Hey,

Weather permitting im going to try and put some paint on one of my minis this week, its primarily a khana car, but will be road rego'd down the track, so i need it to look reasonable.

I;ve had a few people say enamel will give a good finish off the gun and might be slightly cheaper.. so what are your thoughts, keeping in mind that I want to be able to repaint dings / scratches easily enough in the future, but also i want to painting & polishing process to be quick and cheap.

If it is a little cooler, will one type of paint be better the spray than the other? (i'll be out doors but undercover if that makes any difference).

I also need help deciding between hairy lime or the slightly darker green, think its kermit green or something, dont know if paint type will influence this at all?

Thanks in advance

Also if any one has tips for spraying enamel? is it much different? I've done acrylic before and got a reasonable finish..

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'78 LS 1275

ok champ, this has been discussed before

too pac is outta the question (to many toxins) to use in the open, illegal actually.

iwould go acrylic a su can respray patches and then just buff / sand it into the rest of the car.

good luck,

remember that the better prep u do the better it will look.

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-jamie-
1963morris 850
1965 solid side van
1994 rover racecar

Ok, many threads on this, and everyone has their opinions and preferencesm each paint has thier pros and cons (some have more pros than others, ) but for you I'd say acrylic, andlots of layers and maybe a clear coat but not necessary and much, much buffing.

My car is acrylic, home done. By no means perfect but pretty good for the cost of it really, look at my cardomain in my sig, there's one really nice photo of my car.

I know you can get a really nice finish from acrylic but I also know the hours of effort needed in getting rid of the orange peel and getting a smooth surface. But if you have the time, go for it!

As said above do all the prep, don't want paint cracking or falling off a month after the respray.

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1964 Morris 850, 1330 Supercharged - 81.8hp atws.
1975 Leyland Mini S 1100S powered - Nice and reliable.
1977 Leyland Mini LS - Project LS-T

I wont dance around the facts, the prep isnt anything flash, so im not expecting and wont be disappointed by an average finish, i just need to get some paint on it in the few days ive got off until hay.

So far I've welded all rust and replaced the A panels, filled a few small dings, and sanded the existing paint back and undercoated it. it doesnt look a million dollars, but better than the $400ish the car has cost me all up so far. if i can come out of this exercise with a tidy little car for around $600 i'll be happy.. we'll see what the damage bill is after Hay..

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'78 LS 1275

acrylic is easy and cheap and highly workable afterwards if you get runs or sags etc.
just make sure you POLISH it afterwards otherwise it will look unnesecerily crap house. Acrylic is not as hard or durable as 2pac but I think acrlic looks better. it has a deep lustre that imo 2pac dosent have.

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More than a century of acrylic cant be wrong.

2 pac is good(gawd I would like it!!!!)but totally unworkeable for the home painter(as said before it is very poisonous and bloody expensive compared to acrylic). Lots of paint on, paint off, paint on, paint off but do your primer well(rubbing between coats), and then 3-4 coats of your colour of choice, rub back and buff it will look a million bucks. Polishing is the bastard as it really gives your upper body a going over...lol

Good luck

Hooroo

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Rob Forsyth
Miniot!!

Interesting point. I bought a book about Automotive painting, which pointed out the problem with that - the acrylic of 'yesteryear' was basically completely different paint, a lot of the additives that made it hard wearing etc have since been banned due to some environmental bollocks. So modern acrylic lacquer isn't as good. I can't remember the exact details the book isn't close to hand.

4L of Septone acrylic is available in limited colour choices through SuperCrap for $96. The enamel is cheaper, but I wouldn't go there.

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Too many cars, and too little time.

I'd go to supercrap and buy a 4L tin of say 'Monza Red' and from there. I had disasterous outcomes on one side of my car with clear coat, but came up nice on the other, which was odd, but sanded it all back started again and worked out alright, but didn't reclear coat, but you can't tell the difference.

Some good fine sandpaper, like 1200-2000 for getting it smooth, and some cut and polish then a final buff and polish and should look good.

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1964 Morris 850, 1330 Supercharged - 81.8hp atws.
1975 Leyland Mini S 1100S powered - Nice and reliable.
1977 Leyland Mini LS - Project LS-T

My old 76 Clubby got redone years ago in blue air dry industrial enamel, quick job, it didn't look half bad.
Back in 1968 I did my 850 in Castrol Green enamel, it looked a million dollars.

remember- acrylic is just coloured, ground-up perspex.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

Andy, if it's just gunna be a motorsport hack, stick high gloss enamel on it, its tough,shiny & cheap. Just get a sample of the colour you want, go to Bristol paints, their machine scans the sample & mixes the colour perfectly. It what i used to do to my rally cars years ago, its the way to go.

Doogie

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I won Hay once, here's the pic to prove it..


Hay, it's not about the car, it's not about the venue, it's about the people that come here. Peter Dwyer, Mayor of Hay NSW.

Thanks for the advice people, I went with the Doc and Doogies suggestions, and High gloss enamel it is. unfortunatley if they were going to colour match it was going to take 3 days, the greens they had to choose from looked aewful, so canary yellow it is

Im half way thru painiting it and the quality of the prep is showing up well, it'll look a million dollars when you're over the other side of the padock ..still better than aerosole cans would have been, and only $70 for 4L of paint and 4L of the thinner stuff.

..its shiny and it was cheap.

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'78 LS 1275

Where are some pics??? Cmon, show us, show us!!!

Pete.

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Click here for the Turbo Conversion Thread!

alrighty.

This is what i started with:



then with about 12minutes of prep this is the "finished" product.
It'll get re-done a little better after Hayy, but until then it'll be fine:

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'78 LS 1275

was that roof rack from a kingswood?

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real men race downhill - keiichi tsuchiya