost too warm for the reducer. The paint was flashing really quickly.



The clear went on quite well for the most part, there seemed to be a problem with the hood where the metallic material on began to lay flat on right side hump and began to more away from the hump itself. We'll try to repair it tomorrow but it will more then likely require the hood to be re-shot.

This is a lot of work, what was I thinking?

More pictures to come tomorrow.
With best regards

Al
Dallas, TX USA.

SELfor50

Great pics, great progress mate!!  Looking really good.   8)

I really appreciate seeing the process of this - as someday i'd like to have a crack at painting a car.  (Well re-spraying anyway)

Looking forward to more pics!!

Cam.  :)

alabbasi

Thanks, it certainly a learning experience. It's taught me to appreciate painters and the amount of effort they put in. Only when I tried this myself, I really understood why people charge thousands to paint a car.

if your car is a light non metallic color then then it's very easy to correct mistakes. This metallic stuff has gotten me stumped. Also wear a mask, not one of those cheap paper type but a proper paint mask. Else you'll set your lungs on fire.

This car was rust free and hence did not need a lot of body work. Just a few door dings that needed filling and the rear right side door had a dent that had to be worked out. Removing all the trim takes about a day. The sanding and prep work took a couple of days and then painting was about 4 hours.

I suspect a couple more days worth of work in wet sanding and buffing and correcting the mistake on the hood.
With best regards

Al
Dallas, TX USA.

alabbasi

Yep, Two Pack is pretty much the only way to go with metallic paint. Some people love it, but I think it can be finicky! I have used single stage urethane (with an integrated clear coat) and it lay down well. No runs and very little orange peel.
With best regards

Al
Dallas, TX USA.

500eguy

it is so nice to see progress shots! i am waiting patiently to see what it looks like when its painted:)

WGB

Thanks for the shots  - great to see - but watch those carcinogens.

Bill

alabbasi

A couple of more pictures for today, all the masking has been removed and we started to do a little wet sanding but it was too cold!

The hood was totally messed up, it seems like the metallic flakes moved away from the center and left a parting. We'll have to wait a few days and re-shoot it off the car.

The rest of the paint came out really well with just a little bit of dust specs here and there that need to be wet sanded off.

Here are a couple of pictures:





I'm going to stop for a couple of days and pick this up towards the next weekend when the weather might be a little better.

With best regards

Al
Dallas, TX USA.

Andrew280SEL

Very nice indeed.

Nice progress. ;D
'79 280SEL- 560,000 Kms
'73 350SE- getting an AMG facelift
'79 450SEL 6.9

alabbasi

Some outside pictures of the car. Most of the body has been wet sanded and buffed with the exception of the hood which still needs to be buffed as it was just painted.

I'll try to buff out the rest of the car on the weekend and then start putting it back together. All in all, I'm happy with the result. Here are some pictures:








With best regards

Al
Dallas, TX USA.

macatron

I love watching these transformations!  I'll be looking forward to the next update!

WGB

I think Astral Silver 735 really suits the 116 - but then I'm biased.

My Brother-in -law was over from Sydney and he said how much better the Astral Silver looks on the older Benzes rather than the more plainer Silver on newer models.

Bill

macatron

Quote from: WGB on 29 November 2007, 12:48 AM
I think Astral Silver 735 really suits the 116 - but then I'm biased.

My Brother-in -law was over from Sydney and he said how much better the Astral Silver looks on the older Benzes rather than the more plainer Silver on newer models.

Bill

You can't go wrong with Astral Silver on a vintage Benz.  Then again, I'm biased as well...

alabbasi

We put the car back together for the most part. With only the covers that go over the A Pillar still off the car. I need that off in order for the Windshield installer to finish his work. He's coming back something this week or next to take care of it.

The paint looks pretty decent for the most part, there are some areas that need touching up but that could be done with a touch up brush and clear coat.

The shine is amazing.

I havent washed it and I plan to buff it one last time to get all the imperfections out but I must say, I got a fantastic paint job for less then $1000 which is more then I can ask for.

Here are some pictures:













I used new fasteners (the red ones) for the moldings because a lot of the old fasteners came out with the molding when I removed them during the strip down. The new fasteners make a world of difference. I also replaced a number of these fasteners on my other 6.9 as some of the molding started to lift on the door trim.

I need to figure out what happened to the lights, the indicator lights stopped working and so did the rear brake light. I'll work on that next week.

For some others who are interested, here's a video of the 6.9 smoking it's tires.

http://www.w108.org/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=AlAbbasi8069&id=IMGP0115



With best regards

Al
Dallas, TX USA.

Andrew280SEL

It looks great! :)

And I'm amazed how quickly it all happened.
'79 280SEL- 560,000 Kms
'73 350SE- getting an AMG facelift
'79 450SEL 6.9