Our second Mini Cooper project looked pretty reasonable when it arrived but under closer inspection she had lots of little issues. As we dug deeper more became evident…..
As with most projects the first jobs usually include removing all the bits and bobs that would hinder the painting including lights, chrome and glass. We also of course need to address the obvious issues as well as those revealed as we go along.
Some of the worst areas were under all four of the seam covers, around the edge of the roof, around the windscreen, the rear panel behind the bumper and the left rear wing which was covered with almost an inch thick of filler!
These areas had all offending filler, flaky paint and rusty metal, removed and replaced or treated, filled where necessary and painted with etch and filler primer. This could then be sanded ready for primer.
When all the repairs were done the car was pushed into the booth. It would then be masked ready for the first paint stage.
The first stage was isolator. This prevents any reactions between the primer and all the repairs, particularly the single stage aerosol filler primer.
After the isolator comes the primer. here we’ve used black as the base colour is quite dark although it doesn’t really matter for the final colour of this car. You can see that we have replaced all the masking prior to painting in the base blue paint. This is to stop any loose flakes of primer flying off the masking and ruining the base paint.
Looking great already in base green metallic paint. This is a different colour to that which the car arrived in but is correct for the model of this year.
Here the clear coat has been added. This then gets sanded and polished.
And then all the glass, lights and chrome are refitted. With new paint, much of the chrome looks decidedly tatty and so the customer supplied new items where necessary.
And here she is finished and looking fabulous!
