Restoration of a 1987 Bertone

Wow Huey, nice work there. I'm also envious. I'm just now refitting the restored pieces of my Scorpion's interior, and the body is next. There are times when I wish is was restoring an X instead. Your car still looked cool even in its more rough state. Mine looks like the end of a Mad Max movie... Any general tips regarding painting are of interest. I've done two motorbikes, but never a whole car.
 
kmead said:
Consider removing the door handles so the doors will get painted properly and not have cracking
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Yes I will probably remove them before the next coat of primer. They are getting painted black, same color as the car.
 
Wet sanded, 2nd coat of primer, more wet sanding. Getting close...may be spraying black this weekend if I don't get lazy.

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I think it terribly funny that when Todd, Ed and I first saw the ad for this car, I wanted the gutted body since it was in such great shape (compared to my red Bertone).
 
carl said:
I think it terribly funny that when Todd, Ed and I first saw the ad for this car, I wanted the gutted body since it was in such great shape (compared to my red Bertone).
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It wasn't in as great a shape as we thought, there was hidden rust everywhere. I would have been done now except for all the rust cut-outs and patch weld-ins.
 
And yes I did get one run that you can see below the passenger side door handle. But I will wet sand that out and respray it before the clear.
 
Congrats on a great job. That’s a lot of work in a short time. Wow!

Care to stop by and do a little this and that on my lovely gold and brown X? :)
 
Looking good. Do you wetsand the entire body between each coat? What grade?

How did you deal with painting the inside edges of the doors?
 
lookforjoe said:
Looking good. Do you wetsand the entire body between each coat? What grade?

How did you deal with painting the inside edges of the doors?
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I wet sand between primer coats with 400 and then 600 before base coat. I wouldn't normally sand the base coat prior to clear but there are some imperfections I need to address, so in that case I will wet sand the entire car with 600 and then respray the base.

Once clear coat is on, I wet sand 800 then 1000 and all the way up to 2000 before buffing. It is a laborious endeavor but the final result is worth it.

Ideally, I would paint each panel separately, which would take care of the edges. But in this case, I painted the door jambs and then masked them so the paint will wrap around the edges. The X is a very challenging car to paint so I doubt it will be perfect...but the goal is to make it perfect enough.
 
Huey said:
I wet sand between primer coats with 400 and then 600 before base coat. I wouldn't normally sand the base coat prior to clear but there are some imperfections I need to address, so in that case I will wet sand the entire car with 600 and then respray the base.

Once clear coat is on, I wet sand 800 then 1000 and all the way up to 2000 before buffing. It is a laborious endeavor but the final result is worth it.

Ideally, I would paint each panel separately, which would take care of the edges. But in this case, I painted the door jambs and then masked them so the paint will wrap around the edges. The X is a very challenging car to paint so I doubt it will be perfect...but the goal is to make it perfect enough.
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Thanks for the tips. I'm hoping to paint mine next week if all goes well. Some additional questions if you don't mind:
How much time do you leave between coats before sanding and respray?
Two coats primer and two coats base? Or does that vary with color/paint brand/supplier?
What sort of block sanders do you use? I bought a set of EVA-rubber Dura-Block sanders two years ago when I started the body work, so that's what I've been using. I forgot I should be using a finer grit on the putty work - I've been using the 220 grit I bought to work the filler with(!)

I appreciate any tips you can give :)
 
You should consider applying a barrier coat sealant to minimize any interaction between the top coats and the various materials underneath. This is a thin coating applied which should be applied such that you don’t get any runs. Thin coating is the operative word, it can be sanded but any sand through should be recoated.

Given the number of materials used in the preparation of your car it is something I would recommend.
 
The amount of time between recoats is dependent on the paint. I use 4th Dimension (a Sherwin Williams brand) automotive paint and the recoat window is 7 days. Under perfect conditions, you would not have to sand the base coat but since I have some imperfections to fix, I am forced to wet sand at least parts of it before respraying it. I ended up with some runs but that's because I forgot to change tips on my gun and still had the primer tip on it so it was spraying very heavy.

I have a set of sanding blocks of all different shapes and sizes that came from Eastwood but I rarely use them. In my opinion, nothing beats hand sanding for cars like this where there are very few truly flat panels. Besides, with the palm of my hand, I can feel for rough edges that need more feathering.

I do at least two coats of primer. Good primer sealer that takes hardener. I use "Finish 1" from Acme (also a Sherwin Williams brand.) Their primer sealer is amazing and it wet sands better than anything I have ever used but other companies make equal quality primers.

I plan to do two heavy coats of clear with a 800 wet sand in between.

If I had a professional paint booth, I could do a MUCH better job. My garage is difficult to control the dust and the stupid insects! But this car is a driver, not a trailer queen so I'm not aiming for perfection, just "perfect enough." Besides, painting black is hard and I'm getting tired and just want to drive the stupid car :p
 
Clearcoat on! I didn't do the rear deck lid or the front trunk yet because I noticed a few imperfections in them, but I can clear them separately. The clear came out nice and will look even nicer once it's wet sanded and buffed to a mirror finish. I'm that much closer to driving the thing.

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Nice!

Do you shoot the inner areas (like the sail panels, seam areas) first, then the exterior? What thickness plastic sheet is best to work with for the masking? I have a large roll I bought from HD for working on my Mum's house, but I have a feeling it's too thick for this work...
 
lookforjoe said:
Nice!

Do you shoot the inner areas (like the sail panels, seam areas) first, then the exterior? What thickness plastic sheet is best to work with for the masking? I have a large roll I bought from HD for working on my Mum's house, but I have a feeling it's too thick for this work...
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I like to work from the top down but there's really no good way to paint an X1/9. I started with the inner sail around the rear window, then the targa area, windshield frame, and then down from there. I used super thin plastic but only because it was cheap -- a bag of several rolls of it for a few dollars at Lowe's.

As it turns out, I didn't get enough base coat on one of the inner sail panels. Now that I opened the garage doors, I can see it. So I'll have to sand that area back down and repaint it with base/clear. Actually I am very tempted to paint that whole area with rattle-can black because it's so difficult to get the paint gun in there. I'm sure I will find more areas that need attention but that's the cost of a home garage paint job.
 
Great job, love DIY painting.
Don't you worried about the connection between the already cured clear coat and the new coat on the frunk?
 
81x said:
Great job, love DIY painting.
Don't you worried about the connection between the already cured clear coat and the new coat on the frunk?
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The hood will be sanded back down, primered, and then resprayed in its entirety. After the basecoat was on, I noticed several shallow dents that didn't show up with the primer. They will need smoothed out and then the whole panel will be redone.
 
Huey said:
What is the plastic booth you have? Is that homemade? I thought about doing something similar for a paint booth because when I paint in the garage, the house smells like paint for a couple of days.
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Huey - turns out the canopy is more than large enough to paint in (refer to my Dallara thread) ShelterLogic 3-in-1 is the brand and model.

Another paint question: how do you know what is the appropriate flow/volume (rear of gun) setting for the paint/gun being used? Can you tell me what to look for?

Gun has a 1.4 nozzle (also have 1. And 1.8 guns)

How much coverage do you get from a 2/3 full reservoir (recommended fill based on online info) - or do you fill more / less?
 
lookforjoe said:
Huey - turns out the canopy is more than large enough to paint in (refer to my Dallara thread) ShelterLogic 3-in-1 is the brand and model.

Another paint question: how do you know what is the appropriate flow/volume (rear of gun) setting for the paint/gun being used? Can you tell me what to look for?

Gun has a 1.4 nozzle (also have 1. And 1.8 guns)

How much coverage do you get from a 2/3 full reservoir (recommended fill based on online info) - or do you fill more / less?
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Gun settings are a trial-and-error thing for me. They say for an HVLP, the pressure should only be like 5 PSI but I find that to be way too low and can't get the paint to flow so I actually cranked it up to about 18. Use the primer coats to get the gun settings right.

Good airflow in the garage is important. Since I don't have a proper paint booth, I use lots of plastic and a box fan with the garage door open a few inches to attempt a negative air pressure. It will never be perfect and you'll never be able to keep out all the dust but you just do the best you can.

As for coverage, 3/4 cup will do about half the car with two medium coats. To get full coverage on the car, I had to refill the cup twice.

Again, use the primer coats to get your gun and your technique dialed in. Primer can always be sanded back down to erase your mistakes.
 
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