Help please painting my 1957 MGA

[vin]

Im going to paint my 57 MGA, and any advise would be greatfully received.
I would like to use a base coat and clear coat but i am at a loss to know whitch one to use. ( celly, acrilic, water based !!!?)I have had her for a year but she was painted about 10 years ago, unfortunatly I dont know what with, I would also appreciate any advise on an undercoat too. I intend to keep her the same color red that she is now, thank you in advance,also please excuse my bad spelling

 

[rtbcomp]

If you're painting over existing paint I'd give cellulose a miss, it will lift non-cellulose paints.

 

[Rusty]

Acrylic is excellent but dangerous to use without the right breathing apparatus.

 

[piman]

Hello Vin,

I would question as to why you want to go the clear over base route fro a solid colour? It does make any future localised repair more difficult?

Try some thinners on a shut face or similar and if the colour lifts easily it is painted in cellulose so at least you will know what you have. However are you planning to strip back to bare metal in which case the existing paint is irrelevant?

Alec

 

[malcolm]

The four choices are 2 pack, cellulose, synthetic and water based.

The best for DIY spraying is cellulose. It's the least toxic, and the final coat can be sanded and polished. It's over paintable with most things. The downside is it is brittle and prone to stone chips, and red will oxidise quickly.

Synthetic is a pain - it takes ages to dry so any flies or dust around for 24 hours will be stuck. It's not really sandable, isn't available in every colour any more, and isn't overpaintable with just about everything else.

Water based really needs an oven to cure - otherwise it can stay soft.

2 pack is very nasty - you'd need a proper air fed mask set up (easilly runs into £600 once you've added filters and extra compressor capacity to feed it) and no neighbours that you could poison. Also it takes a long time to dry, so you have to be careful with flies and dust. But a red could be applied without a lacquer, and it is sandable and polishable.

You could do the prep and then take it down to a paintshop for 2 pack paint. Or cellulose with 2 pack lacquer on top would work. Personally I despise lacquer as it has the habit of lifting off the colour when it is stone chipped.

 

[jaykay]

57 mga,should be cellulose stay org. get some celly thinners and rub it on a out of sight area. if the cloth starts to take on the colour,it's celly.
personnaly i would'nt do it in any thing else.
but saying that acrylic single pack is nice.

 

[cloggy1387]

The four choices are 2 pack, cellulose, synthetic and water based.

so what is the paint type in the rattle cans they sell at places like halfords ?. They say acryllic on the can, they dry very quickly, can be cut back and polished and are very flexible (tried it on some rubber knee grips from a motorcycle fuel tank and even with five coats you can bend the rubber back on itself without the paint cracking) They definitely have sonme sort of solvent as you can smell it i.e not water based. They also seem to spray over most other types of paint without reacting

 

[Wozzaaah]

Acrylic/synthetic Cloggy. Like you say, it's actually pretty forgiving stuff, can be applied over most if not all existing paint types and gives a nice finish straight from the can or gun and I've found it dries in about the same as celly.
Celly can be applied over other types of paint but only if an isolating layer (barcoat) is applied first to stop any reaction.
Once made the mistake of spraying a mate's Midget in celly primer without using a barcoat and not realising the existing paint was synthetic.
As fast as I was applying the primer the old paint was lifting, shrivelling and peeling as if I was spraying paint stripper on it!

 

[jaykay]

acrylic is much like cellose, the hardeners used are the health hazzard part.
if you get 1k acrylic it ok just use a regular spray mask.

 

[jaykay]

jk

and A1 to using barcoat.but dont pile it on to thick it will cause problems.
i put it on so as you can only just see through it.

 

[Rusty]

The four choices are 2 pack, cellulose, synthetic and water based.

so what is the paint type in the rattle cans they sell at places like halfords ?. They say acryllic on the can, they dry very quickly, can be cut back and polished and are very flexible (tried it on some rubber knee grips from a motorcycle fuel tank and even with five coats you can bend the rubber back on itself without the paint cracking) They definitely have sonme sort of solvent as you can smell it i.e not water based. They also seem to spray over most other types of paint without reacting

My Brother -In -Law has been a sprayer for 40 yrs and now only uses Acrylic , and to speed up the drying process he uses Celly thinners with Acrylic Paint which is what I did with the Astra ... that's no me by the way that's my Son.
more here .....http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=2241

 

[cloggy1387]

So is the acrylic paint such as is in halfords rattle cans, another 'type' of paint in addition to 2k, cellulose, synthetic and waterbased ?

I have to say this halfords type 'acrylic' stuff appears to have all the benefits of cellulose but is more forgiving and as far as I know has similar spraying safety requirements as cellulose. Thefeore if I want to stray it with a gun and I wanted to get it from a 'proffesional' paint suppliers what type of paint would I ask for ?

 

[jaykay]

single stage acrylic,you will want thinners too,cloggy

 

[66-V8]

In my opinion, that acrylic stuff looks crap. No 50's or 60's classic would look good covered in that plasticky looking ****e. It's ok for kiddie's discomobiles but a classic? Naaaaaah.

Stick with Cellulose.