VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Old time auto painters around here?

Years ago ,before base coat/clear coat,guys had cars with enamel or laquer. My old car has Emron paint from the late 70s. I guess I'll never bite the bullet and drop 5 grand for a professional paint job, so here's the question. Can polishing compound or 600 sandpaper bring the dead paint back to life. Any magicical methods out there? Every time I try to get the shine a little better I notice the green paint is coming off on the polishing rag. Can I get more aggressive?

Emron is polyurethane paint. I shot tons of it when I was painting for Cessna. The green paint on your rag is oxidized paint. There's no way to avoid that other than not polishing it. The more you polish it the more paint will come off. Sun and air oxidizes paint. A fine polishing compound will help bring a bit of gloss but it will remove a bit of paint in the process. You have to get the dull oxidized paint off so the shiny can shine through.

Well, old sayings have it that you can't make a purse out of a sow's ear and that you can't polish a turd.

Nonetheless, I think your car doesn't fit the above sayings. It seems to me that it is shinny enough but, of course, I havn't seen it in person.

I think Tiny gave you good technical advice and information.

I am wondering, though, if you acquired the car with that "Emerald City" paint job or did you paint it that color yourself? Looks like a lollypop guild has had a-hold of it. You know.

As to the grit of the sandpaper, I personally would use 100 grit. Grin
Charlie

BTW: If you were to repaint, would you choose that same color? If not, what color?

BTW2: Seriously, you have a nice car. The year and model are great. The color is, although, not unique, fine. The extra chrome is breathtaking. The modifications are merely a statements of personal preferences. Everyone can understand that. Pigs fly.

I thought that you couldn't polish a F@RD!! They just rust that way!!

Back in the good ole days, I thought the choices were either enamel or laquer paint.

My opinion is to leave the wheels and emery paper for the new cars. On the old ones there is nothing quite like a good old fashioned rub down. Time consuming? Definitly. Outcome? Perfect.

paper and cloth wheels can get away from you fast if you dont know exactly what your doing.

It was Green when I bought it off Ebay. If I had a frame off paint job,it would Maroon.

Someone suggested a clay bar,but I think that's for clear coat.

The clay bar only removes things of the surface such as overspray. You need a mild pre-wax cleaner. A light buffing would also help. Some metallic colors can dull and never be brought back.

Hum......around this area a quality professional paint job starts at $10,000 and goes up from there!

I remember back in the early 60s my dad bought a 40 ford and wiped it down with kerrosene. Boy, did she shine.

It all depends on what [b]you[/b] are satisfied with.

You did well as far as the age of the paint. It probably is time for a re-paint with regards to the condition of and body work that may have been done in the past.

My materials cost, sand paper, stripper, 2 types of primer, and paint costed me $5800.00. I did all of the work myself.

If you don't want to spend the $$$. Buff it and enjoy it.

Meguires has a series of polishing compounds that do an excellent job. Then finish it off with their Mirror Glaze.

Some metallics may never come back because the flake itself is may be exposed due to paint surface wear due to oxidation.

Take it to Maaco and get there custom paint job !

I agree.

Or some other discount paint shop. They can do a two-stage paint-job, good enough short of concurs show quality. Fine for a driver, anyway.
Charlie

I would rattle can it with chrome paint! Then it would match everything else on the car (tee-hee). Beamer

I like using single stage acrylic enamel with a high gloss hardener on a very well prepared and primed surface. I let the paint dry for 24 hours and sand for re-coat or color sand on final coat. I color wet sand with 1000,1200,1500,and finish with 2000 grit. I follow up with hand buffed polishing compounds to bring paint to a "wet look" perfectly smooth shine with no spray texture. It's rather labor intensive, but not too bad on material cost. As long as all prep work was done right the paint looks top show quality. The paint when cured is also very durable. I like the gloss better than with a clear coat and for antique vehicles it looks more authentic. 600 grit sanding would be more appropriate for primers and in between color coats. Screw ups and paint flaws of course require more sanding and re-coating, so it's good to shoot the paint in a well planned manner to avoid too much build up. Color sanding or machine buffing old paint can burn through pretty easily and then you're worse off than you started. I think there's an Earl Schieb's in Council Bluffs Iowa that still paints in an old building with a dirt floor. I think their paint is a little better than a MAACO job.

Do you have a Technical College in your area that teaches auto collision and repair? I know the one up here will repaint cars for the cost of the materials if the students ned a project to work on. It doesn't hurt to check it out.

Do you know how many layers of paint are on your car now? This may determine what action you take when considering another paint job. By painting over many previous layers of paing may produce unsatisfactory results.