I recently pulled my hardtop from garage trusses and put on 66. It was painted in the mid 80's with the rest of the car but has lost its luster due to bird droppings. I couldn't make top look presentable with compound and am thinking of painting the top. Car was painted black lacquer when the top was painted and maintains a good look. I spoke to local NAPA and they said lacquer has beed discontinued. I will be painting the whole car in a few years (professionally done). What are some suggestions. What is the 1966 color code?
Hardtop Painting
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Re: Hardtop Painting
Walter, depending on the state you live in, laws related to lacquer differ.
Some states disallow all use, most if not all disallow commercial use and some allow use in small shops for restoration purposes. Saying that, check you local laws, see if you can obtain lacquer then make a decision.
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Re: Hardtop Painting
Walter,
I would suggest maybe wet sanding your top with some very fine/ultra fine paper and then taking the rubbing wheel to it again. I have brought quite a few old paint jobs back from the dead doing this. As far as the lacquer goes, I was just attempting to find some to touch up an 80 I am working on (blue-which I had no luck with), and I found that locally (Detroit area) that black was about the only color I was able to find readily available (from more than one source). So if you cannot get it to shine up, you may be able to find a small amount to do your top with to tide you over until you repaint your whole car, at which time you most likely will use modern two stage BC/CC (I am guessing).
Lynn- Top
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Re: Hardtop Painting
Thank You Lynn the light sanding of the top worked great. I sanded with 1000 g. sandpaper ans than used rubbing compound. After polishing it looks good. Still some light spots but OK. I wet sanded the top first. Does anyone have suggestions if I should wet sand or dry sand for this situation. Any reccomendations on compounding and polishing to get the light scratching out that you get from this operation.- Top
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Re: Hardtop Painting
1000 grit used to be considered fine sand paper, but now days it's pretty coarse, i usually start with 12 or 1500, switch to 2000 then finish up with 2500, makes the buffing very easy.
always wet sand, i use a water bottle with a squirt top and wipe the surface down with a clean towel between sanding to eliminate contamination of the different grits.
i draw some lines with a sharpie and sand until they are gone, this helps keep you from oversanding and lets you keep track of your progress easier.
lastly, you want to stop sanding and polishing before you run out of paint, take your time and be careful, it'll turn out great.- Top
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Re: Hardtop Painting
As Doug stated , definitely WET sanding is the way to go. As far as compounds, I am sure there are multiple brands (and grit) you can use. I think any will work, but with the coarser compound, the morel likely to "rub through" sooner, so I would be careful and make sure not to go to far. The actual wheel itself can be purchased in varying grades also. After you wheel it out, you can get a hand glaze type of polishing compound that should remove any wheel marks or swirls left from the rubbing wheel. Some of these types of polishes can be applied with the foam style wheels on your polisher, but I usually do it by hand for single panels (as with your hardtop). Glad it seemed to work for you.
Lynn- Top
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