Thread: 51 MG restoration.

Or, does it mean make sure you have 20 minutes set aside to get the job done?

Put my gators on and filled the rack with the requisite 3/4 pint of 80/90 gear oil today at work using a vice to hold things vertical. Smelled like the oil out of an old bottom end off a merc outboard as I flushed and worked the rack till things ran clean before first tightening and compressing the lower arm gator, extending the rack all the way at the top, then as I slowly let the rack drop I filled the new oil. Then, when full and at end of travel I installed the top gator compressed. This way, no extra air trapped when everything is tight. Works kinda cool, as you turn the wheel, the hydraulic fluid dampens the travel and forces the oil towards the extending side like a pair of bellows working together, one side is sucking when the other is blowing. Can hear the squish of oil slippin through the rack and pinion.

Also wired up, changed the Voltage taps and tested the 2 old metal halides I saved for years now. Can’t believe they actually both work after easily 20 years of kickin round the garage. These are 400 watts each and once warmed up still throw a good amount of lumens. One on either side of the car shooting down the sides should allow me to watch my pattern well enough. Will be testing lighting and ventilation when I prime and can hopefully work out any issues from there. Toughest challenge is laying everything out to be paintable at the same time without overspray in my relatively small footprint. Really didn’t want to spray anything outside of the garage but may have to have a few items outside, or paint in batches.
Still figuring it out.

20 year old metal halide lights. I’ve got an idea what those used to be used for. Hehehe

Today I prepped the only non damaged panels on the entire project, the bonnet pieces, as well as re-stripped the rear fenders and degreased and prepped everything.

And inspiration for the design from the old Dexter show I’ve reorganized the shop for paint.


Now I’m playing Tetris with the panels seeing if I can make this flow some how..

Originally Posted by MikeB52

So I’m reading my primer instructions and am not sure how to take this statement.
Attachment 335833
Allow 20 minutes to recoat with epoxy sealer again….

So does that mean do 2 coats 15 minutes apart, wait 20 minutes and do one more coat? Or is that an optional ‘as necessary’ thing. And then I have up to 48 hours to apply more primer without having to sand.
Maybe I’m too literal but that seems kinda vague to me..

I would use 30 psi at the gun guage….and apply one wet coat ,followed by a 15-20 minute flash time @75 degrees….need a longer flash time if temp is cooler than that. Then apply a second wet coat…and clean your gun. You have a 48 hour “Window” where this product stays “ Open “ ….and you are able to spray on some 2K primer over the epoxy with out sanding….called a wet on wet application…..before that 48 hour window closes. I would wait 24 hours before putting body filler ovah the epoxy .

Thanks Ness, appreciate the tips. Figure I’ll be well beyond the 48 hr wet window In fact, one quart, and one quart of activator Wasn’t enough to lay more than one coat on everything.
Will need to buy another set of primer cans tomorrow.

Liked the results though. No runs or sags. Very little overspray compared to a traditional gun, but man did it eat through the primer.



My ventilation seemed to work, although the house did still stink. Won’t stack them all in so tight when I lay the paint down, but I am confident this’ll give me a good finish.

Looking good, and I'm sure you are still learning the new spray gun and the needed technique.

I would presume that you have a door from the garage to the house. Maybe if you were to use some 2" wide painters tape to seal between the door, the trim, and the step, it 'might' help keep the fumes from the home. Just a thought.

The new gun is sensitive for sure and I’m still learning it.
Love the pps cup system. Like a disposable baby bottle system, for paint. And no dribble holes so you can hold the gun in any position. Plus a built in 200 micron screen so no filtering the paint before loading it either.
Save so much time since you throw away the ‘cup’ and just clean the gun and tip. Just needed an adapter tip to screw into my gun and away ya go. They come in different sizes. I figured the 650ml would be a good compromise between weight and volume. Took me about 15 minutes to empty the cup.

Epoxy primer stinks for sure. SEM has an Aerosol can with gun cleaner in it…..that’s all I use to clean my guns with 6.75 per can. #77763

HVLP does lay the paint down on the work instead of everywhere. And like you say it will empty a can quick. Looking good my friend