[ROVERNET - UK] Painting My Car - Maaco

Fritz Rauschenberg wfritz at mindspring.com
Tue Sep 12 10:54:32 BST 2006


As long as it's confession time, I'll throw in mine: Yes, I had my '69 2000
TC painted at Maaco in the original April Yellow and they did a great
match. I 'll have to tell you though, I some of the prep work. I removed
all chrome(except the windscreen trim-fr & bk), including grill, lights and
the rubber flaps between the doors/wings. I also removed all badges and
insignia. So Maaco didn't have to mask around/remove any of that. I talked
to the owner  and the painter and discussed painting collectible cars and
provided "tips" at the proper time. I also promised an 8 x 10 glossy of the
finished car when I got it back together. I also had to have some minor
body work done on the right rear door and zI met with their body man and
told him to take his time  and work it in when he was fresh. All in all I
feel I got a better job than I would otherwise. Granted I took the
responsibility of putting it all back on without scratching the new paint,
but I managed to do that  and am mostly pleased with the job. So there---.
I think a little communication with the folks that did the work gives them
a bit of connection with the owner and the car and stimulates their sense
of pride. So give it a try.

Fritz Rauschenberg
Atlanta 


> [Original Message]
> From: Aidrian Bridgeman-Sutton <smokeandsteam at san.rr.com>
> To: <rovernet at lyris.ccdata.com>
> Date: 9/12/2006 3:18:43 AM
> Subject: RE: [ROVERNET - UK] Painting My Car - Maaco
>
> It's always nice to think about how beautifully Rover used to finish cars,
> at least before BL got their grubby hands on them. No the paint wasn't as
> durable nor quite as shiny as modern synthetics, but the application was
> first rate. Sadly this all started to go downhill with BL, and there is a
> very noticeable falling off sometime after the Series II P6 was released.
> Thin paint and orange peel were never traditional Rover virtues and I
> suspect they had economized on the teams of polishers that would finish
each
> car after painting.
>
> Now to Maaco... yes I've used them - we have a seriously beaten up pickup
> that didn't merit more than a quick respray to make the doors and hood the
> same colour as the rest of the car. I wasn't expecting much and got what
> turned out to be a pretty decent job  - there were a couple of places
where
> the masking wasn't quite lined up right and a couple of spots where a bit
> more care in the prep would have been nice, but the paint was pretty
> decent... for a $500 special.
>
> I would certainly use them again for painting another work pickup, but not
> for a Rover restoration project. They are just too focused on production
> line type paint jobs to make a high quality re-spray a good fit for their
> operation. (I'm sure there will be individual Maaco shops that don't fit
the
> generalization, but that's not their corporate business model). Yer gets
> what yer pays for and Maaco are cheap...
>
> P6s were painted in the factory with the panels off the car and that makes
> repainting at home a little easier. P5s aren't amenable to this treatment
> and I would plan on providing a lot of space to work around the car so
that
> you can get proper access to all the places that need painting - you will
> spend a fair bit of time working at low angles to get the spray to hit the
> surface at close to 90 degrees so the higher you can get the car off the
> ground the happier your back will be and the less chance there will be of
> any dust or dirt from the ground being kicked up on the wet paint along
the
> rocker panels. 
>
> Similarly make sure you can get above the car to paint the roof - I've
seen
> professional paint jobs where the front center of the roof panel showed
the
> painters arm wasn't quite long enough to reach the middle and had had to
> resort to a quick squirt of paint from too far away and at the wrong
angle. 
>
> Use quality paint and equipment and prepare the surface thoroughly before
> you paint. Be prepared to do a lot of rubbing down between coats while you
> learn how the paint likes to go on - practice on spare panels that you can
> strip rub down and repaint until you get a feel for the paint and the gun
> and are comfortable in your ability to get the paint on wet but not too
wet.
> Painting is not rocket science but it is a skill and it takes practice to
> pick it up. 
>
> Careful use of fine grades of wet and dry paper (finishing with 2000 and
> 3000 grit) will get rid of many minor blemishes. Mild orange peel is
usually
> easier to rub down than a big saggy run so resist the temptation to rush
> back for one more pass over that area that doesn't quite look right - let
it
> dry, run it down and if need be apply another coat. 
>
> If it's very minor the rub down at this stage may be optional - you will
> almost always get some dry spots in the paint no matter how good you are
and
> one trick you can use is to make your sweeps start and end in different
> areas on the second and subsequent coats. A final rub down and polish will
> blend everything together, but do be aware metallic colours don't always
> behave when you do this. 
>
> If you don't like the results with the spray gun, remember that Victorian
> and Edwardian carriage and railway locomotive painters used brushes to
> prime, topcoat and varnish using hand mixed paint. 17 coats were specified
> by one English railway company with painters using brick dust to rub down
> between each coat. 
>
> Aidrian
>
>
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