Copart car

[PuntoHowTo]

Anyone know the best way to clean off the hard white oxidation from alloy wheels? Can i scrub it with sandpaper? Soap and water doesn't work.

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It is between alloy and the lacquer.

You can’t clean it off. You need to send the wheel to a specialist as the face needs to be re cut on a specialist machine with a diamond cutting tool.

If you really insist on doing it yourself then most people paint the whole wheel one colour

 

[AnthonyH]

It is between alloy and the lacquer.

You can’t clean it off. You need to send the wheel to a specialist as the face needs to be re cut on a specialist machine with a diamond cutting tool.

If you really insist on doing it yourself then most people paint the whole wheel one colour

Ahhh, so not easy, i figured there'd be an easy solution out there, so i'll have to have a think now

 

[AnthonyH]

Don’t use white spirit. You can use thinners which will take off the new paint and leave the oem paint alone. Or you can use a cutting compound to remove over spray.

Sand the old paint smooth. 240 or 320 grit will do. Lay down some etch primer. Wait for it to dry. Sand it back 400-600 grit, then spray on a colour coat. Sand back to 600-1000 grit. Then clear coat.

Halfords sell a selection box or sand paper that has various grades or paper and instructions on how to use them

I've started on the paint job now, i'm setting my bar quite low, it just needs to be the right colour and not have an obviously poorly painted wing when viewed from a distance. The car has been SORN and i haven't done a thing to it apart from start it up every few days. It'll be a much nicer drive than the Puntos i have but as i've not actually driven it yet theres been no rush to get it done. I imagine when its passed its MOT i won't want to drive my older cars and i'll get the 500X fixed promptly. A funtional bluetooth music player will be nice

Oh and i checked the paperwork closely and found a service booklet...the car has a full service history, i was like WTF - there's people that buy a car and get it serviced every year?! lol. Its had all of its oil changes, but nothing about anything else like spark plugs or timing belts. All of the service history is from a Fiat dealer, i imagine the car had 2 lady owners who just took it into the Fiat dealer and let them do a service and MOT work at the same time. So thats a result.

The weather is good and i'll have an hour a day for long enough to make progress. I erroneously started sanding some rough areas of the wing with 60 grit paper so its too rough...i bought some etch that will arrive tomorrow...i need to dig out a face mask...i decided not to use 2K laquer because i'd probably need to get a better face mask...

OK, i'm going to sand it all to 320 grit now and then clean it up while i wait for the etch to arrive tomorrow.

 

[AnthonyH]

I drilled out the bolts that lost their head, see pic. I didn't take much care because i realised i can very easily get a nut and bolt on here, the car chassis does have a built in threaded nut but i don't need it. However one of them was left with its thread. Thankfully the drilling was quite quick, i'm used to using the wrong bits, but at some point in the past one of you guys encouraged me to find good bits and the Parkside ones i have sailed through here.

The etch came and i got the base layer on. The only misshap was that my finger was over the top of the aerosol spray button (see pic) and i ended up with a few tiny drips here and there. I'll have to sand them off tomorrow. I'm not sure if i should put some more etch on the bits i sand off?

It took longer to prep than paint!

 

[AnthonyH]

I have put etch primer and 2 coats of the paint onto the wing, but it hasn't had any laquer yet. I took it out to see what the colour looks like and its not quite a match. Will the colour only match when laquer is on it? Or did the paint shop not get it quite right? It is very hard to tell.

 

[varesecrazy]

Probably fine with Lacquer..

 

[AnthonyH]

Fingers crossed. I'll laquer it tomorrow.

It was a reputable independant paint shop with a store front that i went to, who probable shouldn't get things wrong, i mean, they'd have no customers...

I'm going to use Halfords Gloss Laquer, no idea if there is a good or bad laquer?! It is this one.

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/paints-and-body-repair/lacquers/halfords-clear-lacquer-500ml-258531.html

 

[AnthonyH]

Its not the right colour. Fairly pi$$ed off. I should have guessed when i arrived at the trade counter to pick up the paint when the guy just slammed it down on the counter and walked off.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Silver is almost impossible to match especially if you’re doing it with spray cans.

The colour of the primer will affect the final colour. So while the paint shop may have given you the right colour there is no guarantee of a 100% match

Halfords lacquer aside from being quite expensive, is also not the greatest.

 

[AnthonyH]

This is possible, but my gut says paying £11.50 is too little for a can of custom made paint, and while the boss is happy to retail at that price the staff aren't. When i got to the shop they left me waiting while i could hear them bitching about various bits and pieces. So not a good enough interaction for me to give them the benefit of doubt.

I've learned some lessons and i'll try somewhere else for the next lot of paint.

I'm going to bung it on anyway, in a slightly despondant mood no doubt lol. I'll have to repaint the wing and two doors. I may be needing a lot of dirt to cover up all the problems lol.

I guess the retail value of this car is sinking by the "repainting", i'll just have to drive the car to its death then lol

I've just been looking for Fiat 348 colour paint and it might have to come from Italy, the postage and packing will be more than £11.50, still looking though.

 

[AnthonyH]

I'm considering the possibility that I didn't put enough of the paint on the wing / botched it

In a lot of videos the paint goes on really wet looking but mine wasn't. I kept the two coats really thin, it was fully covered and not uneven or patchy but maybe it should have been wet looking?

I also definitely haven't put enough lacquer on it, that should also have gone on wet and once again the coat looks and feels too thin.

So now I'm caught between bunging on a wet coat of the lacquer and hoping for the best lol. Or starting it all over again?!

I should really have practised on the old wing, and might do that next.

 

[rmjbn1]

I wouldn't be too hard on yourself, or the paint shop.

Getting a decent DIY finish with rattle cans is very hard, no matter what yootoobers might tell you.

And as a few of us have said throughout, getting silver to match is notoriously difficult.

I've resprayed a small area on my silver Mazda with a can of official Mazda Silverstone metallic and that doesn't match either.

So spending more on paint probably won't help.

Even a professional body shop would struggle to get it perfect with silver - they'd probably prefer to paint the whole car!

If you can't live with it, then I would keep a look out for another panel, from a car with the same colour code as yours.

And even that might look slightly different!

 

[AnthonyH]

Thanks for the encouragement!

In my mind i'd decided the mode of error would be drips, scratches or patchiness, not a different shade/hue. So i've struggled with the colour matching problem.

To be fair to the paint shop they made me one aerosol can of paint for my Grande Punto and it was spot on, i botched the body work on that because on a such an old car i didn't care. Its the right colour but you don't want to look too closely lol

They say you learn from your mistakes, so I'm getting plenty out of the way at the moment lol.