Lancia Motor Club

In the Spring and early Summer I hope to get my Fulvia ready for painting.

As with everything else on the car, I would like to do as much of the work as possible myself.

I have rubbed down much of the paintwork to remove the old gloss surface layer, and I am progressively working my way around the car treating areas of rust and applying small amounts of filler where needed to get the right contours on the car.

There are areas where the sanding has resulted in visible fine surface scratches.

My questions, as a complete novice in this area, are:

1) should I use high-build primer on the areas where fine scratches are visible, and rub this down with fine wet-and-dry to get a smooth finish? 

2) once I have achieved a smooth finish with the high-build primer, should I just leave it ready for paint, or should I apply some other form of primer ready for paint? 

3) should I also apply high-build primer to the areas that I have applied filler to, even if those areas appear to be smooth?

4) I read somewhere that primer is porous so can absorb moisture.  Does that mean that it should only be applied immediately prior to paint?

5) where new metal has been welded in, should this be treated with etch-primer?

5) what overall preparatory finish to the surface of the car would be most acceptable to a typical paint shop when I take the car to be painted?

6) the closures (bonnet, boot lid, doors) are all currently removed from the car.  Would a typical body shop expect them to be fitted prior to paint, or would they typically paint them separately?

As always, i would greatly appreciate advice on these questions.

You should discuss and agree a procedure with your paint shop otherwise you may end up paying them to take it all off again. I will leave more technical advice to those with more experience as my painting is rather guerrilla.

As Frank says you need to discuss all of this with whoever is going to top coat the car. Many paint shops flatly refuse to paint over ready primed cars. Others will do it with no warranty. 90% of the work is the preparation and priming.

Frank and Neil - Thanks for the responses.   Sounds like good counsel.
However, a friend of mine has inherited spraying equipment so I have been debating doing the painting myself, so some feedback on questions 1 to 4 would still be very useful if there's anybody out there with experience to share.

Bear in min these days paint is much more reactive to other paints/fillers which is why body shops are so wary. Solid two pack should be a better bet (although in long term reactions still surface) but if you are going metallic you need to be really careful.

Thanks Tim.
I'm staying with the original Bianco Saratoga so at least I don't have the complication of metallic!

Hello Norm, the prep is the most important part of the job, your idea of ready to paint.and a painters are miles apart believe me. My advice, having worked in a bodyshop, is leave it to the professionals. All the panels should be painted at the same time ideally , so all will match from the same mix. Hope that helps.

Norman, people do paint their own cars so don't be discouraged especially if you have access to equipment. If your friend who inherited the gear is able to spray then the way forward might be to have him put the paint on and direct you to do the rubbing down. My answer to the problem of scratches in the surface would be to start with ordinary primer and use filler in obvious imperfections then use a filler primer later. Avoiding sanding marks is done by diligently using progressively finer grades of abrasive paper.

I agree with Roger,Tim and the others, your idea of ready to paint will not be the agreeable to a painter worth his salt! Don`t attempt it yourself as you need a good constant supply of dry filtered air, warm conditions like an oven to cure the paint etc. as well as years of expertise if you want a perfect finish. You have gone to a lot of trouble repairing etc, don`t spoil the job now otherwise you might have to do it again! It`s not cheap but no good job is, that`s life I`m afraid.

Good Luck, great job so far.

I have never sprayed a car, but if you are determined to do it yourself (and there are some really great diy finishes out there) the two tips I have picked up on the way in repairing the bodies of my cars are:-

1) never trust what is there!!! In other words it must be back to bare metal!!

2) use the products from only one company and check with them about compatibility between their various products.

Bottom line, you cannot afford to get it wrong and it is very easy to get it wrong, so step carefully!!

                                   Andy

I did get a reasonable DIY finish on my Frogeye Sprite years ago. I used cellulose paint, I'm not sure if that is still available, but it is the easiest to work with. The trick with that was lots of coats rubbed down in between, then a final coat of 80/20 thinners/paint. Broke my heart to rub down the gleaming final coat, but had to be done, with rubbing paste, sort of heavy duty T Cut.

As Andy said though, any tiny imperfection in the primed coat will show right through the top coats no matter what.