Painting

JamesH · 07-01-04, 05:10 PM

I'm still in the planning stages for a replica, and yes I'm a newbie. I'm one of these computer illiterate morons too, if you were wondering, so please bear with me. I ramble on a lot too.
I've found Lynn's posts to be very informative, as I've poured over the posts for good build info and ideas. So when I saw the problems he'd been having with his $85 an hour paint shop thread, I thought it might be time to register as a user and not be an annonymous leech my entire time here.

IMHO yes there's a lot of curves on 40 that make painting it yourself difficult. I realize many of you have put a lot of time, money, and sweat equity into your cars to the point you might feel painting them yourself would be damaging to the final fruit of all your labor. You might feel there's no way you can get "show car" results if done yourself.

I'm not about to spend 17 grand of my hard earned cash on body prep and paint when I tackle the project! This was a big thing that put me off of a project like this early on. By the time it's all totaled I could easily rack up 100K in build costs, and another 200-300 hours of my own time. When it's all said and done I wouldn't necessarily have a finished product worth that.

Plus if I'm building a car myself, I want to be the one in control of the final outcome. Lynn's experience at his bodyshop is not uncommon. They never touch the damn thing for a year then two weeks later it's suddenly done and you have a whopping bill for 100-500 hours labor plus materials.

My soultion is to take the autobody class at the local, or not quite so local in my case, community college. Du Pont and PPG sponsor a lot of programs all over the country to train their next generation of certified autobody technicians. This will give me access to state of the art facilities in which to prep and paint my project, when I tackle it. There's 2 kick butt spray booths, sata paint guns, a computer controlled PPG mixing station, and all the tools I'd need. Did I mention there's professional autobody/paint techs that teach the course. I'll pay 235 bucks plus materials then get all the instruction and help I need painting the car. College credit, a professionally painted project, and a new skill, it seems like a win win situation for me.
Chances are there are classes like these springing up around the country near you.

Bill Musarra · 07-02-04, 06:22 AM

I did about the same thing at a local Vo-Tech school when I lived in Savannah with welding. I paid my $35-50 and for two and a half months at night used up at least $500 worth of rods. Unfortunately they didn't teach mig or tig then (83). So I might have to go back again. Reading was basicly on your own, few written test and the rest was 3 hours a night 2 or 3 nights a week for 2 1/2 months (quarter system) of every kind of welding there was (gas and stick). You definitely will get your moneys worth.
Bill

Tommy · 12-31-04, 12:28 PM

If i can offer any advice. Don't buy cheap paint. Plan on spending $300 to $500 for your paint, use a HVLP gun and you will be happy. I prefer Dupont over PPG. Be sure and wear a respirator AND Goggles. The cyanide can enter your system thru your eyes.

**patbarry** · 12-31-04, 04:03 PM

isocyanate

Howard Jones · 01-01-05, 01:51 AM

Please be aware that 90% of doing a GT40 body prep is fit of close lines. You WILL need to do a lot of fiberglass work to add to pannel edges and elsewear. The paint is really the easy part. If you can do all the prep work yourself then you will have saved at least 75% of the cost of body/paint work.

Study this issue at great lenght. Ignore this at your peril.

Kalun D · 05-10-06, 12:13 AM

This is an old thread but this needs to be discussed.

Isocyanates, common in all the expensive 2 pack paints can not be filtered out by any known filter medium. You MUST use a fresh air system. The best way is with one of the hazmat suites and a full mask fresh air system.

It is true that it will absorb through your eyes and skin.

This stuff attacks the brain and central nervous system. There's painters from Boeing walking around in a retarded condition because this wasn't realized at first and it's still not that common knowledge.

Brian · 05-11-06, 06:25 AM

I don't think 600 bucks will cover paint. I have been told by the local hot rodders to expect to consume about 2,000 bucks worth of fillers, primers and paint.

I have been forewarned by many, DO NOT buy cheap materials to paint these cars.

Brian

Mark Worthington · 05-11-06, 09:20 AM

Brian, I agree that with all the blood, sweat and tears it will take to get our cars prepped for paint that it would be foolish to buy low-quality paint.

I'm going to paint my car and have made arrangements to rent out a spray booth to do so. I haven't sprayed a car since I was in high school, but my Opel GT came out looking fantastic - and that job was done in my driveway! Hershal advised me to to look into the training courses offered by the likes of PPG and Dupont - he said some other builders have done this and felt confident in tackling their own paint jobs. I think Rolf Brunkhorst did this with great success. I'm researching training options now. Maybe we should round up some GT40 builders and converge on a training class this summer. If we got enough people we could even probably get a training course tailored to our needs. Any takers?

Mark Worthington · 05-11-06, 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Worthington

If we got enough people we could even probably get a training course tailored to our needs. Any takers?

The PPG training center near Hartford, CT told me they would put on a training course custom-tailored for amateur kit-car builders like us who want to do their own painting. Lots of hands-on training and all geared toward fiberglass-bodied cars, not the typical body shop insurance work stuff they normally teach.

I started a thread in the events forum on this topic. Please post there if you're interested. Thanks.

http://www.gt40s.com/forum/showthrea...534#post160534