How Much paint will it take to Respray a Traveller 68

Post by **malpad** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 1:42 pm

Hi All,

Wondering could anyone advise me on how much Paint it will take to completely Respray my 1968 Traveller.
It's a whole load of different Shades of Trafalgar Blue at the minute! a complete respray is in order.
If applying etch/ Primer coating to aluminuim panels how much of this is needed also to respray them all.

Thanks

Post by **Luxobarge** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 1:48 pm

I'd budget on about 4 litres to do a decent job. That's 4 litres of un-thinned paint, you need about the same of thinners for each paint layer. I'd advise buying high-gloss thinners in a 5-litre can, so you have some spare, and some standard thinners for the primer, same ratio for primer. Extra standard thinners is always useful for cleaning the gun etc. (I expect you know this!)

I strongly recommend etch primer onto any bare metal, whether it's aluminium or steel, followed by high-build primer (=filler primer) followed by top coat after flatting down. Etch primer doesn't build much, so you only need a thin-ish coat of this, you'd probably do the whole car with 3 litres of this, less if you're leaving some original primer on it in places.

Final top-coat will go on more glossy if you use a higher ratio of thinners, but watch out for runs!

It gets expensive to do it all properly, but is well worth it!

Others may have other views of course, but the above is my experience of painting several cars to a high standard!

Cheers

Post by **malpad** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 4:43 pm

Thanks for that Luxobarge

Post by **bmcecosse** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 4:57 pm

I would say 2 litres of gloss colour coat should be enough. Depends how many coats - how many mistakes you make! But I did mine with 2 litres and still have a bit left over. There lot's of glass area on a Traveller -and not all that much metal to paint. Obviously - painting the roof is the worst job!

Post by **Luxobarge** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 5:49 pm

Yeah, a roof is always a pain and can take quite a lot of paint, it's worth organising some benches or trestles to stand on either side of the car while you do it.

You might well do it with 2 litres, it all depends on so many variable factors, such as whether your gun is a wasteful type (like mine!) or a very efficient one like an HVLP system.

I used 5 litres to paint my Midget, which is smaller - but then I also did the underside/inside of all panels, doors etc. and also the whole engine bay and inside the boot - I reckon it would have been nearer 2-3 litres if I'd done just the outside of the body.

IMHO you're better off having plenty of top coat, as if you run out and have to get more, the next batch may not be a perfect colour match. It's always useful to have spare top coat for future touch-ups and blow-ins should you damage the car in the future. However, you can economise on primers as you can always get more if you run out.

All the best!

Post by **MGFmad** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 12:25 am

I have used about 4 litres of top coat, un-thinned, to do mine - that included the engine bay as well, using 2 pack paint (with breathing equipment just in case anyone asks!), don't remember how much primer though but if you get a 5 litre tin that will be fine.