Waiting on some parts and still re-working others, I thought it'd be a good time to paintstripping and re-painting the dash and doors. But like so much else, halfway through the extensive work, I wondered why I couldn't just paint over the previous 2 paintjobs like the owner(s) before me.
Don't have many 'before' shots digitized yet, but this was the dash, which turned out to be wagon red underneath the black. The plan is to have it the same burgundy paint as the exterior, two-toned with a mocha tan where the white was, along the dash and doors...
Strippin' the black was no prob... the tatooed red underneath and the white however... The worst part was discovering some minor filler work in some areas, makes one wonder if it was worth it. What would be the noticeable difference between painting over metal versus over previous paint?
No filler was used to smooth out these inward 'buttons', would you suggest it? Or do you figure filler primer and paint would fill it? The old black paint was too dull for this to show up, wouldn't want the lighter shade of burgundy to cause it to stand out.
Underneath the black, the overhead had been sky-blue/almost turquoise. Seeing that with a red dash and doors woulda given me a headache, don't know 'bout you!
The other thing was finding out I'm running out of time with the primer, before having to re-do it. At this point, only the areas I'd too-thinly etching-primered need to be redone, but am o' course worried about finishing up before having to redo the ENTIRE truck. Am putting Loctite back on and re-filling this...
In my experience paint-stripping is mostly precautionary. On old vehicles the factory paint systems get chalky and porous and allows moisture in to make an almost imperceivable amount of surface rust that could kill your fresh paint in a very short period of time. Also - in order for your new paint system to be completely bulletproof starting from bare metal is the only way to go. I mean PPG want's you to use PPG from beginning to end and so does every other paint maker. That's not complete BS, it really does make a difference sometimes - mixing systems is BAD!!! So starting with a factory (or other) paint that is already failing can only lead to more failing... Plus it's always nice to see just what you are dealing with...don't you just want to know what's under there? Just the other day I was sanding a '63 Chevy Impala down to bare metal and I was thinking to myself, man I am the first person in more than forty years that has seen this thing in bare metal........how cool is that? Ok so yours is more than forty years old, that's even cooler, but don't worry I stripped my '50 to bare metal too.....
That actually started with this lil' discovery on the front hood (an area in need of fill, but a surrounding area that did and didn't need re-primer).
Thanks Browman, that reminder helps! And it IS interesting finding out about its history underneath, it's just this project's been going on for so long, can't wait to get it back on the road. But it is neat learning of its past, that way, I do wonder how long its been since that stuff was revealed. That's it for now, will be back with primer 'n paint results.
I'm always amazed at all the different colors others painted a car before I got it. Sometimes it's 6 or 7 paint jobs under there. Used to be pretty common for a used car dealer to bondo up the door dings and minor dents then shoot a quickie paint job on a used car to double the asking price. A year later, the new owner trades it in again because the paint is dying and it gets a new quickie color.
One of the things I've run into is factory 50's lacquer paint under the topcoat. When the lacquer ages, it shrinks and checks, causing the new topcoat to do the same. I had a 56 Pontiac with black factory paint on the dash. It was checking and the guy I sold the car to repainted everything porche india red.....including the dash. Problem is, he merely scuffed the dash before laying on the red and it came out all checked just like the black lacquer under it..
By checked do you mean scratched? Hadn't heard that term before. If so, the dash seemed checked only in a few areas, but about to have new paint on the outside, I figured the interior would look flat 'n*****py by comparison, if left alone. Really didn't intend to do it this soon, but oh well. Really insightful info, guys, thanks!
The Jalopy Journal
