Hi Paul,
When I restored my TR 4 I was fortunate to have a very experienced ex-pat
Brit do my bodywork.
This is exactly what we did, the logic being that the original paint was....
1. Better quality than what we can buy today what with all the environmental
regs.
2. Likely to keep sticking to the metal that it's been stuck to for ~40
years.
3. It's unnecessarry to remove down to bare metal and then have to deal with
the surface oxidation that starts the minute you expose steel to oxygen.
4. Much more work than taking it down to the original paint/primer.
I am very pleased with the results and would highly recommend anyone doing a
restoration not sand to bare metal unless they have the capability of
etching the steel properly just before painting, and an oven to cure the
primer once it's been sprayed.
Two other tips I got from him. Don't remove the body from the chassis unless
you need to do major rust repair on the chassis (it keeps everything
alligned), and to use an oxy/acetylene torch to determine what areas of rust
need to be replaced. The torch works great on those areas that might be
borderline, just select a big tip and hit the area in question quickly. Rust
will quickly burn away while good steel will remain. The reason he gave for
this was he only wanted to replace the parts that were rusted. We used just
parts of some replacement panels with the good parts of the original panels
remaining. So what that I can't say "I did a body off restoration and took
the tub down to bare metal". My car is black, and the bodywork is worthy of
it....
I'm sure you'll get a few more opinions on this topic, but if you have
basically sound paint under several cheap resprays I'd take the advice of
the "experts" and leave at least the original primer. It makes the job much
more manageable for the home restorer as you don't have to worry about
panels rusting between stages of your restoration. One more thing, I'll bet
that the "bare metal" school is attended by many local bodyshops who charge
by the hour for labor.
Just my 2 cents....
Cheers,
John Matthews
'61 Herald
'63 TR 4
>I tend to agree with some "experts" who have said that unless there is rust
>under the original factory paint, it is best to leave the original paint
>coat
>in place and paint over it. Why, then, do so many folks boast of 'sanding
>it
>down to the bare metal'?
>
>Thanks, Paul
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