Painting and Cutting Back

I have a marine blue series 3 which I want to repaint. Is it workable spraycan a door with several coats and then cut it back and polish or will I get as good a finish using say Paintman Enamel and just smoothing it out (there is a term for that!) with a premium quality brush please? Thanks for reading. J

The English call it laying off. Obviously the Merkins call it something else.

As you can’t cut back synthetic enamel it’s spray cans or a compressor job. I’d hate to think how many cans you’d need for a door.
It’s possible and been done before. Just lots of very thin coats.

Mine is same colour and the previous owner hand painted it and has done a decent job - obviously a more patient man than me!. I did the wheels in Limestone last year and hand painted those with three coats - the brush quality makes a big difference to the end result I found having ditched one after the first coat and getting a softer better quality one. I can look up the paint supplier if you want - they do a wide range of tractor type enamels. The finish is pretty good on both the wheels and body with a few fine brush marks visible on the sharper angles and corners but only when up close. Its not as gloss as you would get from a spraygun but I personally prefer it - think it suits the "LR ethos" if you like and mine gets used on the farm a bit as well so no point having it too shiny.

If you end up going down the enamel route I would be using foam gloss rollers rather than a brush. much easier for an amateur to get a good result. again several thin coats, and if you were so inclined (i am not) a light sand a polish when finished would give a very nice result. I have done the series twice, the tractor and the 110 is about to get sits second (post fire) using this method.

I've painted panels using Paintnuts JCC 515 Marine Blue aerosols available on eBay. Expensive at £20 a can for aerosols - but still a fraction of the cost of getting a pro to do it. The cans have fan nozzles which means the paint goes on well. Just make sure you shake cans for at least 2-3 minutes.

It took just under three cans to do two doors inside and out.

Colour match is superb and the finish is at least as good as British Leyland managed.

It goes on in a satin finish - for a factory type semi-gloss, spray it on 'wet', the nozzle a few inches from the panel with overlapping strokes, working your way down the panel, do all the edges first. It goes off quickly with an even tone and dries hard. I did a couple of coats, waited a day, keyed it with 1200 grit and gave it another couple of coats.

If you need it a bit shinier or to blend it with neighbouring panels, give it a buff with T-cut.

I thought about brush painting but this is far better. Try it, you won't be disappointed.

Thanks all - some things to try! I think I will give the spraycan idea a try.

Did mine with paintman and a brush, only prep was washing down with white Spirit....amazed at the quality of paintman, went straight on wi a brush, no probs