Noob with old car restoration project questions

[lrutt]

I'm in the process of restoring a 1953 MG TD. I'm almost finished painting. All fenders, doors, hood, gas tank etc. are off the tub and all pieces are being done separately. I've used acrylic enamel with hardner throughout. I have a couple of runs on the gas tank and some scatered orange peel on other panels. Paint is fresh, some a week old, some a few days.

As a background, MG's of this era had very marginal paint to begin with. All was enamal, not hi gloss, semi gloss at best. The color is British Racing Green.

I plan to wet sand the runs with some 1000 followed by 3000 to smooth things out. I plan to sand the orange peel with 3000 where possible and if required, 2000 then 3000.

I plan to purchase a Porter Cable 7424 to work the panels. I'll start with M105 and not sure if I should use a 7207 or 8207 pad. I'll do all panels individually this way then depending on how things look, may follow up with M205 and a 9207 pad. Remember, I don't want too much gloss on this car. The body panels on these cars were hand formed over wooden frames so they are not necessarily consistent or perfect. And as stated, the original type paints were not that glossy.

I've done a lot of reading on this site and this seems like a good start. Being able to take each body panel and place it on a bench and work it at a good hieght and angle will be nice.

Does this sound like a pretty good plan or am I missing something?
Would appreciate any feedback from the experts.

Thanks in advance for your help

[SHYNEMAN123]

Re: Noob with old car restoration project questions

Hello and Welcome

Sounds like a great project.I have a few questions for you.

1. Do you have any rotary exp ?
2. how was the paint dried ? Booth baked, heat light , sun
3.how many coats applied.
4. HVLP of Siphon feed.
5. What % hardener did you use and what paint mfg.( with Enamel hardener controls gloss.
6.Have you ever used Meguiar's sanding Blocks ? ( better way to take runs down)

[lrutt]

Re: Noob with old car restoration project questions

Hello and Welcome

Sounds like a great project.I have a few questions for you.

1. Do you have any rotary exp ?
2. how was the paint dried ? Booth baked, heat light , sun
3.how many coats applied.
4. HVLP of Siphon feed.
5. What % hardener did you use and what paint mfg.( with Enamel hardener controls gloss.
6.Have you ever used Meguiar's sanding Blocks ? ( better way to take runs down)

1. No rotary exp, no DA exp for that matter
2. Air dry plus what the hardner provides
3. A solid 3 coats as recommended
4. HVLP
5. 1 part hardner, 8 parts paint, 2 parts reducer as a normal mix as recommended.
6. I plan on getting some sanding blocks today along with the 3000 paper (if the local dealer has it) otherwise I'll have to order it. As for a sanding block, if they don't have a nice small run blocker or small block, can I use an eraser as a backer block?

[SHYNEMAN123]

Re: Noob with old car restoration project questions

1. No rotary exp, no DA exp for that matter
2. Air dry plus what the hardner provides
3. A solid 3 coats as recommended
4. HVLP
5. 1 part hardner, 8 parts paint, 2 parts reducer as a normal mix as recommended.
6. I plan on getting some sanding blocks today along with the 3000 paper (if the local dealer has it) otherwise I'll have to order it. As for a sanding block, if they don't have a nice small run blocker or small block, can I use an eraser as a backer block?

With no machine exp I highly recommend spending several hours on a practice panel door,hood, deck lid ect. A big part of machine work is feel and confidence obtained thru practice and some basic instruction would be a big help.

After sanding let the paint breath for a day or two to allow solvent to escape when you cut into fresh paint you have broken the skin and dumping compound on while solvent is escaping will make the job a lot harder than it needs to be.

Removing runs can be very tricky, a lot of times you cause collateral damage to the surrounding area, I would use a block preferable hard wood that way you stay on top of the run, the eraser I feel would be to soft. The unigrit blocks work great.

[lrutt]

Re: Noob with old car restoration project questions

good idea on practice, back side of gas tank, underside of hood, underside of fenders. I'll do that. I plan to stay completely clear of the louvres on the hood. No need to do anything there.

[SHYNEMAN123]

Re: Noob with old car restoration project questions

good idea on practice, back side of gas tank, underside of hood, underside of fenders. I'll do that. I plan to stay completely clear of the louvres on the hood. No need to do anything there.

Did you paint the back side of your panels ?

[SHYNEMAN123]

Re: Noob with old car restoration project questions

The back side could be a little tough to buff and you might tear up your pads, I ment a panel from a junk yard or a buddies clunker to practice on.

[lrutt]

Re: Noob with old car restoration project questions

Yes, backsides are all painted. On these old cars you can see the back side of all the fenders easily. The hood has no reinforcing ribs to it. It's all flat heavy gauge metal, smooth both sides so easily worked on the back side as well. I took everything down to bare metal.

Unfortunately my local Meguiars dealer has virtually none of what I need so I guess I'll mail order it.

[SHYNEMAN123]

Re: Noob with old car restoration project questions

Yes, backsides are all painted. On these old cars you can see the back side of all the fenders easily. The hood has no reinforcing ribs to it. It's all flat heavy gauge metal, smooth both sides so easily worked on the back side as well. I took everything down to bare metal.

Unfortunately my local Meguiars dealer has virtually none of what I need so I guess I'll mail order it.

If you go into Meguiar's .com at the top right of MOL page you can search stocking dist. in your area.

Take lots of pics all angles we love pics