Penn completes an exercise in learning how little he really knows about real car painting with modern techniques

After the final gloss painting of our Alfa Romeo Spider’s engine bay, tub and boot, the car was to be masked up again, revealing the colour coded primer areas ready for the final colour coat and two coats of clear. This is the time when the final checking has to be meticulous — now or never! Dale at Evans European checks the car carefully, looking for anything at all that will mar the final finish.

He’ll also be taking off any dust or lint — or anything at all that has managed to stick itself to the primer. Then Prepsil is wiped on and left wet to evaporate. The car has been sitting in the shop waiting its turn, and even in the cleanest of shops there must always be things in the atmosphere, not to mention the touches from hands and fingers. Incidentally, the wet Prepsil gives you a taste of what the finish could look like. Garth made the comment that that’s one of the ways you can check the finish out — running your eye along the ‘wet’ finish.

The Spider received three coats of spritz first of all until Dale’s satisfied the finish is ‘straight’ — he rubbed through them with a long board, taking off the highs and levelling the lows — then a second spritzing and the process repeated. Believe me, this will be one straight car when it arrives for the finale.

Fine details

With the colour coded primer a bit of spot priming went on here and there — in a couple of awkward spots, such as around the headlights, Dale used some two-pot putty then blocked it and it came up very nicely. A final two-three coats of primer — reduced slightly because they don’t need any ‘fill’ coats by now — and stepping up the thinner a little will ensure a self levelling finish. Interestingly, Garth made the point that you have to isolate the spritz coats from the final colour coat, because they don’t like each other! Never put it over polyester, always separate them.

There’s a hell of a lot of science in all this, Garth told me that because the hard yards had been carried out with the spritzing and blocking it didn’t need a primer/filler, hence the thinning — and if he’d got it wrong and there was a reaction he could be back at square one! Don’t try this at home.

Incidentally, this car was masked up four times, every step in the process got fresh clean masking. In this process Dale wears gloves, because it is of paramount importance that the surface is totally contaminant-free to ensure the keying of the final coat of paint.

Turning on the heat

The car was sitting in the heated booth for some time at 25 degrees, so the whole car — all of the substrate, the steel and primers etc — was raised to the same temperature. This also applied to the doors, boot lid and bonnet, which have all been treated exactly the same but separately — and don’t forget that everything has been trial fitted a couple of times during this operation to make certain that when the final painting has taken place there are no unpleasant surprises.

At this point the paper trail shows that, to date, 194 hours have been put into the Spider’s painting. Everybody who has worked on it has been bar-coded through the work sheets following the job. This is about accurate recording on every step that is taken. At the end of every job it is then simple to check the hours against the costs — allowing Evans European to ensure efficiency has not been slipping, that it is quoting accurately and, if need be, to give staff more training. This is a very hi-tech shop to say the least.

Final preparation

In the final preparation before the colour coat, there is also a final check concerning sealing in such areas as behind the rear bumpers where the sealant is run along any concealed seams, or anywhere that might let water in, or even just retain water. Onto the sealant will go the final coat, of course. So, by this stage the car was once more masked up, final checking has been done — including any puttying or any place where the primer has gone through to bare metal, final cleaning and final sealing and the car brought up to temperature.

Now Dale mixes his paints and dons protective clothing. In the booth treated air only is allowed in, and Dale’s mask is connected to pure air. But that pure air has been treated in several ways before it gets into the booth and into Dale’s face mask — via a separate personal filter. These are very dangerous chemicals, and it was noteworthy that everybody working at Evans European had face masks of one kind or another permanently around their necks when they weren’t obscuring their mouths and noses.

Applying the paint

Now it was up the professional and his gun and his skills. Final exterior colour coating is pure professionalism, it’s not a skill you can have a couple of trial runs at then paint your own car in the garage. Bear in mind also that, as these articles have tried to convey, the real cost is in all the lead up in preparing the car for this final step. For every hour spent on the gun at the end a huge number of hours has been spent getting to that point. It’s gone over twice of course, because the colour coat is topped off with a clear coat that gives that permanently ‘wet’ look.

Not long before Christmas, I went back in to the workshop for the polishing. The Spider had sat around for a while with the paint maturing, and had gathered the usual residue of dust, all of which was blown and tack-clothed off. After that, Dale could finish off with a polishing that would bring up the paint’s lustre, as well as polishing out any marks that may have got in there.

A buff with clear cutting compound (liquid) was used and, as you can imagine, this is not designed to be a severe process. Dale surprised me by commenting that it could take as long as five hours for the whole car; bear in mind that an Alfa Spider is a small, roof-less sports car.

I’m very conscious that my account of the process has not been a treatise on modern automobile re-finishing, it’s been a real learning process for me too. I do want to express my thanks to Garth and Owen of Evans European and Onehunga Painters, and Craig Marshall of DuPont. Not just for painting this car, but for being a trio of highly articulate and competent professionals so thoroughly in touch with their business that my job became a very demanding exercise in getting up to speed, in order to do justice to the miracle of restoration that I saw take place.

What’s more, it was all done within the company’s normal workflow. Good lads, the three of them.

Restoration Sponsors

¢    Main sponsor, BMW NZ Ltd. Supplier of a new long motor, various replacement panels and sundry mechanical items, ph 09 573 6944
¢    BE Carparts (Formerly Brit Euro), supplier of after market panels for classic and modern cars. Ph 09 276 7841/ 0800 655 505
¢    Mosen Euro-Parts — BMW specialist — Hamilton, ph 07 846 6671
¢    Euro-Italian Car Parts Ltd. 6 Colway Place, Glenfield, Nth Shore, ph 09 444 9817
¢    Auto Radiators (Martin Ross) 12 Nixon St, Grey Lynn, Auckland, ph 09 376 6212/4.
¢    Principal parts supplier — BMW NZ, ph 09 573 6944
¢    Suspension parts — George Stock Ltd, ph 09 270 7200
¢    Euro-Italian Car Parts Ltd, Unit C, Saturn Place, Upper Harbour, ph 09 444 9817
¢    Wheels — Arrow Wheels, ph 09 827 8686
¢    Radiators — Auto-Radiators, ph 09 376 6212
¢    Stripping — Power Strip, ph 09 573 0146
¢    Mechanicals — Bavarian Motors, ph 09 444 5312
¢    Upholstery and trim — Vintrim, ph 09 444 0435
¢    Dry stripping — Daniel Lucas, Heritage Dry Strippers ph 09 826 1686
¢    Dashboard — Dashboard Restorations, ph 09 444 4211
¢    Club — 2002 Register, ph 021 679 020
¢    Steering and suspension — Centreline Suspension, ph 09 376 8082
¢    Transportation — Airdrie Transport Ltd, ph 09 832 5430
¢    Bodywork — Classicar Restorations, ph 09 525 1300
¢    Rust prevention — Permanent Painted Coatings, ph 0800 42 82 982
¢    Rust Prevention — EAL Lanoline supplier,ph 09 627 1153 (24 hrs)
¢    Electrical — North Harbour Auto & Marine Electrical Ltd, ph 09 489 9226
¢    Carburettor — Weber Specialties, ph 09 443 5638
¢    Restoration supplies — Würth NZ Ltd, ph 09 262 3040
¢    Dryfit batteries — Peacock Technologies, ph 06 354 1025
¢    Brakes — Just Brakes, Ph 09 579 4666
¢    Quality Rebuilds — distributors and mechanical fuel pumps, ph 03 342 5677
¢    Al’s Mufflers Target Rd. Glenfield, ph 09 444 5314.
¢    Chrome Plating – Bob Pearson, Otahuhu Chromeplaters, ph 09 276 9689
¢    Repair certification — Lee Burridge, ph 09 525 0125
¢    Low Volume Vehicle certifier -—Neil Fraser, CERTZ, ph 09 482 0071
¢    Paint and materials:
BMW 2002 — Glasurit. Applied by Benge Car Painter ph 09 579 4424.
Alfa Romeo Spider — Dupont Paints applied by Garth Chitty, Evans European
¢    Compliancing — Neil Fraser, Fraser Cars 09 482 0071, and Lee Burridge, CarPro 09 525 1025

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