Steve's unexpected Series 3 rebuild.

Disco1BFG said:

Have you had a look at small sprayguns ? I bought one off B@nggood for spraying Fertan .... it would probably be a pain to paint a BH with a small gun, but just an idea ....

How far away are you from Buxton ? I have an old compressor with a large tank you could borrow if it would help..

Click to expand...

Morning. Funny you should say that but I have just been looking at the mini guns. Some seem to be rated at about what my compressor would do. It would probably be a faff to spray a big area but I usually seem to do things the hard way. Thanks very much for the offer. I'll keep it in mind. I'm a fair way from you and the problem is because of space and available time I won't be able to do it in one go so would be a lot of back and forth. A lovely offer though. Thanks.

There ain’t a big panel on a series.
Just box all the paint together in one container thin it a bit and do a panel at a time as it goes back together.
I usually paint outside but you have to pick the right day. Flies are the biggest concern but if you don’t touch them until dry your only left with almost invisible footprints. Much easier to live with than runs.

Just to confuse the job a bit more, last nights experimental painting has actually turned out pretty well. Done with little prep, in dim light, by brush with paint straight from the can not thinned at all. Not bad considering.

LVLP. Latest idea.

LincolnSteve said:

LVLP. Latest idea.

Click to expand...

If your talking fence sprayer they are harder to do than conventional.
I’m not saying impossible as I have used them before but very hard to get just right. They are not forgiving at all and will take a gallon of paint just to tune your thickness, speed and pressure. Much better with a medium sized low pressure gravity fed gun.
Not an issue if your using enamel as it’s slow drying speed allows a few seconds for the tank to fill between passes. Harder with cellulose as it dries too fast.
Don’t worry too much about the blurb on the box. I rarely use a three horse power unit for a three horse power gun and manage just fine. In fact I rarely fire up the beast these days and prefer mi ickle wheely job.

This is the sort of chap I had in mind
https://spraygunsdirect.co.uk/product/optiflow-lvlp-gravity-spraygun-1-3-1-4-or-1-8/

I like this fella too.

LincolnSteve said:

This is the sort of chap I had in mind
https://spraygunsdirect.co.uk/product/optiflow-lvlp-gravity-spraygun-1-3-1-4-or-1-8/

Click to expand...

Looks good for forty dabs. I think my go to was from machine mart about twenty years ago. I doubt I paid very much for it wot with me being a skinflint.

Time to weld up the front panel. Clamped together it looks ok but it still needs a bit of work.

When one side is looking good like this.

The other side looks like this.

Initially I wasn't sure I could make that right so I hit it with some hammers.

It's a bit hard to see from that picture but it went pretty well. I was worried that it would distort but I was really patient and kept the heat down as much as possible and it stayed really flat.

I'm really happy with the penetration of the welds. Here's the back of them. Not quite finished but you get the idea.


This gave me the confidence to grind the front side really smooth. I have a huge urge to grind the back flat as well. I love it when you can't tell it's been welded but i've got to control myself and leave it alone as I want to keep the strength.

Again not finished but going to be ok. When the grille goes on you can't see any of this anyway.

The spray gun arrived and i've had a go with it. I tried another coat of primer on the bulkhead because I had to sand it so much following the brush and roller attempt that it was getting a little thin. It actually went well but I definitely didn't thin it enough. Lot's to learn. Here's the improvised spray booth. Cheapo polythene dust sheets from Wilko's help a bit. It's the best I can do but does mean putting everything from the garage out on the drive. Just need some reliable weather whenever I want to spray anything. I'm sure that won't be a problem.

The orange peel looks really bad in that last picture but it turned out better than it looks. So far this paint seems very forgiving. It's going to need to be.

Plenty of electric in it and light coats. Don’t try and cover in one hit. It’s possible but your asking for trouble.
If your using enamel make sure the previous coat is fully dry. If you seal it in with another coat it’ll never harden. Enamel oxidises so needs air to fully cure.

Heat won’t help, just plenty of fresh air.

Bobsticle said:

Plenty of electric in it and light coats. Don’t try and cover in one hit. It’s possible but your asking for trouble.
If your using enamel make sure the previous coat is fully dry. If you seal it in with another coat it’ll never harden. Enamel oxidises so needs air to fully cure.

Heat won’t help, just plenty of fresh air.

Click to expand...

That's great advice. Thanks. I was hoping to get a coat of the green on today but it's been chucking it down all day. Maybe next weekend.

The top coat is on. It's D66 enamel from HMG paints. Plenty to learn when I started spraying. I've ended up thinning it much more than HMG recommend, whether that's because i'm using the LVLP gun and small compressor I don't know. The bulkhead was a really daft thing to have as first thing i've sprayed. Too many complicated shapes and internal corners. I wasn't prepared for the amount of atomised spray floating around in the air. I had to quickly get some white spirit on my glasses before they became permanently green and several times I almost stuck to the garage floor. I've got some runs but they are all in the deepest part of the footwells. They are too bad to leave but almost hidden by the time everything goes back together. It's also a bit orange-peely but it's good enough for me.

Simply Stunning work there IMO.

And, I wouldn't worry about orange peel - we had a new SIII in '76, and I joke that the thing was painted by NASA, from Orbit !! deffo more paint on one side, than the other ..

I 100% agree with Bobsticle's advice too.

Cracking job Stievie.

Now that has to feel better than a roller

The orange peel will reduce over time. Enamel surface dries quite fast sealing the rest from air. Can take several days for the soft undersurface to catch up.

You could always wet flat the orange peel if you were really bothered!

Thanks for that. Overall i'm happy with the finish There are a few places that you will see on the phots that don't look too good but they are where it won't be seen in the end and I didn't do enough prep. I'm not going to worry about those. There's also a huge run that I only spotted today but it's on the engine bay side of the passenger footwell right where the mud shield attaches. It won't ever be seen and maybe a bit of extra paint there might help with the rust proofing. The only bits I am going to have to do something about are the runs inside the footwells. They are quite bad and they will be visible. Trouble is because it's enamel it will definitely need them spraying over again after they have been sanded. I've got to leave the paint to harden a bit before doing anything though. Gives me confidence with the bigger, flatter areas to come. Thanks for the advice and support.

The paint should be OK. I’ve used H Marcel Guest paints for donkeys years. Their factory is in Collyhurst just across the road from Queens Road Bus Depot. They even invented an acid proof varnish for me when I was a bar fitter for the areas they chop lemons in.

@Bobsticle @Disco1BFG How long do you think I should leave that paint to harden up before I a) start on the runs and b) start reassembling anything?