Restoration Project – Part Five of an Ongoing Series

Andrew Atwood
 

Paint & Body Work

 
 
At the end of part four, my Heckflosse project car once again had solid quarter panels and rockers; however, the rest of the car still needed some serious massaging to get it back to Mercedes-Benz standards – and mine – before we started back up the reassembly hill.

I did farm out the next step – body-panel work and paint – to another professional shop. I have done this work many times over the past 30 years and I’m proud of the work I can do – and accomplished – on my last creation, a 1966 Chevy Pro Street pickup truck. But after painting the 22-foot-long monster three times to get the paint to lay correctly and fix my screw-ups, my OCD finally got the better of me and I conceded that next time I would pay someone to do this part.

With all the new paint materials and local environmental restrictions these days, there are other good reasons to subcontract paint and bodywork to a good professional shop. I’m not trying to discourage anyone from attempting these tasks, but it’s important to know your limitations and where your energies are best spent.

Deciding who should do the work and how much to spend is entirely up to your budget and the desired end product, but the fact is that there are no good bargain paint jobs that will last, period. This is because 90 percent of the quality and longevity of a paint job is in the bodywork and prep work. The best paint job in the world will look like crap if the prep work is not done correctly. Conversely, a bad paint job can usually be fixed if the bodywork was done correctly.

There are several successful ways to select a good body shop. First, when you are given a quote for body and paint, make sure the shop shows you an actual example of its work on another car before you give the go-ahead. That way they can’t say you got what you paid for because they showed you an example. Secondly, ask how specific repairs will be performed and drop in frequently to see the different stages of work to ensure, for example, that damaged panels were actually repaired rather than simply covered with body filler and paint.

With all said, the more prep work you put into the car before you take it to a professional, the less expensive the paint job will be. For instance, if you remove chrome and trim as well as rubber seals and mechanicals where you can before delivering the car, you’ll save money and practically guarantee that critical parts aren’t lost during the work. Moreover, you’ll have the satisfaction of being able to say, “I did that” instead of “I paid someone to do that” when you start showing the car. I was very fortunate that the body shop I chose let me help with sanding, cleaning and prep work, not so much to reduce cost – I was told they charge more when the owner helps – but because I wanted to be part of every process of the restoration.

I chose Scott’s Coach Works to massage the body back into shape. These guys do all of the paintwork for Scottsdale Mercedes-Benz and Barrett-Jackson Auction, so they know what they’re doing.

First, the body guy spent two months hand-beating the panels with them off the car, heating them with a torch and then shrinking the metal back into the desired shape by quenching it with cold water. This is a lot harder than the typical approach of a collision repair, where the metal is pulled out, roughly smoothed, then covered with a thick layer of body filler that is smoothed into correct contours. It represents 90 percent of the finishing work.

Next, a very thin layer (1/16 inch to 3/32 inch) of skim coat body filler was spread evenly over the entire body panel and then block sanded down until bare metal was again exposed. Then came the tedious part: While off the car, all panels were sprayed with filler primer, dusted with guide coating to identify high spots, then block sanded. This process was repeated many times over many hours until the surface was flawless.

Finally, the last block-sanding step was performed with the panels on the car to make sure that all panels matched and lined up. This last step is critical because it ensures that adjacent panels have the same curvature and smooth seamless flow from the front to rear of the car. This also allowed us to correct any inconsistency in the panel gaps by filing and sanding them even and straight.

With panel sanding and filling completed, all the panels were removed again, followed by … yes, more sanding. This time it was in the doorjambs and all the other little nooks and crannies in which dirt and crud like to hide. But we still weren’t ready for paint. Nope, now each individual panel was scrutinized for even the smallest pinhole – these will show up 10 times worse after the paint is laid down. A product called spot filler was applied with a razor blade to touch up these little imperfections. Now it was time to paint. I know spending all this time (and money) sounds extreme – particularly because the painting itself usually only takes one or two days. But the process not only guarantees a perfectly straight and flawless body, but also a paint job that will surpass even Mercedes-Benz for smoothness and longevity.

Choosing the paint color is a very personal decision that needs to be researched and considered carefully – the wrong choice is painful and expensive to correct. For a prospective concours entrant, it’s easy – just consult the build records for the paint shade with which the car was originally painted.

However, I had decided I wanted my car to be similar to, if not exactly like, my original grey car from Australia, which wasn’t easy because Mercedes has more than 30 different shades of grey to choose from. I also wanted to keep with my theme of a car that would look original at first glance, so I selected from the 1963 Mercedes-Benz color chart. My eyes kept returning to one color every time – DB 162 Blue-Grey – a color that I think has a classic and elegant look, as well as the property of changing from grey to blue, depending on the lighting.

If you are selecting a color from paint charts, consider this important tip: Have the shop paint a sample sheet-metal piece at least 12 inches square so that you can see the paint color in the sun. This simple but important step can save a lot of anguish after the painting is completed.

After choosing the color, I now had to decide on which paint system I was going to use. The two most common are single-stage and two-stage paint. Single-stage paint, as its name implies, is laid down as a single color and that’s the final finish. The two-stage system that is used on all modern cars and generally used on classic restorations has a base color coat laid, and then a urethane clear top coat is sprayed over the cured color coat for protection against UV rays.

In the past, single-stage paint was usually not as durable over time and tended to fade after a few years in the sun. However, with the advancements in chemicals and paint systems over the last 50 years, the new single-stage systems are just as durable as two-stage systems. I opted for the single-stage system because it would give me a more accurate color match to what I wanted and be true to the car’s original paint. I discovered that during this new single-stage process, they actually mix urethane-clear into the final coat for greater UV protection. Utilizing the single-stage system for painting my car accomplished two things: First, if it ever gets scratched and needs touching up, it is much easier to do on a single-stage coating. Secondly, it is quite a bit less expensive as there are fewer steps and less cost for materials.

At that point, the shop was ready to lay down some paint. With all the panels and doors still detached from the car, we mounted them onto paint racks and wiped them down with solvent to remove any leftover grease or dirt, and then sprayed them at the same time that we sprayed the chassis.

When this car was originally built, the doors and panels would have been attached to the car when it went through the painting process, which could leave what painters call “holidays” in nooks and crannies where the final coat didn’t reach. Of course, with today’s robotic paint systems, that’s not a problem on new cars. But with a restoration that is sprayed by hand, after the panels and body were painted they were baked in the shop’s oven and then left to sit for a week to make sure the paint was fully cured. With all that done, I bolted all the doors and panels back on the car and towed her home to begin the long laborious process of reassembly.


 
My pride and joy  is painted, reassembled and (finally) back at my shop. For paint color, I chose DB 162 Blue-Grey – a classic hue which changes from grey to blue, depending on the lighting.



I removed chrome trim, rubber and mechanical components before delivering the car to the body shop.



Doors removed from the vehicle with prepaint preparation underway.




The tedious part: While off the car, all panels were sprayed with filler primer, dusted with guide coating to identify high spots, then block sanded. This process was repeated many times over many hours until the surface was flawless.





Good as the day it was made: front quarter panel after repair and filler primer.
 


Front quarter panels, hood and trunk in the spray booth.




Painted and baked quarter panels before being reunited with the chassis.



The painted rolling chassis.



The trunk area was going to need some work.



Repaired, masked and sprayed trunk interior.


Heckflosse comes home, and now it’s time for the next step in the restoration.