Draft removed..... for the minute

well done, this is definetly the reason why ausmini is so great.

there are are few things i feel i may be able to contribute:

-always spray parallel with the panel, following the shape and curvatures of it.
- always do the edges first. eg. roof gutters and seams
- i painted the inside first because the floors are good practice for beginners.
- always be aware of the compressor hose and its evil desire to mess up your paint
and finally,
- i have read that you should not wax your car untill about 6 weeks after drying?

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1975 Leyland Mini: 1060cc - resto/ ex-hsc project.

Thanks for being the first brave one to post Leighton.

Thats a good Idea about painting the Interior first. I have a roter so the very first thing I paint is the underside for the same reason and then do the interior. I wasn't sure how many other people would be stripping there interior so that was the other thing.

Thanks for your discription on how to actually apply the paint. I was having trouble writing it in a way that made sense I will get some Pictures going so that people can actually see.

Thanks Leighton. All noted

Awesome information Alex. It will definitely be printed off and used when I get to the painting stage of my restoration. Great job and thanks for your efforts and information.

Tim

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1971 Mini K

you dont look like a tosser,toss or wally this is pretty good

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busier than a 0ne legged man in a butt kicking competion

Fantastic - I'll digest it at work and see if I need to ask some questions

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David L


My greatest fear in life is that when I die my wife will sell my Mini and tools for the price I told her I paid for them!

Very nice article there Mr Phat Kat. Thanks for the effort.
I prepped, painted, cut and polished one of my minis 10 months ago, it took me lots of searching and question asking to find all the info you have put up there. And you have cleared up some procedures for me.

One thing i found with compounding, i started using the wrong compound, i could still see lines from the 2000 paper, i was using U cut cream polish, too fine. Someone suggested T cut fast, its gritty enough to feel with your fingers and it worked well, leaving a lot of swirls. Then with a high grade lambswool buff i used a 3M finishing compound and it took away the swirls leaving it brilliant . So i suggest 2 compound stages.

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Dean Hutton's first car was a Mini.

Hey Alex

That looks pretty good. One thing that I have been curious about in the past is mixing paint, or more specifically making sure it doesn't have lumps. Should the paint be strained , maybe with the obligatory pantyhose

Cheers
Steve

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1964 998cc Cooper
1971 Mini K x 2
1972 Clubman GT

Looks great Phat Kat

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1966 Morris Mini Deluxe
.... 4 bicycles and 3 screaming kids.

OK just a side note - if you are not doing a full bare metal job but say a couple of replacement panels in different spots and some touch ups to scratches etc. - and the rest of the paint is pretty sound but faded compared to the new coats. ( if it wasn't for the replacements a good cut and polish would do) how would you proceed (assuming colour matching is not an option for the DIY backyarder)

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David L


My greatest fear in life is that when I die my wife will sell my Mini and tools for the price I told her I paid for them!

Hi guys,

I'm glad to see that its sort of so far so good.

Tombo, what you are talking about with compound is someting I wanted to cover in better detail. I could have written something that long on conpounding alone but I was trying to keep it breif because I was worried that no one would ready thru what I posted, let alone the first version that I did!! But If you think I could cover the topic in better detail I'm happy to.

Panthersteve, thanks for bringing that up. You can buy filters but pantyhose are cheaper and they are reusable (so long as they are CLEAN and prefferable not nylon as the thinners MIGHT melt them). That said how bigger "lumps"are we talking here? Is it just like tiny stuff no bigger than a sesame seed or are we mixing an omelette? You might need to stir you paint more when its in the can BEFORE mixing it with the thinners.. I'll cover that better as well think. As I said I was trying to keep it breif for fear no one would read it but it seems that there is plenty of eyes out there looking for detail

Wombat I'm glad you mentioned it. I will have to do something seperate on repairs, only because I WILL need photos for it to explain gun control and it is just as lenghtier topic as the one I just posted.

Thanks guys

I realise repairs need to approached differently - I'm thinking more along the lines of preping/painting the panels to a level then giving the whole car a going over to give an even colour/finish - is this appropriate? at what stage-how many coats or just the flow coat?

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David L


My greatest fear in life is that when I die my wife will sell my Mini and tools for the price I told her I paid for them!

Looks awesome Alex well done for taking the time to do this.

Can I just add a couple things? Just a bit of an extension on what is written....

-Be clearer on the need to only do light coats of etch primer
-Mention about the need to wipe prepsol off before it dries (wipe on, wipe off )
-Dont press too hard with a brand new tack rag, it is possible to smear the resin on the panel (there is no real need to scrub with it anyway, its best to wipe over softy to pick up light dust)
-Im wondering if you want to go into more detail with the high fill rub down proceedure? Express the importance of keeping flat panels flat and not marring edges....
I like to use a large hard block for large flat areas, and make sure i use long strokes, generally diagonally over the flat area, so if there are some small highs or lows, they are feathered out nicely.
Make sure you run with the lines of the vehicle, and not cross over panel edges/creases... there arent too many in a mini, but say the 'waist' line on the car running around it just below the windows... One trick I have learnt is to use masking tape to find the panel line, mask along it and then sand up to it. When the tape is removed you will see the nice edge because of the guide coat giving you two colours. This you can use to see that you have a nice straight line then mask opposite direction and sand on the other side of the line. The tape will protect it from you crossing over the line, and also help make a nice straight edge.
Just be aware of what you are doing when sanding along hard edges like rear window sill and where the rear quarter bends into the door jam... dont sand these mindlessly, try not to burn straight through all the high fill, and keep a nice consistent line to the edge.
Im wondering, you dont do a second rub down on the high fill? For an immaculate finish, I re guide coat and do a wet rub down with 800 grit. Just to make sure there are no scratches left at all.
I am personally very fussy with the high fill part of the whole proceedure, I find it to be very important to the final look of the job, in regards to how straight and neat the car will look at the end.
Just remember any little scratches you see in a matt finish will be magnified ten fold with glossy paint

Hope I am not stepping on your toes Alex, just my 2 cents
As some people have mentioned there are many different ways to approach this kind of work, sometimes its purely personal preference, so if you dont have a personal preference, any good method will get you there! lol

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Size DOES Matter!!!

Trixitrine!! Thanks for posting!

What you just mention regarding the second guide coat is something that I do with metallics because they're very sensitive to the condition of the undercoat, with soilds I've never seen much point. I'm not saying your wrong, just that I do it differently. I went into great detail on that in the metallic procedure that I removed again to keep the size down.

I loosly covered what you mentioned with rubbing down the guide coat and high fill. Version one did cover that in about as much detail as what you just did, but again size issue. But It's really starting to look like you guys are starving for more info, so maybe the long version isn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Yes light coats with the etch, it drys soft so too much and the paint will chip and carry on like a pork chop. I'll fix that up I think.

Thanks Trixitrine

Looks fantastic, definitely one to print off for keeps.

Is there any chance you could do a comparison of the different types of paints, enamel, 2pak etc and what paint is used for what uses?

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Simplify and add lightness