garyoneill
Retro Guru
Paintwork
This has been a labour of love and has taken weeks. The original paintwork was a bit tatty and blistering in a number of places so I stripped off the decals and wire brushed anything that might be loose. I followed this up with plenty of sanding to flatten out any significant chips. In the past I have completely stripped frames back to the bare metal but even with acid etch primers the ‘home done’ finish never seems as resilient as the original factory finish, so where possible I have left the original paint in place so as to get a good key. Anyway, I primed over the original paint and quickly found the areas that needed further preparation.
After this I re-primed a few areas and put on a couple of coats of red primer followed by a couple of enamel top coats. I used Halfords Enamel paints (RAL 3020) which looks as close as I could find to the original colour. Lots of flatting, painting, flatting, swearing etc and I managed to get a consistent flat finish. Decals applied and a couple of coats of lacquer. At each stage the frame was dried using a homemade ‘oven’ consisting of a heater, tin foil and some large boxes.... i am not looking forward to the electricity bill!
Now on start putting it back together.
This has been a labour of love and has taken weeks. The original paintwork was a bit tatty and blistering in a number of places so I stripped off the decals and wire brushed anything that might be loose. I followed this up with plenty of sanding to flatten out any significant chips. In the past I have completely stripped frames back to the bare metal but even with acid etch primers the ‘home done’ finish never seems as resilient as the original factory finish, so where possible I have left the original paint in place so as to get a good key. Anyway, I primed over the original paint and quickly found the areas that needed further preparation.
After this I re-primed a few areas and put on a couple of coats of red primer followed by a couple of enamel top coats. I used Halfords Enamel paints (RAL 3020) which looks as close as I could find to the original colour. Lots of flatting, painting, flatting, swearing etc and I managed to get a consistent flat finish. Decals applied and a couple of coats of lacquer. At each stage the frame was dried using a homemade ‘oven’ consisting of a heater, tin foil and some large boxes.... i am not looking forward to the electricity bill!
Now on start putting it back together.