Time to overhaul the old girl.

Fab thread! fantastic read cheers

The time had come to do something about the external look of the Landy, the light blue was coming off every time I washed it and never really was put on all that well in the first place.



This had at minimum 5 different shades of blue each with a layer of primer as well. The easy answer to strip all this back was to go to my local hardware store and buy a large quantity of paint stripper. Above is the Landy covered in paint stripper and then cling-film wrapped to stop the stripper drying out.




End result after a good jet washing. Plenty of body filler to be removed and re-worked.



Any left over paint was soft and easily removed with a wire brush.



It makes a nice mess of the paint



One side stripped, now to remove or clean up the body filler.



Owing to the great British weather I needed at minimum a roof to keep me and the Landy dry. Here is my answer using some scrap I had plus two ladders and a Tarpaulin.



Works a treat, plus ratchet strapped to the Landy means it wont blow away.



As I was back at bare aluminium plenty of etch prime was needed, The Upol Acid #8 is a nice one, it's high build as well which is great. Do not apply this over fresh paint however as it will react.



Side two under way, I was not expecting what I found under the paint.



I had to get busy with the angle grinder and wire brush wheel, as someone had covered the entire panel in at minimum a quarter inch of filler, in some places it was easily half an inch. Very little filler was needed on this pannel so I have no idea why this was done. It will be nice to get back to being able to see the spot welds and rivets.



After removing the filler the panel is not that bad at all.



Bulkhead door pillar and windscreen hinge area welded, and primed in zinc rich primer

I admire your perseverance in getting all the old paint off looks like a lot of effort

dig that tent too

looks like rhubarb and custard will be the order of the day soon

Tedious work but good progress made. What colour will it be when repainted?

Hope the cover is secured well today or it may end up around someone's chimney in Kent!

It's going back to original Marine Blue and Ivory. A second ratchet strap was added to ensure the tent does not blow away. With 2 tonne of Landy attached to it, if it does blow away there will be a lot of other people in worse situations.

A few more pictures.


Body filler sanded back to the bare minimum, and new closed end blind rivets put in.



Series 3 front panel preperation with nice TIG welded Aluminium radiator. This was intended for a 200TDi Discovery but looks a good fit for the 3.9L V8 Series 3. I may even make use of the oil cooler. This set-up was me working out the clearance around the steering relay. The top of the original series 3 front panel had been cut off for the defender conversion, so I've had to fabricate a new top from scratch.



This is where the fan will sit, looks perfect, hope my measurements are correct. A 200TDi fan cowling will then fit upside down .



I got a series 3 bonnet with tyre carrier, only issues are the previous owner had decided to get it shot blasted so it's not exactly flat any more, and I've had to start repairing it. As you can see I've added one new part already.



One side ready for masking and primer.

Primer going on nicely.




Smooth as silk,,,, now to get the DA out again and 400 wet it back ready for top coat.

looks a very good job, it is sprayed isn't it?

Are you going to hot spray it in synthetic, I just did mine and it came out nice. I heated the paint on an old clothes iron in the vice and used a cheap PCL spray gun. It took 3 ltrs.
I did put the etch primer and primer/undercoat on with a roller though.

Yep it's sprayed, I bought a HVLP Gravity feed gun. My big old compressor keeps up with it easy. I have a 3hp, 14cfm, 150L set-up.

Yep paint will be heated, but I have a small slow cook oven in the garage that will heat the paint and thinners to about 45 degrees.

Re: Hot spray:

Not familiar with the reasoning on this. Most of the automotive paints I've worked with have been temperature sensitive - the reducer needed to be matched to the ahop temperature.

Why heat it? not trying to be annoying - really curious.

Alan

looking great.

re your seatbox. afaik stainless is more likely to corrode than steel when in contact with alu. they are further apart on the table.

the alu should corrode first,. maybe just keep an eye on it. but if it's sealed well and doesn't get wet then it'll be fine

mrchurchill109 said:

Re: Hot spray:

Not familiar with the reasoning on this. Most of the automotive paints I've worked with have been temperature sensitive - the reducer needed to be matched to the ahop temperature.

Why heat it? not trying to be annoying - really curious.

Alan

Click to expand...

Simple really, it dry's much quicker, so less dust and less chance of it sagging. 50°C is the max working temp on the datasheet, so at 45°C I'm well inside this

trax said:

looking great.

re your seatbox. afaik stainless is more likely to corrode than steel when in contact with alu. they are further apart on the table.

the alu should corrode first,. maybe just keep an eye on it. but if it's sealed well and doesn't get wet then it'll be fine

Click to expand...

There is a big gasket of RTV between the Stainless and the Aluminium, mostly to keep it water proof, but I guess also acts as a barrier.

The old one had not only rotted the aluminium out where it was in contact, but also rotted out in the middle from standard corrosion. I think a Stainless steel one will last much longer.

We have colour, and it's shiny


After two coats



Three coats



Fourth and final coat, put on nice and thin, with easily a 3rd thinners



Set and hard, this is the only angle I could get to try and show up any orange peal effect, this is nice and smooth. Give it 4 weeks and I'll 800 / 1200 wet it back then buff it up to a real shine. Not bad for an out door job, the wet and dry will also remove any dust and small insects that settle in the paint.

I'm more than happy with the result after weeks of prep and paint stripping.

again, looking greater(er)!

Turned out nice. My apprenticeship was coachpainting and sign writing and we always hot sprayed trucks. Devilbis did heated spray gun pots and I would have a row of them on the go. We always got a better finish than if we added thiners.
A pair of wings I just hotsprayed.

That's a nice finish, I'm only using a low cost HVLP gravity feed gun, but the results are better than I was expecting and more than acceptable for an old Landy.

I'm still adding thinners and putting the paint on like water, just lots of light coats, with minimum 3 hours between coats, takes a while but the result is worth the wait. If it was in a dust and fly free area then the results would be much better but nothing some 800 and 1200 wet cant sort in a few weeks time once it's fully hardened.

I used a cheap gravity feed pcl gun, I didn't put any thinners in my paint and only applied two coats, 1 thin coat and one heavier coat, just enough to cover.
I used Tekaloid synthetic paint from Tekaloid 318 (Formerly BG18) Single Pack Coach Enamel ALL COLOURS | Buy oil, lubricants, greases and more from Smith and Allan (£25 on Ebay) and needed 3 ltrs to do the whole vehicle.

i have a graco airless sprayer here. it's for painting buildings.. but i'm tempted to give it a go