Stan Thomas wrote: ↑Fri Aug 02, 2024 2:29 pm
In gathering estimates for the repair of my 1997 solid red colour 420GSi the various companies I've approached differ on which painting method applies. Some say it is clear-over-base coat, and some say it is not.
They say this is important because they have to "blend out" the colour with the surrounding area when painting the repair. Can anyone definately advise please??
P.S.
Was the bodyshell made at Honda at Swindon or Longbridge by a load of fellow Brummies?
Yeah. It's clear over base. It's NOT 2K. So it's a water-based base colour + lacquer these days.
Just as a side note. 2K without a lacquer will go slightly milky/dull long-term, and will need a polish to bring its lustre back. Anyone spraying 2K usually doesn't lacquer it, as a 2K base is tough enough.
My respray was clear over base, as per the original car. But they used a 2K lacquer which is much tougher than a 1K lacquer (1K lacquer is a simple air-drying lacquer, as you'd buy from Halfords). It's a recommended trick in the trade, as 2K protects the base much more than a 1K lacquer.
In addition, people who do blends reckon using a 2K lacquer over the repaired area and therefore also to blend into the remaining lacquer results in a much lower chance of the "halo" effect appearing, which is when you can see the transition region where there is new lacquer over old lacquer (appears as a hazy "ring" around the repaired area).
Having said that, there is a technique with 1K lacquer using Motip's "spot blender." You spray this in the transition region just before lacquering with 1K. It acts as a "dissolving base" for the existing lacquer in the transition region, so the old lacquer and new lacquer mix to create a more invisible (gentle) transition.
Your biggest problem will be the discolouration of your old lacquer. It goes a sort of brown - yellow colour after many years of exposure to sunlight. This has the effect of darkening the paintwork on your car, so any repair area will stand out as the lacquer is brand new and hasn't been discoloured by decades of UV radiation.
You can use tricks to improve the mismatch between new paint and lacquer, and the old paint and lacquer. The Motip spot blender is one such trick, as I've mentioned already. Another is to have the spray line for the repaired area stop at a crease in the bodywork, such as the shoulder between the boot top and the side of the car. Then the mismatch can be put down to the light reflecting differently between panels at different angles.
A lot of car repairers just spray a much larger area with the new paint and lacquer. They refer to it as "blowing it in," as the new paint is blown down the side of the car, and is gently feathered out into the old paintwork over several feet so you definitely can't see the transition.
There's a 220GSi in the club that received a lower half respray (in white). The respray area was masked up to just below the coachline strip the car has, so you can't tell the bottom half is "new paint and lacquer" and the top half is original pint and lacquer as they're never side by side on the same panel - there's a coachline strip between the two paint jobs. Works a treat - you really can't tell the paint is new on the bottom half at all.