vintage finishing, how was it done?

[la Huerta]

ok , so it's not wood related but i was wondering if anyone knows how cars were painted in the old days, before fancy spay eqipment, some old cars and even machiney had such a thick and really deep finish, especially black, would it have been done by hand, you don't see that kind of quality much these days...


La H

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

One way I know of was applying gloss enamel with a brush... by hand.

The trick was to warm the paint by keeping the paint-tin in a container of heated water, the enamel goes on much more smoothly and tends to level itself out. My ol' man used to paint his cars this way, using Mum's electric fry-pan. :eek: Me? I like my compressor... ;)

[la Huerta]

hey i'v heard of some guys warming up there varnish a little too....

as for the car though, i'm sure it would produce fantistic reesults, propably a lot of wet'n'dry work to do though...

think i'll open up a old car restoring thread on another part of this forum...got to be some guys here who have built hot rods and other cool cars

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

He did surprisingly little sanding, apart from a quick initial prep. But Mum reckons he had plenty of practice and used to change the colour of his car every week when they were "a-wooing."

I remember his painting a li'l Morris Minor a sky blue when I was a kid, my sister'd sit there for hours looking at her reflection in the fender!

I still prefer my compressor! :D

[la Huerta]

i'm sure you do but hey the old way sound gooood....

i got to go and paint something now....where's that old lawnmower .....?


tell me some more old day finishing stories mate, i like it.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I can tell you plenty of things not to do when painting this way... :)

Don't paint under a gum-tree... if the twigs, leaves and nuts don't you off, the bird shyte will!

Tell the kids to play somewhere else. A looong way away. I've quite a few memories of being levitated by the ol' man after working out for myself exactly what the frying-pan thermostat did, that mud and paint didn't mix, that my little sister really didn't look better green and that spilled paint is worth crying over. :D:D

If you spill some paint into the frying-pan, clean it before putting the pan back in the kitchen cupboard.

[la Huerta]

ahhh childhood memories...i'm pi$$ing myself laughing here...that's fantastic mate...!

[woodsprite]

Yep, had a good mate who painted his vintage Plymouth sedan (1930 30U for the old car buffs) in an afternoon. Heated up a can of brown enamel, brushed it on, left it in the shed for a day to dry without dust, then about 3 weeks later gave the car a light cut and polish - that paint job lasted years with jusy an occassional polish - and NO brush marks! Wonder if Henry had a team of car painters at the end of his assembly line?
Jeff

[durwood]

I'll try and keep this short but there have been a lot of changes over the years in painting cars so it will be a bit long.

The oldest cars had on them the paint available at the time which was for painting coaches. This was a slow varnish based system using a series of prime and filler coats from memory up to 25 plus coats were involved but basically they were oil based hand mixed coatings.

the primers and fillers were white lead mixed with varnish turps and terabine (a drier) these were put on by brush. each one took days to dry.

The colour was a flat pigmented coating and the final gloss was a varnish applied by brush. Each coat was rubbed down with a cuttle fish block or pumice. Sand paper was not really up and running.

If you had a prang the car would require it to be with the painter for up to 3 months after the repairs. Done properly the brush finish was as good or better than spraying.

This type of material was so slow Henry Ford looked for something faster the only thing available was Black Japan which only took a day to dry (though it set up faster) It was applied by flow coating (pouring it on with a hose) excess paint ran off into a tough and was recycled back up to a tank which gravety fed the hose. Smaller parts were dunked into vats of Black Japan which floated on water.

World War 1 saw the development of Nitro cellulose lacquer ( they were trying to make a safer explosive than Nitro Glycerene) after the war the gooey material was developed as paint and being such a fast drying material it had to be sprayed on ( DeVilbis invented the external mix sparay gun which made that possible, beforehand any thing sprayed was done with a gun like a perfume spray) In 1924 Maxwell became the first car to have N/C lacquer on it. It was now possible to paint and repair you car the same day. By 1927 virtually all cars were finished in DUCO which was the most common brand of N/C lacquer

In 1928 Synthetic Air dry enamel (what we now use to paint house trim) came on the market. Its still used today though its been upgraded over the years. Its the one reffered to which is warmed up. If you heat it it reduces its viscosity and you get a glossier and thicker coat. They make hot spray outfits to spray enamel these heat the paint and supply it hot to the tip of the gun via a separate hot water pipe around the paint hose.

You used to be able to buy a gun which had an electric element like a jug in it to heat the paint though the normal way is to heat it in a tin of hot water or in a convection oven.

In 1964 Acrylic lacquer came out to replace Duco on Holden ( most other manufacturers used baking enamel which was produced at the same time as the other synthetic enamel ) it is based on perspex (product of WW2 )

Its just been replaced in the last 10 years by Acrylic Urethane (2 pack) as the prefered repair paint. Its what is advertised as baked enamel by panel beaters but its not its just equal to baked enamel in performance. You can't bake a car once its alltogether. That takes about 120 to 200 degrees C. 2 pack is forced to dry fast by heating the booth to about
60 C.

Polyurethane came out late 1960's but is usually only used on fleet trucks and boats. It is harder for the manufactures to make and is hard to work (polish rub etc) so comes in a limited colour range.

There is water based paint for cars and its been available but as its not compulsory here to use few use it as its slower to dry and requires special booths which require fans to help blow it dry.

Somewhere I have a paint list put out for the steps in using the old coach paint system its as I said about 26 steps long If anyone is interested I will try to dig it up in my files.

I once mixed up and used the old lead based fillers on an old car (1910) and it was hell to rub down.

[la Huerta]

was all that in your head Durwood ? i bet it feels good to get it all out ...


that's all so interesting ....

i'll have to try the enamel on something...i need a new front spoiler for my AU ute as it's cracked, i want to do somthing a little fancy for fun and may look at painting whatever it by hand to see how it goes...