72 Convertible - Finishing the restoration

[Mister 4x4]

Sweet!! Did they actually use lacquer, or did you just use the term 'lacquer' as most people do meaning "clear coat?"

Just curious - either way, it looks like your painters are doing a wonderful job! ::thumb:: ::thumb:: ::thumb::

 

[Thin Lizzy]

Thanks for your comments chaps .

Hi Eric,

I should have said 3 coats of clear lacquer. To many beers when writing the post!

 

[Mister 4x4]

No worries - I was just curious if they'd actually used lacquer, or some other kind of clear coat (urethane seems most common these days).

Still looks absolutely fabulous - can't wait to see it back together and you enjoying it again. Are you going to put it all back together, or is the paint shop going to finish everything up?

 

[Mikes73]

A bit late here but just wanted to say that is one fine vert, I bet it looks good going down the road!

 

[Thin Lizzy]

Hi Mike, thanks for your comment, yes, it's not subtle around where I live!

Hi Eric,

The bodyshop is putting it back together under my supervision. I've been sending them lots of photos of how the front bumper / grille / headlamp surrounds should look. They're used to working on Morris Minors, not American muscle cars the size of aircraft carriers!

Re the lacquer, is clear coat water based and Lacquer oil based then? I guess one is more environmentally friendly than the other.

 

[Don65Stang]

Looking great Mark! I hope the front bumper gets sorted out.

 

[Mister 4x4]

Re the lacquer, is clear coat water based and Lacquer oil based then? I guess one is more environmentally friendly than the other.

Beats me. Scott or Greg could probably answer that better than I could. I just remember lacquer being more prevalent in the past for high-end paint-jobs, but these days, it's less widely used.

As to what goes over the top of water colors? I'm not sure. I don't even know if there are any water-based clear coats, either. The color coat, sure... but the clear top coat being water-based? Sounds weird to me. But again, I'm not a professional painter by any means. If they have water-based products that work as well as the good ol' urethane stuff - Bonus!

 

[Thin Lizzy]

I'll ask the guy doing the paintwork and find out.

Looking great Mark! I hope the front bumper gets sorted out.

Thanks Don. I've got a spare chrome bumper, so if we can't get the Urethane bumper to fit properly, I'll put the other one on.

 

[M Beauchamp]

Here are a few more pics from the body shop. All the True blue paint is on. New argent decals, 3 coats of lacquer over it, sorted the rear bumper, fitted and sprayed the correct sports mirrors and new Mach 1 grille.

It seems my Ford NOS Urethane bumper isn't fitting well, it's too big! Not sprayed up yet. No wonder it hasn't been used for the last 43 years.

The car looks great nice job!

however you should have fit the bumper before you painted

I spent about 6 Saturdays getting my aprons, hood, fenders, valance, trims and grill to fit

this was by far the hardest part of my car to get right

I had to re-fit the front aprons and radiator support to get it to work correct

I measure every thing before i started however the bumper original probably never fit very well

Now that you have painted i would try pulling the bolts out of the light boxes so they don't hold the fender from moving

pull the front 4 or 5 top fender bolts

pull the bolts from the fender braces by the marker light

Make sure your bumper front support arm connection can shift right and left

also set the bumper height so it lines up correct when the bolts are tight

The trick now is to pull the top of the fenders out and bolt them

then pull the marker braces around to get the fenders to cup out and fit the bumper

The bumper moves in-out, up-down, L/R which will need to be adjusted as you get you fender in the right spot

you can open up some of these holes with a file

Good luck

It will fit with a lot of TLC

 

[Austin Vert]

Hi Mark,

Yeah, touch base with your painter to clarify what brand of paint was used, and what type of paint.

You sound like you're a bit confused about types of paint from what you have said so far. Acrylic lacquer is a single pack paint. If your painter used that type of paint, he would have sprayed the lacquer metallic colour on first, and the finished off with acrylic lacquer clear top coats.

On the other hand, most spray shops today, use 2 pack paints. They involve using a solvent based, single pack metallic base coat, and then finishing off with 2 pack urethane clear top coats. The only variation to that would be the increased use of using a water based metallic base coat instead of a solvent based metallic base coat. In each case, you still end up using 2 pack urethane clear coats for finishing off.

Also, water based clears have not come onto the scene yet. The paint companies are still trying to develop suitable products for the market.

Greg.

 

[Thin Lizzy]

Thanks for the info M Beauchamp, I'll pass that on to the bodyshop.

Hi Austin, yes, not much experience with modern paint, you know more than me. I remember my Lotus was resprayed in 2 pack a few year back, but that's about it. With the Mustang, the body shop has just bought off the shelf Ford American True Blue metallic paint, so I guess that's 2 pack. I assume he's used urethane clear coat but I'll check. Thank you for the information.

 

[Mister 4x4]

Acrylic lacquer is a single pack paint. If your painter used that type of paint, he would have sprayed the lacquer metallic colour on first, and the finished off with acrylic lacquer clear top coats.

On the other hand, most spray shops today, use 2 pack paints. They involve using a solvent based, single pack metallic base coat, and then finishing off with 2 pack urethane clear top coats. The only variation to that would be the increased use of using a water based metallic base coat instead of a solvent based metallic base coat. In each case, you still end up using 2 pack urethane clear coats for finishing off.

Also, water based clears have not come onto the scene yet. The paint companies are still trying to develop suitable products for the market.

Thanks for clearing that up, Greg. ::thumb::

I remember lacquer being used for high-end and 'candy' paint jobs on show cars back in the '60s & '70s, then Imron was the high-end thing in the '80s & early '90s, with base coat/clear coat urethane being the big thing in the late '90s/early 2000s... and finally, water-based color coat/urethane clear coat being pretty much the standard these days.

I've only done some custom airbrushing on small panels with urethane colors and shot urethane clear (my favorite is DuPont Centauri clear over House of Kolors airbrush colors). I tried working with AutoAir colors (water-based), but couldn't make friends with 'em, so I stick with HOK.

But, enough about that.

Mark! Where are the new pics?

 

[Austin Vert]

Thanks for the info M Beauchamp, I'll pass that on to the bodyshop.

Hi Austin, yes, not much experience with modern paint, you know more than me. I remember my Lotus was resprayed in 2 pack a few year back, but that's about it. With the Mustang, the body shop has just bought off the shelf Ford American True Blue metallic paint, so I guess that's 2 pack. I assume he's used urethane clear coat but I'll check. Thank you for the information.

Thanks Mark,

Yes, do let us know what brand and what type of paint was used. It will be interesting.

Hi Eric,

Thanks for the feedback. Interesting. Yes, first it was air dry enamel, then Duco Nitro Lacquer, then Acrylic Lacquer was King from the early Sixties and up to around the late Seventies, when the first 2 pack paints started to be used and come on the scene.

The do gooders and greenies lobbied to introduce water based auto paints to phase out solvent based coatings, beginning back in the 2000 decade, but the whole thing has stalled in a manner of speaking, because the paint companies have not been able to produce a top quality, durable working clear coat to date. So we have this half baked situation today where refinish shops use water base base coats and the finish off with 2 pack clears. It's a joke really. The whole thing is self defeating to a large extent.Also, water based base coats have proven to be less durable than solvent based base coats in certain regards. They are harder to apply, and are not as user friendly as the solvent base coats are.

Ceramic clear coats are coming on the scene now, and they are a solvent based clear with very hard durable properties. Ahh, the changes, the changes!:whistling::whistling::whistling:

Greg.

 

[Thin Lizzy]

The only thing I know about lacquers is what I've learnt in the furniture industry (my job). We use acid catalyst lacquer and Polyurethane lacquer on our furniture. We call them lacquers over here, sounds like it's different where you come from.

 

[Austin Vert]

The only thing I know about lacquers is what I've learnt in the furniture industry (my job). We use acid catalyst lacquer and Polyurethane lacquer on our furniture. We call them lacquers over here, sounds like it's different where you come from.

OK Mark, understood,

The paint types and brands for auto paints remain the same around the world, but yes, in the furniture trade, their types of paints get called slightly different names from the auto paints. It's always been the same story going back over the decades and around the world.

Gets confusing a little doesn't it.:chin::chin::chin::chin:

Thanks mate,

Greg.

 

[Thin Lizzy]

I was sent another pic of my car today. I've read slightly mixed reviews on the paint shop I'm using. I've had a full respray, removing rust and fitting new parts, for £3000 which is very cheap in the UK, would normal cost £10,000 (which is was what I paid for my car!).

So what do you think of the paint finish?

 

[73pony]

Really is hard to tell from the photos. Not sure if they are not using a very good camera and the lighting is not good for taking photos.

 

[Mikes73]

Has it been color sanded yet? It appears to have a good shine to it.

 

[Thin Lizzy]

Don't know if he's color sanding it. He said it's going to be polished.

I can take some good photos tomorrow when I collect it.

 

[luxstang]

On the pictures it's looking good so far.