[Stan Thomas]

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?

[Johnny 216GSi]

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.

[Montegoman]

Most of the body panels would have been pressed at Swindon but not at HUM (Honda), but at Rover Swindon that was formerly the Pressed Steel Fisher factory. The bodyshell would have been assembled at Longbridge, in the West Works I believe. The BIW was then transferred by conveyor over the Bristol Road to the main factory and the cars assembled in either CAB 1 or 2. All sadly gone.
Rover Swindon is now owned by BMW pressing panels for the Cowley built Minis.

[Stan Thomas]

Thank you for your responses which are very informative as I do get "pink spots" on the bonnet which polish out for a time.

The painting needed to repair my rear-end shunt by the foreign lorry on the M6 is confined to the boot lid, so may I ask another question please? Does the re-painting have to be low-baked or can it be air drying and still provide the gloss ofthe factory finish - and if the latter, which system is best?

Why I ask is the best "honest" quote I've had is a small bodyshop - but they do not have low-bake facilities.

[Johnny 216GSi]

Thank you for your responses which are very informative as I do get "pink spots" on the bonnet which polish out for a time.

The painting needed to repair my rear-end shunt by the foreign lorry on the M6 is confined to the boot lid, so may I ask another question please? Does the re-painting have to be low-baked or can it be air drying and still provide the gloss ofthe factory finish - and if the latter, which system is best?

Why I ask is the best "honest" quote I've had is a small bodyshop - but they do not have low-bake facilities.

I'm not an expert on low / slow baking. I know there are different activators for the lacquer, but slow/low bake is specialised as far as I know. Pretty much everyone uses the standard cure, which is still quick. I'd advise against using the rapid / ultra-fast activators. I had someone use a rapid / ultra-fast cure lacquer on my roof before I had it resprayed, and it dried with a crazy-paving effect. Not very pretty.

The low / slow bake also requires clean air without any dust, so a spray booth with constant dust extraction.

If you're only having the boot lid resprayed, see if they can turn it so the flat top surface of the boot is vertical for drying. This will prevent dust build-up on the surface and get you a better result. Just use the normal cure lacquer. The gloss level will be absolutely fine. Think of every car/accident repair garage in the UK. They just don't have time to use low / slow bake, so all cars you see on the road have just been repaired with the normal cure product. And I suspect if those owners could see the repairs to their cars, they'd have complained about the problem and body shops would be using something different.

I still think you'll have paint colour mismatch between the boot lid and main body, and you may want a subsequent spray on the rear shoulders of the car body to try and hide the mismatch.

[Stan Thomas]

Thanks for your further advice - I see you are in Birmingham so perhaps we will meet one day and I owe you a pint (or two), as I was born in Summer Lane.

I've located a boot lid as Good 'Ole Wilcox has come up trumps yet again! It's amazing what they still have in stock. I'd even bet they have a speedo needle for a 1930 Tipo 8A Grande Tourismo Isotta Fraschini!

Regards to all,

Stan.