My post rocker repair paint project

'69 2800cs

'69 2800cs

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You may remember my rocker replacement thread started a few years ago- https://www.e9coupe.com/forum/threads/my-rocker-repair-replacement.25146/

With the car back in one piece I resolved to get it back on the road and reasonably presentable. That meant paint.

I drove it to a few local body shops, hoping mostly for a reasonable turn around time. No one wanted to even touch it. Perhaps the problem was it was a half finished project but I suspect insurance work is what they want.

I quickly concluded that the time I was spending driving around trying to get someone to take the job could be spent doing the work myself.

This won't be a how to thread...I'm in no position to teach anyone how to paint and I made some boneheaded mistakes along the way. But the car is back on the road and that was the goal!

Oh, please click on my youtube video at least a few times....my 9 year old tells me I won't get any views!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="
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First, a trip to the Sherwin Williams store. $500 of paint, primer and supplies. I chose their entry level base/clear product.

You can see they supply very good directions.

sherwin.jpg
 
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But what about the color? My car was Baikal when new but has been repainted a lighter shade. Probably Fjord, but who knows?

Good thing I saved one of my cut off front fender pieces. Baikal on the bottom and the current shade up top.

The guys at the store gave me a huge book of paint chips and I went out into the parking lot to compare shades. I found something pretty close.

patch.jpg
 
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I had decided to blend with the existing paint, blending from the front wheel to behind the rear. That was the plan, however, since I don't know how to actually blend I ended up painting from the front grills to the back lights, and slightly up each pillar. The division is right at the panel seams, so the fender is the new color and the hood and trunk are the old color.

Next up, what to shoot with. I have a decent compressor with a tank. Might be too small to do a whole car but since I was just painting a smaller area they would be fine. I regulated the pressure down and used two filters and a dryer in the air line.

I chose a $150 DeVilbiss starter kit from Eastwood. I also got the proper mask to wear while painting.

Devilbiss.jpg
 
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I decided to paint the door off the car, and to paint it first. It seemed the best way to get the jams done. That meant mounting the door after it was painted. Risky, but that's the path I chose.

And it was very rewarding to get at least one part fully complete.

Color on the door.

door color.jpg



Two coats of clear.


door clear.jpg
 
Now to shoot the body.

On the first try the vent at the top of the cup got plugged. Once cleared a big splat of paint flew out and caused a big run. Sigh...

Had to sand it all down and start over. For whatever reason the base took a week to really harden to the point I could sand it.

first color oops.jpg
 
Orange peel. Lots of it. Time to wetsand and buff!

wet sanded.jpg


Trim going back on.

trim going on.jpg


Glass is now all back in and almost all trim on. I am driving it daily now, as long as roads are dry.

Floors need some patches before I dig into the front fender tops in a few years.

Need to finish the 911 first though, as that is getting some rust repair and upgrades. But I finally have my coupe back!
 
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Coming along well, love seeing home built projects like this! The rocker repair thread has also given me some invaluable knowledge to use tackling mine.
 
For future paint projects, because we all know there will be now, find yourself a good automotive paint store in your area. Your paint prices seemed okay, maybe a little high, but if you go to an automotive paint store they'll match your color. You usually have to blend anyway but the color should be very close to start with. Also, I've found that when you put on your clear it's better to put on too much and fix some runs than it is to not put on enough (dry) and have to sand the hell out of it.

Are you happy with the results? Looks pretty good in the photos.
 
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For future paint projects, because we all know there will be now, find yourself a good automotive paint store in your area. Your paint prices seemed okay, maybe a little high, but if you go to an automotive paint store they'll match your color. You usually have to blend anyway but the color should be very close to start with. Also, I've found that when you put on your clear it's better to put on too much and fix some runs than it is to not put on enough (dry) and have to sand the hell out of it.

Are you happy with the results? Looks pretty good in the photos.
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I was doing an automotive painting project recently. I checked with the Sherwinn Williams auto paint store. Their prices for pre-mixed cans were about on par. However, a “real” auto paint store wouldn’t mix it. This was a multi-part metallic that couldn’t be mixed into a single stage paint, but SW would do it with a boiler plate disclaimer. SW never mentioned why it wouldn’t match. Either way, this was for my aunt’s 2004 VW, and matching was relatively unimportant. Interesting response from both shops though.
 
Are you happy with the results? Looks pretty good in the photos.
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Definitely. The quality of the work is good; not great. An hour or two more of block sanding would have been time well spent.

Having the car back on the road combined with the satisfaction of doing it myself; that’s darn near priceless.

The 911 is getting the same rust repair and paintwork. I’m ready for that now. And we do have some local independent pa8nt suppliers I will check out.
 
I found that PPG has the color codes for our vintage paint.
Baikal code 42 right in the computer.
 
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