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Project Pain(t) begins

noquarternoquarterMember
Sunday I started dismantling the Pantera for this winter's paint job. Those that read my rendition of Le Mans Classic know that I hadn't planned to paint the Pantera, I didn't want to. I can never again lean over the fender without fender protection, and I can no longer enjoy a lunch on a ferry with the Pantera squeezed in between other cars and fat tourists. I'll worry about the paint job! Bummer. I'm a bit like my wife on this point. She likes a car with dents, so she doesn't worry about getting a dent.

OK, I exaggerate, but you must admit I have a point. I had the perfect no worries Pantera: all things mechanical worked, paint was scratched, cracked and still shiny when going by fast...

No more. New paint job. Plan is to disassemble and grind off all the paint. I could paint it myself, I've done that 5-6 times before, but right now I have nowhere to do it, and I've in latter years made friends with a pro painter who will paint it for not a lot of money. And of course he can do a better job than me. He said he would only do it if I removed all paint, he refused to paint on top of the miserably and thick American thermoplastic paint it has now.

So all paint has to come off. This will reveal it all. Rust? Dents? Major body work? Eeker Only time will tell.

So what color? As can be seen in the picture it was yellow at birth. Well right now I haven't found a color I like more than the one it has. There are many reds nuances out there, not all pretty, some look like tomato soup past its prime. And some look like a F-car wannabe (which is quite difficult to be when Ferrari changes its nuance according to their sponsor's wishes, like Marlboro). Some people want desperately to have a color nobody else has. Well I want what I want Wink My red is quite dark, like there's a little blood in the paint. Reminds me of the blood, sweat and tears shed over most Panteras... I like it, and as I said, right now it looks like I'll end up with the same color.

Taking apart so far, gone pretty well, nothing major broken. I bent a window bright trim piece, spent an hour getting it back into shape. And the nice people who assembled it before me has made my job easier by only installing half the fasteners to save a few minutes.

The painter has a time slot for it in November. I don't know if I'm in a hurry. If I just find a perfect body underneath the paint, I have plenty of time, if I don't I'm in a hurry.

Soon the mufflers will come off. Hhmm, maybe I should just try to start it w/o mufflers? I've got time to try that Sunday morning I believe...

Updates will come at random intervals.

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chriswilsonchriswilsonMember
good luck. fun and scary at the same time.
my little panel and paint job turned into a full scale nuts and bolts restoration. only its second since i have owned her in 15, no wait 17 years.
enjoy the process.
I secretly hope you find the perfect body under the paint and no nasty hidden secrets. unless its a bullet hole and you have elvis's car.

cheers
cj NZ
noquarternoquarterMember
Finished disassembling. That means no mufflers, had to just start it. Sounded like dragraces I attended many years ago.

Spotted some damage today. Right door closing mechanism, the one with three bolts at the back of the door, on the right side there were washers under the bolts. Why? Because the holes have been ripped too big. I guess this either means that the car has had an accident on the right side, or the door has been pried open with a crow bar. Door skin under coating is different to the left side, and the left side has original yellow paint. So my guess is a new door skin. I'll know more when I get the paint off. It's like gold mining, except you never find anything good, only bad surprises.

So now I'm ready to grind off the paint. Don't really have the energy right now, but I thought I'd do a small area to see how long it takes. The first square feet were OK, then it took forever. Have to have new sandpaper discs, they wear out fast, going to the store tomorrow to get all they have.

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garth66garth66"When speed is the only thing that counts"
quote:
Those that read my rendition of Le Mans Classic know that I hadn't planned to paint the Pantera, I didn't want to. I can never again lean over the fender without fender protection, and I can no longer enjoy a lunch on a ferry with the Pantera squeezed in between other cars and fat tourists. I'll worry about the paint job! Bummer. I'm a bit like my wife on this point. She likes a car with dents, so she doesn't worry about getting a dent.

I've had the same dilemma with my car. Cracks, crazing, and dents from age and use; I'd like it to look nicer up close, but the moment its repainted I'll worry about every little nick or scratch. Keep us posted on your progress Mikael.
rbarkley671rbarkley671Member
Have fun grinding! A word of caution though. It is my understanding that the origional paint had lots of lead in it. If there is original paint under the repaint take precautions by using a good resperator and doing it outdoors (or your garage will be contaminated like mine). Also, ZONKEY (#1549) had only a little damage but there was hardly a straight panel on the car. All had been straightened by the factory paint job.
noquarternoquarterMember
I've started to get serious now. Plan to do the front third this weekend. Went to the shop to get the material. Some hours of work. Fortunately we had guests Saturday late afternoon so I had to stop.

quote:
there was hardly a straight panel on the car. All had been straightened by the factory paint job.


I believe you're right. No major dents found yet, but apart for the top of the fenders, there's filler everywhere.

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noquarternoquarterMember
My guess would be stretch holes, seen it before on the wife's Stratus on the panels. It's just that they're so round...?

The rust area above looks stretched also, metal around the holes is thick, not rust thin. I've found 5-6 places where they seemed to run out of metal, my trusted welder will add some.

Rocker panel is like new, and one of the straightest panels on the car.
jag13catjag13catMember
I, too, have been following your progress since I am about to embark on a complete restoration.
My vehicle is completely disassembled with only the windshield and back glass remaining.
I am planning to have my vehicle media blasted-probably baking soda.
Just curious since you are sanding should I be concerned with media blasting.
noquarternoquarterMember
My view: Blasting for me means shipping it out, I don't want to do that if can be avoided. Careless blasters can put dents in the middle of larger areas.

Yes, grinding does scratch the metal, and you have to careful at corners and bends. And move around, don't overheat.

About the heavy primer needed, well if you think that your metal on a Pantera can otherwise just be primed and painted, that's in very few places the metal is straight enough. I always cover the entire car in what we call spray-filler, don't know the translation. All that said I will go over the whole car with less coarse paper, to remove the worst imperfections.
A andriykoMember
As far as Paint stripping is concerned ...

Mark Charlton put me onto a GREAT, GERMAN tool.

It is called MBX. It is available from the US as well.

For EUROPE follow this link:

http://www.monti.de/de/automotive

For US and Canada follow this link:

http://www.mbxit.com/

What I particularly like about the tool is it does not "grind away" or heat the metal when removing the paint - Although it still generaltes paint dust. (but even for the dust they have a dust attachmetn). Have a look at the videos !!

One of my best tools.

HTH

BG
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noquarternoquarterMember
I was a bit ahead of schedule starting this weekend. But doing the back of the rear deck lid took almost all day, not finished yet. So many angles.

First angle grinder died today, bearing shot. Three left, but two of them heavy and need to push the button all the time. Will probably shop for a new one Sunday.

Still hope to finish the big areas Sunday, so I can start cleaning the garage. If not, it'll be an evening next week I get to that.
noquarternoquarterMember
Bought a new Bosch grinder (the broken one was an AEG). Now I have two Bosch. Bosch is an amazing brand. I don't think I've ever had a Bosch product fail on me. I've had one grinder where the carbon thingys wore out, and my current Bosch drill is a bit weak after I dropped it in the salt water when working on my boat. Don't think Bosch can be blamed for that. My house has two electric garage door openers. The one which was already installed when we bought the house is a Bosch, the other brand has been repaired twice.

When it seems like all other brands deliberately reduce quality to make a short term profit, it's great that a few brands exist for those who don't mind paying a bit more and get something of quality.

So why am I doing this advertising for Bosch? Well, as soon as I stop writing, I have to go out and get to work again...
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noquarternoquarterMember
Finally, it's bare metal everywhere where the paint is visible. The inner part of the two lids were a pain...

I'm finished grinding, at least until the painter comes by next week, he may put me to work again. Started to get the red dust out of the garage, wonder if I ever will get the red tint out of my carpets...

Next step is for me to start welding, filling the areas where they hadn't enough metal. Plus aligning a bit, in some places it can be better, will reduce the need for filler.

And a few things that need fixing now that I can do it without the risk of scratching the paint.

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noquarternoquarterMember
I took pictures of all the cracks before grinding, and I'll add some metal there. Usual places, c-pillars into rear quarter panels, rear lamps, bottom of a-pillars. Plus some strange ones that were just due to inferior/mismatched fillers. A few cracks won't hurt though, just shows the torque Wink

And unless somebody tells me the holes in my front fender (pictured earlier) are from a celebrity with more star quality than self control, I'll fill those holes with metal.

Still can't decide the color. This weekend I've moved from red to yellow to blue metallic... Or maybe just a clear coat, it would be a look like no other car in the world for sure...
noquarternoquarterMember
Well, I've now decided on a color. And I'm not going to tell which. I will say that it's a color I'm sure no Pantera has ever been painted before (so, not original). And it's a color many will hate, few will like, even fewer will be indifferent to it. Do I do it to be different? Not really, it's just the most beautiful color in the world, on a car or otherwise...

Unless I change my mind...

Besides that, not much progress, waiting for the painter to have time to come by, fixing a bit of Longchamp and Jeeps. This weekend I'll start the metalwork.
noquarternoquarterMember
I've started on the metal work. Rust in one place only, but a lot of places with holes and just a general lack of metal, filling that in.

On the topic of panel gaps, I don't think you can expect a lot from a hand built 72 car. When I contemplated painting on that day at Le Mans Classic, I looked thoroughly at my panel gaps and compared to the other Panteras there. It was actually quite good, and a lot better than my previous Pantera. One area annoyed me though, the top of the door at the a-pillar. Here's a picture of the left side, looks pretty OK

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noquarternoquarterMember
No more rust holes. Welded all the machine gun holes as well. Only need to fix the right door, some alignment issues that require some metal bending etc.

The painter was here. He said, do this, do that. So still some work to do. He didn't like my color choice, he wasn't even sure that color could be had in today's water borne paint. We'll see...

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