Mk 1 Project Zippy. Looking Like a Car.

[MrBounce]

First bit of sanding done. It's SO white now!!

[MrBounce]

It has been a while I've updated this as Mrs Bounce has recently had major surgery, so I have not been out to the garage much. She's now on the mend and I have turned my attentions to paint. Having looked into various options, I was left with these 3:

1. Give it to someone else to spray. I don't have the budget for this at all. A 4-figure sum is not in my plans so that's out.
2. Respray the car myself. My garage is too small, but there's the option of a decent sized gazebo/tent/temporary structure of some sort and my friend has a compressor with spray gear. And here's where it gets awkward. I have never sprayed before, so would need practice and there's no guarantee I would be much good at it. Add to this the problem of the breathing gear needed for 2-pack (and the legislation attached to not being allowed to spray outside) plus cellulose only really being available via the internet and things were starting to look bad for a spray job. There is of course the option of finding larger internal premises to spray in, but I do not know anyone with such a place plus there would be the additional ball-ache of borrowing car & trailer to transport it there and back. Whoop-di-doo.
3. DIY paint job using rollers. I have done a fair bit of research on this, and as my car will not be a trailer queen/concours vehicle, I am happy with just a half decent shine. So I have gone down the Rustoleum route as they have a wide range of colours, and it's easy to apply with no primer once it's been thinned. Flat down with fine wet & dry then re-coat. And Shaun's just bought a polisher. Plus there's the added bonus of it being much cheaper!

There's only a minor bit of prep left to do, I've now got all the paint and equipment, so will let everyone know how it goes.

I'll just leave these two pics here...

[Rich]

I'll be interested to see how this works out, I've so nearly painted with Rustoleum several times and still have several litres of it in BRG up in the loft.

[max midas]

Type Rustoleum into the search box to see my experiences with it last year.

[Rich]

That's sealed it, I've had so much hassle trying to work around the neighbours and the weather that I've ordered a can of RAL 3020 which is pretty much the original colour, I've still got a load of rollers form the last time I geared up to do this.

[stan1396]

Hi Mr bounce, Just to give you some useful info about rollering.When I built my Spyder I got my wife to paint it [but yours is out of things at the moment,I suppose!] But then Margaret is a decorator.We tried brush painting first with Purdey brushes-waste of time! the brush marks just showed thru. The best results we got were from foam mini rollers with slightly thinned paint.We used Craftmaster coach enamel,made for steam engines and canal boats.
The main thing is to start and finish on the car at a small area 'cos by the time you get round the car to the join,the wet edge will be quite sticky and you will see the join.
On a midas,I think I would do the roof first,leaving the joins at the top of the pillars, And then work from one wing right around to it again,possibly with the join at the headlamp cover.
When you roller,roll the paint out evenly in all directions,then finish by rollering in one direction-say to the rear of the car as you paint each rollerful out.[hope that makes sense ]
I do remember that the worst part of it was keeping flies off-they were just attracted by the colour-or they were just being bloody awkward!
When I took the car to various shows,a lot of people would not believe that it was hand painted-one bloke even telling me to f off! It was not perfect,but did look period as was 1948 ferrari copy.
The last thing is to leave it a few months before you polish it.I used farecla G10 and then just good polish.Just let the paint really harden off.
I do believe there is a pic of the car in the 'alternative projects' folder.
Hope that helps,and good luck!
Stan.

[MrBounce]

Stan that's brilliant help - many thanks I am planning to indeed thin the paint slightly (about 10-15% will be thinner) and have a supply of 4" rollers and a selection of foam brushes for the awkward bits. Am looking forward to getting started - it's about time this thing had some paint on it!!

[MrBounce]

No two ways about it - the first rolled coat is on! The only difficulty at the time was getting the amount of thinning right. Originally I'd planned to use 10-15%, but about 17.5% turned out to be better. There were a couple of minor runs but these were only right on the edges. These will all be flatted back before the next coat but I will be leaving it for a week to harden. The overall finish at first shows a few of the darker bits through where it's been repaired but these will disappear after the next coat or two. In the meantime I will have to do the bonnet and doors; shouldn't take too long!

First bit done; no going back now!



It's ORANGE! Not gonna lose this in a car park...



Looks good from the back too. Shaun doesn't. He just looks scary...

[Rich]

Loving it in orange!

Got the first coat on mine today, it looks horrendous! Fingers crossed a bit of extra paint will straighten things out.

[MrBounce]

Not too much to report this week other than I have given Zippy his second coat of paint. It was a much easier process second time around as I think I know what I am doing now. I think that this time round I go for two coats before flatting back. I am thinking probably 4-5 coats in total and it should eventually polish up quite nicely.

I also dragged out the bonnet, painted the underside in satin black, then flipped it over to give it a coat of orange once the black was dry. All went swimmingly until I packed up and left everything outside to dry. I shut the garage door straight on to my freshly painted bonnet. How I didn't swear I will never know...

Underside of bonnet now black.



More orange.



And yet more orange. Before I hit it with the garage door. Nuts.