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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

DIY Painting


DArby
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I've decided i'm going to have a crack at spraying my PW side skirts.

 

Would someone be good enough to list what i need.

 

Here my thinking (highly likely to be wrong..)

 

Primer

Thinners

Paint -Storm Blue-

Top coat of some kind ??

Fibreglass repair kit ??

Filler

Plasticizer ?? - Dont know what this is but i know Nick Phelps uses it to stop cracking ?? - seemed to do a v.good job on the front lip.

Wet & Dry various grades i assume.

 

There's a paint place in Bedford that seems to do everything, but i'd rather go there looking remotely like i know what im asking for :biggrin:

 

 

 

Dean..

 

 

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You are a brave man. :)

 

Firstly, remember that 2-pack paint is rather toxic. You will need a mask with an air supply. Also, do you have a compressor and a gun?

 

If you really, really, really want to attempt the job then I'll talk you through it. But if I were you I'd do all the preparation work, then get some local paint shop to do the actual painting.

 

Yours,

J

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Just prepping it was my original idea, but then considered trying to spray it myself...

 

Perhaps the prepping route would be the best, leaving the paint to Nick Phelps.

 

So... to prep i'm assuming just filler, surface filler, wet & dry, fibreglass kit ??

 

 

 

dean.

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I've had the PW side skirts fitted. To make them fit perfecclty they needed to be cut, re fibreglassed and filled. I'm not complaining though as the price for them was so competitive and I'm well pleased with the result.

 

Before you start prepping them, make sure that you have got the fit perfect as any misfitting will look far worse when painted.

 

I think Justin had similar with his sideskirts.

 

Mark Brown

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Dean..........

 

You will need a number of products.

 

One of the first things you need to do is get all the lines (i.e. edges) right. You will notice when they are offered up, areas of some of the edges don't quite follow the contour of the car.

 

To do this you need some chopped-strand mat and some resin. Halfords sell a basic kit for about a tenner. Also you'll need a powerfile. Black & Decker do one (if you haven't got one already that is).

 

To remake an edge, what you do is: with the powerfile reduce the material thickness by about 50% around the edge that you want to extend. Say there is a ragged edge that you want to make good that is 3 inches in length. I would reduce the thickness of the material up to about 1 inch beyond the area where I wanted to make good. Then you need to remove the smooth outer surface for about half an inch around the same area.

 

Cut a few pieces of mat and mix-up some resin and affix as necessary. Often the new mat will need supporting. What I often to is simply Duck-tape a piece of cardboard to the workpiece as a temporary support. The card will, of course, end up stuck to the fibreglass but is quickly removed with the powerfile. Something else I use as a support, if it requires something a little stronger, is 1mm ally sheet which is very easy to cut and shape.

 

Make sure you extend the new matting about quarter of an inch beyond the point where the finished edge will be. What you do now, after the resin has completely cured, is to re-sculpt the edge using the powerfile.

 

Once you've got the edges all following the contour of the car, next you need to flat the outer surface.

 

When fibreglass dries it shrinks. Problem is, if you have varying thicknesses of mat, over the area of a component, the thicker areas will shrink to a different extent than the thinner areas. This has the effect of causing surface undulations.

 

Surface undulations are not so immediately obvious to an untrained eye. Particularly on a white, matt surface. But what happens is, once you apply a gloss-coat (particularly a dark gloss, that's why black is the very worst colour to have a dent with.) then all the surface imperfections come to light.

 

To flat a surface, what you do is first spray the surface with guide coat (available from any paint re-finish suppliers) then get a cork block that is cut to a suitable size (again, available from any paint re-finish stockist) then wrap a piece of, say, 800 grit wet and dry and lightly sand the surface (use the grit wet by dipping in water that has had a tiny drop of washing-up liquid added). Use a light circular motion.

 

What you will find is, on the high-spots the guide coat will be removed and around the low-spots it will remain.

 

Now you fill the low areas with plastic body-filler. I always use Isopon P60 as it is the best most easy to sand IMO. Take a small area at a time. Don't do what most amateurs do, that is, mix-up a load of filler and try and fill all the areas at once.

 

Sand the filler using progressively finer wet & dry. You'll probably want to start as course as 120 or 240 grit and work your way up to 800 grit and stop. There will still be sanding marks at this stage but don't worry about them for now.

 

Continue until the all low areas have been filled. You will know this when you remove the guide-coat and it comes off evenly across the surface.

 

Next you will need to fill any small pin holes and the like. For this you will need what is called Stopper. Again you get it from the re-finish suppliers.    

 

Stopper, is just plastic filler that has the consistency of whipped cream. It is a very fine material that can fill small pin-holes or other tiny imperfections.

 

To finish, you sand the whole component with 1000 grit followed by 1200 git (again used wet with a tiny bit of soap added to the water).

 

Now it is ready for primer.

 

Before you send them for paint, you will need to sort out the fixings.

 

You could remove the clips from a stock piece and fibreglass them to the new ones. By clips I mean the push-in ones at the point where they mate with the rear wing.

 

Along the underneath, you need to drill holes at the appropriate places to mate with the stock fixing screws. Same too around the front and rear wings.    

 

Once everything is drilled then send for paint.

 

When you get them back, the whole assembly should just plop on nicely. What I would do in addition to the stock fixings, where the top edge meets the inner sill, along the length of the door opening, is run a thin line of silicone bonding agent such as Sicaflex (from re-finish suppliers).

 

Be careful not to use too much as it will get absolutely everywhere! Plus, you may want to put the odd dab of Sicaflex here and there to supplement the other fixings - where you feel it may be necessary.  

 

Best of luck.

 

Yours,

J

 

     

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I missed that out, thanks Phil.

 

Though I ought to perhaps mention the first time I ever tried to paint anything proper (my MKIV bonnet) it all ended in tears THREE times before I finally got the hang of it.  

 

You're welcome Dean... best of luck.

 

Yours,

J

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That's an exellent post Ash. I have some minor dings and scrapes to sort out, and in a mood of blind optimism I thought I would do it myself.

I do remember a previous post of yours that said most people who do that end up going to a body shop anyway.

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Yeah, someone has had a little 'contretemps' with my motor I've noticed - some very small (but noticeable to me) abrasions on the front bumper - genius positioning of the number plate seems to have resulted in the 'plate actually taking the brunt of the assault - I might take it to a bodyshop first though

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