We have always loved classic cars and we love to see them looking their best. In the old days many a classic was painted in cellulose but we tend not to use this nowadays. Instead we use 2k which has the same look and requires no clear coat unlike more modern cars. However it can be polished to a very similar shine.
For more modern classics and metallics, instead of 2k, we tend to use the base & clear system where the colour is added (the base) and the shine is provided with the clear coat which goes on top.
It’s entirely up to you which to go for but most customers tend to want to stick to whatever their car is already. You can easily tell if your car has a clear coat by giving the paint a gentle polish with some fine cutting compound on a soft cloth. If you get colour then you don’t have a clear coat.
First though your car has to be stripped and prepped for paint. Glass, chrome, lights, door handles and other trim is most often removed to get the best results. Removing and replacing these items can often be the most time consuming aspects of painting a car!
You also can’t paint straight on top of old, shiny paint because the new paint will not stick. It all needs to be sanded back to a solid base first. Sometimes this is right back to the bare metal but that’s not entirely necessary in most cases. Rust, dents and other issues also need to be addressed and more often than not prior to painting a prepped classic will have multiple repairs all over. Old paint and single stage aerosol primers used on small repairs can sometimes react badly to two stage paint and primers and so once all the repairs are done we tend to give the car a coat of isolator prior to primer.
The primer then goes on top. This can be white, light grey, dark grey or black depending on the colour the car will be when finished. It’s not crucial but we wouldn’t use a black primer for a car that will eventually be white, for example. A light grey is good for pretty much anything.
The primer comes out lovely and silky and requires no sanding but we tend to anyway just to make sure the surface is the same all over and that there’s no dusty overspray anywhere. Then it’s time for either the 2k colour or the base colour depending on the paint system to be used.
Base paint comes out with a satin finish and requires no sanding. In fact metallic paint would be ruined if you did sand it. The clear coat goes on top and gives the car its shine and protection from the elements.
The clear coat, or 2k colour depending on the paint system used, then get sanded in stages until it is as flat as possible and then polished. When that’s done all the glass and trim that was removed at the start of the project needs to be refitted. Carefully!
If you have a project that needs a little love why not give us a call or pop in. We can have a friendly chat about how we can bring your car back to looking fabulous again, how much it might cost and when we could get started.
