Morris Minor Owners Club

Hello,

I have recently just bought my second Minor and as the previous owner (in his infinite wisdom) decided to crudely hand paint it, my step dad and I are going to give it a re-spray. I am using it as my main car at the moment and would like to carry on doing so and so was wondering whether it would be better to use an original BMC paint and then wax and polish it to give a good and weather resistant finish or whether, seeing as it is already pretty modified, to use a non-original metallic paint and then lacquer it? (Hoping the latter might be a more low maintenance approach)

I do have a garage at home but when I am at work, as I work for the national trust, the car will be parked daily in woodland and in all weather conditions.

Cheers

'Metallic' paint will not be easy to spray at home... I would use celly - you could always lacquer it if you wish. Your biggest challenge will be the removal of ALL the old paint before you start spraying. Or you could use Dulux Gloss - it gives a good hard wearing finish! Our Morayshire is now black - and attracting photographers like flies to a .........
[frame][/frame]

Cheers man, would it be best to be strip it down to bare metal or could I use the orbital sander to smooth the paint so it acts as a base for the primer and then put the layer of primer over the top?

Its almost a certainty that the brushed on paint on your car is oil based.That means if you plan to use one of the usual finishing systems(celly or 2k) you will have to remove all traces of the oil based paint or you will be guaranteed to get reaction that will ruin the new paint.Your only solutions are to use a paint sealer(not recommended as the old paint is still there and you have to be very careful not to damage the surface of the sealer before top coats)or to completely remove the paint that's on now.If you're lucky the person that painted it will just have glossed over the old celly which means you'll know its off when the colour changes.If he used oil based primer too you have to remove that also.Dry sanding would be my choice as using paint stripper on the oil based paint will cause you even more problems.
Mick

You can easily check if its oil based...... Get a small piece of cloth and soak it in celly thinners place it on the top of the paint and leave it for a few minutes,if it crinkles the old paint then it will react with new celly on top.

^ that is an excellent tip! Cheers Kennat, That'll come in handy as I have no idea what the chump who painted my car used, and the bonnet's paint has split all over.

Well you will definitely need to strip the bonnet back to bare metal... #nitromors

I just bought some new improved expensive Euro compliant green coloured Nitromors....Never again its useless......

You can buy decent paint stripper from car paint suppliers but you have to sign a health and safety disclaimer to get around legislation...

Taupe

Good point bmc, I guess I will have to strip to bare metal regardless of whether the top layer reacts with the celly thinners, as if the top doesn't that means the stuff underneath would!

If its got a very heavy coating,ie several resprays and a hand painted coat then yes ,you will need to strip the lot off.Once the paint is that thick you get cracking in the top coat caused by the expansion and contraction in the sun of the thick under coats.Theres no solution other than taking the paint off,massive and messy job,done it twice wouldn't want to do it again.It may be possible to sand it off,back to the original primer,which would leave you with less preparation for respray,but if you use stripper then it will eat into the primer so bare metal respray needed,and you will find every bit of filler that has ever been put on the car.