Читать книгу How to Paint Muscle Cars & Show Cars Like a Pro - Tony Thacker - Страница 7
ОглавлениеAs Ben Franklin said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”
The logic behind this book is to share our experience, expertise, and technical knowledge with anybody who is game enough to want to undertake tackling the body and paintwork on their own muscle car project. What we have to share will be of benefit to anyone wishing to restore or even just repaint a car. The person who will gain the most will be the one who knows the least going in. Nevertheless, we’re certain that anyone who reads this will pick up some useful tips for the long and often arduous road to restoration.
This is one business in which you never stop learning because the technology and regulations are constantly changing. If you think you know everything there is to know then you are way too smart to be working and playing with cars. As this book was in its final stage of preparation, we had an incident where a painter had moved to California from another state and he was unused to painting with water-based materials. Despite being instructed on the prevailing methods, he insisted on painting, in particular mixing, in his tried and true way. Unfortunately, those methods don’t work with these different chemicals that typically require a lot less reducer. Needless to say, he mixed his paint and painted the car only to find that his old methods were redundant. The whole car had to be rubbed down and started over. No matter what you think you know, read and follow the instructions.
In this book, we’ll concentrate on process and technique rather than the chemical aspects of paint materials or legal requirements. You can study the wide variety of materials that are available as well as the legal requirements regarding refinishing in your city and state or country through books and the Internet. Mick’s Paint is located in California, where the maze of regulations is very confusing. You could call two different paint stores and get three different answers.
Regardless of what you are painting, whether it’s a muscle car, a hot rod, a custom, a truck, a motorcycle, or whatever, the principles are the same and those principles are what we will be covering in this book. First, you need a plan. You need to know how long it’s likely to take, how you are going to get ’er done, and, most importantly, how much it’s going to cost.
Find a car such as this 1963 Dodge 880 with decent factory paint and you should think very seriously about keeping the original paint. A repaint might alter the value significantly.
Of course, you can ignore all this and plough ahead, but in our experience not knowing what you’re in for is a prelude to disaster. Forewarned is forearmed. For example, if you get the body prepped and had not accounted for the cost of paint materials, how are you going to finish the project? You can’t leave it in primer, as primer typically absorbs moisture. You won’t notice for a few months but that moisture works its way down to the steel where it initiates oxidation. A year in and you’re going to have to strip the car back to bare metal, including all the Bondo. It makes sense, therefore, to have a plan and know what you’re getting into.
To Paint or Not to Paint
To paint or not to paint is a question that you might be wondering why we’re even asking, but if you have an original muscle car with factory paint then you have to consider carefully whether to paint or not. Even if the paint is worn out and flat, sometimes on the right car original factory paint is what you want; it adds value when a repaint might devalue the car.
If the factory paint is good in places but bad in others, you have to review it thoughtfully and see if the damaged or badly worn places can be repaired without painting the whole car. Again, it might save you time and money and result in a car that is worth more than if you had repainted it.
Once the decision has been made that a complete, down to bare metal paint job is required, it’s time to do some further thinking. The first thing to be aware of is that a quality finish is not a job for the faint of heart. It will take you weeks or months if not longer to complete. Some of the top-level jobs at Mick’s Paint have in excess of 1,000 hours of labor. That’s 25 weeks, equaling half a year, and that’s for a professional; an amateur may take even longer. This is time-consuming work with few shortcuts. That’s why top-notch, show-quality paint jobs cost so much. If or when you uncover some less-than-satisfactory repairs under the existing paint, it will be depressing and probably more expensive than you budgeted for.
This pair of tidy Mustangs is in great shape and therefore may be too good and original for what we have in mind. However, it pays to buy the best car you can that is together and complete with all its trim and pieces. A body shell with a pile of parts is not the way to go. Worse still, in Mick’s opinion, is a car in primer.
What Car to Paint
Of course, you might already have the car of your dreams, the car you want to restore and repaint rusting in the back 40, cozy in a garage, tarped in the driveway, or, worse, rusting in the yard. However, if you don’t have the car and you’re trying to figure out what car that should be, read chapter 4 that goes into the decision-making process more fully. Be aware, though, even at this early stage in the process, a poor decision now will no doubt turn out costly in the end.
Are Parts Available?
I’ll get into parts sourcing in more detail in chapter 4, but, again, even at this preliminary stage you want to be thinking about where you’re going to get any parts you might need. If a 1971 Pontiac GTO convertible is your dream car, we can tell you that the parts are expensive and difficult to locate.
Mick’s Paint recently had one in the shop that needed some bodywork, including a new hood. After weeks of searching, a used hood was found for $3,500 but it looked rusty in the photos and needed shipping across the country. By the time it was shipped, was acid dipped to make sure all the rust was removed, and was prepped, it would have cost the customer at least $5,000 before paint, and that was the cost if it didn’t need any other bodywork, which you know it would have. In the end, the owner opted for a good quality fiberglass hood, as the car was not a restoration.
Maybe your dream car is a 1971 GTO, which is a rare car worth restoring, something like that might be out of your price range. It might be time to think about a more popular car to tackle for your first big project.
This 1971 GTO convertible turned into a problem. A good original hood was impossible to buy so a fiberglass hood was sourced. The headlight surrounds are original fiberglass.
A hood for this 1965 El Camino shouldn’t be difficult to find because, after all, it’s interchangeable with the Chevelle. The problem is that all the good ones are on Chevelles, consequently making them not easy to find.
The GTO’s original Endura front bumper was so bad that it needed to be replaced with a fiberglass piece that can be massaged for a better fit.
How Much Will It Cost?
People who don’t know much of anything about painting cars are always surprised at the time it takes and the cost it involves. “It’s just paint. How can it be so expensive?” Well, things have moved on since Earl Scheib painted cars for $19.95 and materials are no longer inexpensive. A gallon of paint in Los Angeles is now between $400 and $1,000 a gallon depending on the color, with reds being more expensive. If it’s a metallic or pearl base coat and clear process, then you’re going to need clear coat. A good quality clear coat costs $450 a gallon and you’ll need three to four gallons. Why so much? Well, you want it to look good and you want plenty of clear so that you don’t sand through to the actual color.
To paint the outside of a typical muscle car might take as much as four to five gallons of paint alone if you go the single-stage route, not including inside the trunk, under the hood, and other miscellaneous areas. If you use the two- or three-stage approach, the amount of paint will be less, maybe 2.5 gallons, but you’re going to need a similar amount of clear coat as well as the relative reducers, hardeners, and so on.
You’re also going to need to buy more than you need so that you have some left over for the inevitable repair. If you are intending to paint under the hood, inside the trunk, and those other areas, then you are going to need as much as four gallons. Remember also that you should put aside a quantity of paint in case the one you choose goes off the market for some technical or regulatory reason that is beyond your control. If you have to make a major repair then you’ll be glad you saved some paint.
You should also be aware that some colors cover better than others and for the ones that don’t cover well, you’re going to need more. Mick’s Paint always gets way more than needed, just in case.
Something else to be considered carefully is the quality of the materials you select. There are cheap materials on the market; for example, you can buy some clear coats for $150 a gallon compared to good clear coat at $450 a gallon. But, we have had many experiences where that cheap clear coat deteriorated within a year to the point that all the paint had to be stripped off, including the base coat, and we had to start over. Some cheap paints contain no Ultra Violet protection and fade quickly, causing deterioration. Consequently, the apparent initial savings are far outweighed by the eventual costs of redoing all that work. Buying cheap materials is false economy.
Totaling up the costs may scare you, but you should keep a file of all paperwork and invoices related to your project. Proof of what you spent could help you retain the value of your car.
In addition to the cost of the actual paint, there are ancillary materials to purchase, such as stripper, which you will need one to two gallons of at the cost of $46 a gallon. There’s also metal prep, sealer, primer, body filler, sanding discs, masking tape and paper, clear coat plus the necessary activator and reducer, rubbing paper, polishing mops, and compound, to name a few. The list goes on and on.
These days the cost of materials alone can be $5,000 or more. That’s just your out-of-pocket costs. That’s not including all the hidden costs such as tools, equipment rental, booth hire, etc., which you have to factor in.
How Long Will It Take?
How long is a piece of string? In the case of a good quality paint job, much longer than you think. There really are no shortcuts to a good, long-lasting, quality paint job. In Mick Jenkins’s opinion, a top-quality finish typically consumes 1,000 hours, at the minimum. In the case of a show-quality paint job, you can double that figure and then add some. Keep in mind that 1,000 hours equates to 20 50-hour weeks. That’s more or less five months, if you can put in 50 hours a week. If you’re only working weekends and the odd evening and you’re working alone, this project is going to take half a year or more, maybe a year. Be prepared for the investment of time as well as money.
I know, you’ve seen the TV shows where the car is painted in a day. So it can’t take as long as I’m saying, and perhaps the actual spraying could take as little as a day but usually it takes about 30 working hours to properly apply paint. TV shows are not reality; the work is shown in a compressed time frame to make the work of many hands fit into a one-hour time slot. Do not believe what you see on TV. It is not reality.
If spraying only takes 30 hours, where is the rest of the time going, you ask. Prep work is where all the time goes. Without the requisite prep work, you will not enjoy the fruits of your labors. The paintwork will not be as good as you’d hoped for and you might have to start over. Consequently, figure you’re going to invest 1,000 hours, probably more if you get the car down to bare metal and find that it is far worse than you anticipated and you have a lot of repair work ahead of you.
How Much Space Will I Need?
For the most part, muscle cars are big. Our GTO project measures 17 × 6.3 feet. Even a pony car such as a Mustang measures almost 16 feet long and 6 feet wide. You are going to need a good-sized garage in which to work around the car. A 20 × 10 is really too small. Mick’s Paint’s booth measures 30 × 15. Of course, you can do the prep work outside if that’s your only option, but be thoughtful of the mess that tearing apart, stripping, and sanding a car makes. Rubbing down water makes a mess that is not easy to clean up from a driveway unless you have a power washer.
You’re going to need a fair amount of working space to accommodate a muscle car. Ideally, you need room to open the doors, accommodate the removed parts, and allow one or two guys to move around the space. Mick’s Paint’s booth measures 30 × 15 feet.
Besides the space to work on the car, you’re also going to need space in which to store and prepare parts. For example, if you remove the hood, decklid, doors, or the front fenders, you need a place for them to be spread out. A good-sized workspace is therefore a must.
It’s important, in Mick’s opinion, to remember that in a professional environment the spray booth is for just that, spraying. It shouldn’t really be used for anything else because of potential contamination. Treat it like an operating theater and keep it clean.
Where Will I Paint It?
Good question. Where will you paint it and, just as importantly, who will paint it? If you want a really good job done, you’re going to need to paint in a booth. And if you have no experience, you’re going to need a painter.
You have, I hope, a circle of friends who can give you some direction about who to trust in your area. A lot will depend on where you live and the network you have in the surrounding locale. While working on some projects in Portland, Oregon, I found only a limited number of resources for auto restoration, builds, upholstery, paint, etc. It was quite different from a big city such as Los Angeles, where there appears to be an endless supply of shops.
When there are many shops to choose from, it is important to do your homework. Not all shops are to be trusted, and you really need to get some references from past customers. Talk to those customers at car shows and other gatherings. Get their opinions, especially a year after the work was performed. Ask how it is holding up, but remember that there are always three sides to every story: their side, the other side, and the truth. All opinions have to be taken with a pinch of salt. Somebody who disses a paint shop may have run out of money or balked at the price and that could be the reason for the falling out, not a bad paint job.
Caveat emptor, “buyer beware,” is always the watchword. You’re about to spend a lot of hard-earned money on this project, so now is not the time to make a hasty wrong decision.
If you’re planning to tackle this project in a friend’s shop or garage, be very aware of the time factor. Many years ago, I was invited to take my car to Keith Baker’s body and paint shop, thinking my project would only take six months. Two years later I was still futzing with it. Thankfully, we didn’t really fall out and we are still friends but two years is a long time in somebody’s shop where they could be earning money with the space you are occupying.
In large cities, such as Los Angeles or Detroit, you can rent a booth. Prices vary across the country, of course; however, during my research I found that prices ranged from as little as $150 a day at Rent-A-Paint Booth in Gresham, Oregon, to $300 a day in Detroit. Rent-A-Paint Booth will also allow you to leave your car overnight to dry and pick it up the next day. And, while they don’t have a painter on site, they can recommend one.
My local Earl Scheib painted this 1966 Mustang coupe for a reasonable $2,500. However, the owner had to strip or mask the trim. The owner had a choice of color and Scheib warranties the work for three years.
Inflatable paint booths such as this one from Carcoon America can provide a space where you can paint your project.
An unanticipated expense might be the cost of renting an enclosed trailer to move your vehicle to and from the paint shop. Trailering a masked or freshly painted car on an open trailer is not recommended.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that you’re going to paint your car in only one day and will only have to pay for one day’s rental. You’re not Earl Scheib. Typically, a competent masking job will take most of a day. You could do the masking somewhere else but unless you transport the car in an enclosed trailer the car and the masking is going to get dusty and that dust can ruin your expensive paint. Remember, it’s $1,000 a gallon. Transport is another cost to factor in, especially if you don’t own a truck and trailer and have to rent one.
It’s going to then take you at least a day, but more likely two days, to paint your car. It’s a big job, there’s a lot of paint to apply, and you probably will not be able to paint it all at once. Mick’s Paint usually paints the roof first, if there’s a convenient split such as a piece of trim, as there are on 1960s cars. However, later cars such as Camaros and Mustangs have no convenient break and the car has to be painted in one go. Then there are those panels you removed that need color on both sides. There’s no way that those can be done in one day. Keep in mind that you might not be able to fit the car and the panels in the booth all at the same time. To be on the safe side, Mick recommends that you rent the booth for four to five days minimum, preferably a week to be on the safe side. Add that to your budget.
Unfortunately, after calling dozens of listed rental operations, I found that many no longer offered booth rental services. They quoted customer abuse of the facility and equipment as their reason for terminating the services.
Another option, assuming you have or can find the space, is an inflatable booth from companies such as Carcoon America in Jacksonville, Florida. Carcoon manufactures inflatable workstations in a variety of sizes that are like bounce houses with windows. You can use one of these to work on your vehicle. They come in a variety of sizes, are EPA Certified, and also meet and exceed OSHA ventilation and NFPA combustible material requirements. It’s certainly an option.
Who Will Paint It?
Who will paint it is another question you should ask yourself early on in the planning stage. If you have no experience whatsoever, it’s probably advisable to come to terms with the fact that you’re not a painter and you’re going to need help. My dad owned a construction company and always instilled in me that a person could do anything if he or she put his or her mind to it. It helped to know a few tricks of the trade. He was probably right and, consequently, I’ve tackled many projects that I had no training for, including body and paintwork, but I have come to understand that spraying is not my forte and I need help.
If you plan on using a solid color with no metallics or pearls, you could paint it yourself using the knowledge gained from reading this book. However, if this really is going to be your very first attempt at painting a car, we strongly suggest that you not only study this book but also seek help elsewhere. Different opinions are always good. You could even sign up for paint and body classes if they are available in your area. There’s no substitute for experience, so if you do nothing else, get ahold of a spray gun and practice.
If you are uncomfortable tackling the paint, then you will obviously have to either take it to a paint shop or hire a painter. If you take it to a paint shop, unless you know the owner/painter very well, expect to be shown the door. Why? Because the painter is unlikely to want to put his name on the paint when he has no idea how you have prepped the car. For all he knows, you primered the car with spray bombs over whatever was there before. He’ll paint it and before you can say reaction there could be, well, a reaction that is possibly going to have repercussions for the painter. People will think it’s his fault that the paint reacted when, in fact, your prep will have been the cause.
You can find good painters in the unlikeliest of places. Albert De Alba Jr. of Cal Blast is one heck of a painter. Note: He did not paint this 1960 T-Bird in his blasting shop; he painted it elsewhere.
One possibility that we’ve heard of is to contact your local one-day paint specialist and see if its painter would be interested in painting your car. All they do is paint all day long, so they have to be experienced painters; maybe there is an opportunity for you to do the prep and have them handle the paint application. That is, if it’s not too complicated.
Unless you have a good painter in your back pocket that trusts your work and is prepared to paint over your base, there is no simple solution to finding a painter.
What Equipment Will I Need?
The tools and equipment needed are outlined in more detail in chapter 3. Needless to say, it’s everything from hammers and dollies all the way through to a suitable welder. The list is much longer than you think possible, but if you’re a crafty, hands-on person then you might already own most, if not all, of the tools required to complete a showable restoration or custom. We have listed here some equipment that only professionals are likely to have.
Body Dolly
You will need some items such as a body dolly if you remove the body from the chassis. You can make a body dolly or you can buy one. You might even be able to rent one but think of the time this project will take, a year at least, and realize you don’t want to be renting a dolly for a year.
If you’re planning a full body-off restoration, you will need to figure a body dolly into your plan. You can build your own or purchase one from a company such as Best Buy Automotive Equipment.
If you’re going all the way and taking the body off the frame, you must fabricate a simple tube structure to prevent the body from twisting. It’s cheap insurance.
Rotisserie
The same goes for a rotisserie. It is best to budget for one if you are going the full monty. If you are taking the body off the frame then you will need to construct a steel tube structure to help hold the body in shape and prevent it from flopping over. Of course, this structure should be fabricated before you remove the body from the chassis and while you still have the doors in place. You might also want to consider other structures to hold fenders and the hood, as they might make it easier for you to work from.
Because of its size, the support structure for Bob’s wagon was substantial. It included a central cross frame to hold the body in shape as well as other supports, such as these on the doors.
If the budget allows and you intend a full restoration, you may opt for a rotisserie such as this one from Auto Lift; however, they cost around $1,000. You can find used rotisseries, but be sure to get one that can support the weight of your body.
You may also need dollies to support fenders, the hood, and other take-off parts including the decklid and doors. Remember to put the dollies on wheels.
Ideally, all of these work mates need to be on wheels. Also keep in mind where you are going to store them both when they are in use and not in use, as they do take up a lot of space.
Rendering
A rendering is an image or model of what you want the finished product to look like. It is something else to consider before you dive into a project, not so much a restoration but certainly a custom paint job. Having a rendering done gives you a road map, even if it’s only a guide, that will help keep you focused.
As you can see, there’s a lot to plan when it comes to tackling a professional level paint job for your muscle car. One of our first steps when starting a new project is to make a checklist of all the things we have outlined above. Then, determine a ballpark figure of what the project will require in regard to both time and cost. Unless you have done this before, you will be surprised at the amount of time and money necessary to achieve above average results. You will no longer question the paint shop when they quote you time and materials.
A rendering can run somewhere between $300 and $1,000 but having a vision of what you want your project to ultimately look like is money well spent. It gives you a road map, a destination, and inspiration when energy is lagging. It can also generate some publicity, if that’s your goal, and it’s a very cool thing to have framed for the man cave. Steve Stanford created this rendering of Ed Chalupa’s 1967 Ford Fairlane. Steve Strope’s Pure Vision Design built the car and Mick’s Paint painted it.
We were able to follow the build and painting of Bob Florine’s 520-ci Boss Nine–powered 1957 Ford Del Rio Ranch Wagon. Steve Stanford rendered it and Steve Strope’s Pure Vision Design built it. It looks like a simple two-tone paint job, but you will see that it is complicated when you want to get it right.
