Hey There,
I wish to paint my white 1983 190E.
I am going for a grey Color which our second Benz is painted in. The Reason I am doing this is because the White is not very flattering to the Car and very dificult to keep clean because I think it has not got a clear coat on it.
Now my Question is when I come to tell my Paitnshop how to do the Paintjob what should I ask for specifically. Like how many coats of paint and how many coats of laquer over the top. I know it is going to cost a bomb but I am not planning on selling the car therefore this paintjob has to last. Any tips and tricks anyone could give me will be very much appreciated. By the way I live in the U.K.

P.S.: Can you tell me why I no longer can read the topis on the Forum's? Tehrfore not being able to read anyother post's?

Thank you Toby

Toby, I am far from an expert but I have researched this for my restoration project.

To get a "show car look" and a ripple free effect, most of the work goes into the body. My car was stripped to the metal, dings removed (by pulling the metal, and then a thin thin coat of liquid metal or filler). The car is then primed with epoxy primer, wet sanded, repeatedly primed (as many as 6 times). Each time between the priming-sandng cycle, a "shadow coat" of black or dark primer was sprayed and then wet sanded off. Any high or low spots show up and can be addressed individually. Different gauges of sand paper are used, going from more to less coarse as each prime-wet sand cycle is completed

This repeated priming and sanding is what gets the body smooth and even and ready for paint.

Then comes the paint. As I understand the process, there is just one spraying session for the final color coat of paint, but the person applying paint will go over the body enough times to ensure a complete coverage and it goes on heavy with the new low volume high cover paints and paint guns. Less solvents to evaporate, as they tell me and more environmentally friendly.

If you use paint/clear coat, then the clear coat goes on. What gives the deep shine of a show quality paint is that the clear coat is wet sanded to eliminate the "orange peel" which is is essentially a series of ripples in the clear coat that can form after the coat dries. Orange peel gives the car a dull look and virtually all factory painted cars have this-even my 1999 e320 wagon. Reason is that it is a expensive step to go back and wet sand.

I am sure there is some inaccuracy in one of the details I shared, but essentially, your perfect paint job is not in the number of coats of final paint, but the number of coats of primer and the individual wet sanding and body work done at each step of the sanding and body finishing work.

If you have a newer car, you would not need to go back to the metal, but would want to have several steps of wet sanding to ensure you get the body back to smooth and the dings fixed. Cost without removing all of the chrome would be in the $2-4,000 range (US dollars). I had to go back to the metal as the car is 30 years old and had a number of paint jobs and several rust spots. I needed to get it back to metal to make sure there were no hidden rust issues.

Here is a reference for Q&A on Body Work. Good luck!

http://www.autorestorer.com/q_boards/body/index.cgi

__________________
Regards,

Tom S.
1971 280SL Tunis Beige Metallic
1971 280SL Tobacco Brown (13K miles)
1970 280SL Deep Red
1994 E320 Cabriolet
1999 E320 Wagon 4Matic
2002 LX 470
1992 Land Cruiser

Thank you toms,
that was exactly what I was looking for.

Toby,
If you are going to repaint the complete car, you better let the paint shop take out the doors and trunk lid, so they can paint the complete body in one time without painting the thresholds and styles first and the outer surfaces later.
Your doors have to be painted at the innersides (along the windows) as well.
Be sure that they paint everything in one time, so you don't end up seeing the separation lines from the inner repaint and the outer repaint.

Your white color has no clear coat on it, that is right.



This is what I mean.

greetingz,

__________________
1990 300SL-24
1993 C250D with a minor 600+k kilometer
www.MBenzNL.com(the Netherlands)

There is a new range of white offered by our local MB dealer - it looks much whiter than the usual white, and its said to be as easy to maintain like a metalic paint.

On the doors - I find that MBenz has a point when they repaint those doors these way. And when it comes to fitting it back, they would have to realign the doors to the frame, before sticking them rubber seals all over.

Properly done doors will ensure you enjoy relatively wind-intrusion proof for maximum enjoyment when riding with the wind.

__________________
... Kerry

126 tailed by a 203, 129 leading the pack.

The doors have to be re-aligned before they are repainted (otherwise you would damage the paint layer on the A and B pillar). The paint shop just has to be sure to release the doors at the right side of the hinges. I presume that the doors are right aligned at the moment, so that should not give any problem.

Aligning the doors always with rubber...

greetingz,

__________________
1990 300SL-24
1993 C250D with a minor 600+k kilometer
www.MBenzNL.com(the Netherlands)

I notice you're in the UK. If you don't yet have a paintshop, I would recommend a Porsche Approved Bodyshop of the highest grade (I think there are 2 or 3 grades). We take all of our cars to the local Porsche Approved body shop--they're always getting into scrapes of one kind or another, those naughty cars--and the results, though not cheap, are generally excellent. The only problem can be that the new paint is sometimes of a markedly superior finish to the old paint (this happened to a friend's BMW). Obviously not a problem for you, though.

__________________
JJ Rodger
2013 G350 Bluetec
1999 SL 500
1993 E300 diesel T
1990 190

Thank you for that brilliant tip I will definitely investigate further and see how much that will cost.
thank you everybody for your support.

Toby