Painting
When I brought the van it looked like this:
As you can see it needed a a lot of work. I started off by sanding all the rust spots back to the metal. I purchased a clark orbital sander for this (£20), after persuading the guy in the shop that I didn't want a professional one (read more expensive) and would be happy if it only lasted for the van... it didn't! I had to get it changed as the trigger switch packed up half way though, but the second one managed it. Once on bare metal the rust spots were treated using K-rust (from Halfords) before sanding back and applying spray primer. this primer allows you to sand out the blemishes that rust leaves in the metal giving a smooth finish for the primer. Once primed you only need to flatten off the whole paining area with some fine paper and its ready for painting. The Van took about 4 full days (and most of the skin off my fingers) to prepare to condition below:
As you can see the front still has the
dents in it. I left these as at some point in the future a new front will be
added to the van, also most of the dents will be covered by the spare wheel.
If there are any dents visible I will deal with them later.
So here it is painted. Still some work to do. Spare wheel needs fitting to front (to cover up some of the dents), number plates, wheels to be painted (may change to alloys later when it gets lowered).
I only wish I'd made Betty Boop a bit bigger. DetailsPaint:I got my paint from The Avenue Group. £15 a litre and £9 postage (The paint is called Tekaloid). Brushes:Use the best you can find. I used Hamilton brushes. check there website for local dealers. Technique:The official Technique is stated here My tips:I would suggest that you do a panel and go to the pub. That way when you look at it in the morning you can see if its sagged as its dried out (too thick), or if you have brush marks (too thin) and adjust your technique to suit. Some parts of mine look like they have been sprayed, I've actually seen less flat spray jobs. But like I say that's only the odd spot where I got it right. Be aware that the temperature
makes a huge difference to how the paint settles/runs so
it is important to adjust for different weather. Done mine last week after help from people on KamperChat (cheers to richlowndes and the rest who helped). I wish I had tried a roller. I've been told that for flat panels they improve the finish. Foot noteAll in all, I'm happy with the job. I need to do another coat and some sanding though. I used about 1/2 litre of blue and 3/4 litre of white (you MUST use white primer if you want to just do one coat otherwise it will show through). Links |
