mx5cartalk.com

I bought my little Na6 a few years ago with pretty tired paint (well, it was pink on most panels !)

Some nasty fruitbat had deposited a lump on the bonnet and on removing it, a large hole appeared in the paint !! - seems that bad guano rots body filler, who knew ?
The front bar was cracked and nasty looking with peeling clearcoat and basically ugly.

so over xmas i decided to give it a little spruce up...

1 litre of Classic Red was mixed by my friends at Auto-Pro west gosford, and some fibreglass matting was acquired from Glenn at rebel Spares (White Monaro, very nice..)

I'll let the pics tell the rest.

First thing i did was remove the front bar and scuff the paint with 400 wet / dry and plenty of water


The front bar was re-glassed and filled (this is a middle-stage photo, sorry, forgot to take pics at each stage !)


I gave the whole body a rub down with wax and grease remover (Super-cheap auto) and layed 3 light coats of paint (1:1.5 / paint:thinner)


A few more coats and it was starting to look better , so i took it outside to harden for a few days (2 weeks it turned out to be thanks to a failed ISCV sensor.. bleurgh)


A little bit of polishing later (try close to 12 hours !!) (large orbital polisher - first time I've ever used one, not too bad if you get your speeds right!)


I suppose the take home story is that an uneducated fool like myself can spray panels, its not perfect, but then again this is my every-day car, and I'm not a spray-painter!

I like how it came out, but ifi was to do it again, I'd use a LOT more paint (about 3 liters i think) and get someone else to polish it !!

Cheers

nice job Kazjim

Nice work! A great sense of satisfaction in doing it yourself, and you have more confidence to do better next time, I know I do!

Nice work mate, dont think Ive seen you around the area, ill keep a look out for the striped NA.

All work is preparation, sanding, sanding and then more sanding.

Now you need to clean the wheels!!

To clean all aloy wheels I would use pre-wash spray (the cheap home brand hand pump type) apply spray let it soak in then brush and rinse off. It will kill the lawn ! So blame the dog for it . Please try it, takes the brake dust so easy.
Ted

nice result though what paint did you use IE; catalyst OR non catalyst?

It was definitely non-catalyst - i woudnt reccommend ANYONE to spray that stuff at home - use a booth and respirator people !

Pretty sure it was a factory style acrylic, well, thats what i asked for

Thanks all, the wheels are nice and clean, and the paint is almost ready for its first major buffing ..... now all i need is a spare few hours to do it in !

J

good to hear on the non catalyst though what type of cutting compound will you be using? i did some repairs to my paintwork using non catalyst also though was thinking if standard catalyst type buffing compounds were too harsh if theres a difference

also how long were you told to wait to dry before final waxing etc...... i've heard anywhere from 3-6 months

I'm using a meguiars medium cut machine compound .....using a proper orbital polisher (not the $40 super-cheap random orbit ones ...)

Wool pad, set to about 2k rpm, and about 2-3 mls of compound at a time .....

not very harsh, in fact its downright slow ! - but thats ok, the slower it is, the less i take off, right ?

I've been told the same, but its a 'daily street' car and sits in the sun most days, so I'm giving it the final polish and wax this weekend if the weather / time is appropriate.

i got that mr buff one which isnt very harsh and 2k rpm etc does take a while, in fact i haven't finished mine 3 months later lol

dont forget to apply a swirl remover / polish after buffing flat and before waxing, you will not be disapointed

That looks great. You should be pleased with it!

How hard is it to do the stripes? Where did you buy the kit from to do it? I have got a hankering to do the same on my BRG NA but in yellow.

Won't be able to miss you now as I cruise the CC.