Re-Paint?? - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

#1 08-29-2002, 09:38 AM

Hi,

I have a 1972 white MB 280se 4.5. It is in pretty good shape but needs some rust removed. Not big thoug.
Should I then re-paint the whole car or only the repaired parts.

please help.
I heard that a good paint job is hard to find With all the wright undercoast and the wright color match. The old pain is nice and thick and I want to know if today they can paint the same way?

Thanks.

cK

BoostnBenz · #2 09-01-2002, 05:57 PM

No aftermarket paint job is better than (or as good as) factory, however with rust repair you'd have a BIG problem of being able to match the color of the areas you plan on repainting. If you do decide to repaint you can almost count on your size and amount of rock chips about tripling depending on how good of a paint job it is. :-/ Actually the thicker the paint sometimes leads to even worse rock chips, well aftermarket. Just speaking from my bad experience with paint jobs..

~jm

dieseldude · #3 09-01-2002, 06:17 PM

While I agree with BoostBenz on the quality of the orginal factory paintwork, if you can, find a body shop that uses Glasurit paint, you should be in good shape. That is the brand the MB factory uses (or used to use at any rate - definately on a W108 like yours), and should prove pretty durable if the shop is a good one.

Regards,
- Ryan

#4 09-02-2002, 11:32 PM

Well anything is possible depending on how much $ you want to spend. I agree, generally speaking repaints are not as good as factory repaints, but if you look at some restored cars at pebble beach, i think you can agree that the paint on these old cars are better than most factory cars.

If you have a rust problem, have them replace or repair the panels by cutting and welding, or whatever nessesary. Do NOT use bondo type fillers, the rust will resurface. You can have the whole car repainted. Most good bodyshops will do a "blend" so it makes it harder to tell a repaint was done.

Also with reguards to thickness, good preparation is the key, make sure they sand down the old paint ALL THE WAY and not just paint over the old paint.

JCE · #5 09-03-2002, 12:52 AM

From what I saw at the Mequiar's clinic this last weekend, thick old paint can often be cleaned up very nicely, depending on how much you want to spend. A good shop will have an electronic paint thickness gauge, and will be able to monitor the thickness at various points.

Was 1972 pre-clear coat technology, and still lacquer base rather than the new water base? Makes a difference, especially if the smog police in your area have outlawed anything but water base paints.

Assuming you really love the car and plan on keeping it forever, I would have the best shop you can find determine if the rest of the paint is good enough to keep. If it isn't, a quality paint job with German paint, multiple coats, color sanding, and rust clean up can easily run $3000!!! Redoing just the repaired sections will be less, but redoing it RIGHT won't be inexpensive. Either way, the pro at the Mequiars detail clinic indicated on paint work to pay extra for 1 or 2 additional coats (booth time, labor, materials, etc.) and for color sanding to have a quality job.

BoostnBenz · #6 09-04-2002, 09:52 PM

I thought you were just supposed to sand to primer to save the BS of having to treat the metal. Then you re-primer and then paint.

As little as I'd like to admit it, my car has a TERRIBLE paint job on it. If I ever found out who painted it, I'd kick their....

Anyhoo, my paint almost looks like it was trying to lift, they prepped it that bad. Overspray was EVERYWHERE, if I didn't know any better I'd say either the guy was completly drunk or didn't have A CLUE what he was doing. Even the windshield had overspray on it! Most all seals... you get the point. Anyway I'm kinda hesistant of cutting the paint because I think it's so thin that I'd go right through it. As a matter of fact the passenger side of my car is more of a light blue (like factory color

) because they put the paint on that thin. However they managed to make the clearcoat run in some areas so.... :-/ I'd like to at least give it a good shine, even if it looks like crap up close. What do you think would be better to do, cut the paint or just start with some meguirs #7 and try to buff it or will this make the vast amount of imperfections even worse? The only thing they did do right was pinstripping, which makes it MUCH harder to cut the paint now.

Thanks,
Jeff M.

psfred · #7 09-05-2002, 01:00 AM

I'm using rubbing compound on the s... paint job on the 280 -- same overspray problems, they didn't tape the window trim properly, and it is cracking something terrible. I will be sanding down to factory primer this winter and re-painting, same as we are doing to my brother's 75 300D. I can at least get it to shine -- looks like dark blue construction paper at the moment where I've not gotten to it, but lots of work for minimal results.

I've got the same defects in the paint -- it's semimetallic, and the flake didn't settle properly, lots of mini-runs, even on the tops of the fenders. Lots of bondo in the right front (rust repair, I think), so new fender, too, someday.

I don't know if it is the solvents in the newer polyurathane paints or the paint itself, but I've seen several cases of "cheap" paint jobs taking the factory paint off when the crack or chip off. Worse if they didn't prime properly (no primer at all on the 280 between paints!).

Peter

BoostnBenz · #8 09-05-2002, 11:30 AM

I'm in the process of cutting all the paint right now, it seems like most visual imperfections are below the base coat.

However, from an optimists point of view it does mean they primered in between. I'm probably just going to clean it up the best I can with this paint, and if the car gives me a couple good years of service I'll repaint it or get it repainted.... I think there is some fill in one of my doors as they didn't do the paint right in that area (probably painted over the bondo without primering

). What's interesting about mine is other than some blue paint on the edges of the window trim, the rest of the trim is clean.

~jm