Hello,
!971 340 Cuda, painted by mercedes here in Guatemala some 20 years back.
When finished I inspected and found some very tiny bubbles in a section. Really just 3 maybe but shop decided to strip to metal again and paint again. Great job.
Maybe 6 years later I saw them again. More and more during the years.
I will try to put some pics to see if you all could help provide ideas for the cause for something like this.
Will paint the car again so looking for advise as for to prevent this from happening again.
Car has been with a cloth cover and a plastic over that inside a hangar.
Drove it very seldom during those years.
Would also appreciate advise as to what paints to use for the different sections of the car. Want the best there is.
A honda dealer has a very good paint shop, they will do the job.
Will use hemi orange color, is there a code for them to make it here if I can not import your suggested brands?
Please include the paint/product to use for the front grill, the silver sandy finish.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Best regards,
Manuel
No corrosion history in any of the affected areas.
Another one
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There are better paint guys than me here but that has to be stripped to bare metal IMO. It could be from bad surface prep or incompatible materials but none of that matters. It has to be stripped to bare metal, cleaned properly and carefully refinished with compatible materials.
Solvent pop... The top coat dried to quickly trapping solvent below the surface.... It was semi-common during that time period.. Paints were changing due to environmental concerns.. The new stuff wasn't great & lots of painters didn't know how to make the new products do what they wanted... Some guys mixed products with less than great long term results....
Unfortunately I agree with Sheldon, you need to take it down to bare metal...
:iagree: Solvent pop! :yes:
Tks for the replies Wild and JS, excellent Info. to know the cause. Makes sense.
We will for sure go dawn to metal.
Shop tells me they mainly use PPG Global paint. How would you all grade that brand of paint?
It might be better to let them use the product they know well or is there a better brand that is handled the same as PPG and provide a nicer finish?
What do we have to buy in order to make that silver/grey sandy finish to the front grill??
As said solvent pop or maybe water in the air lines. PPG is a very good paint,you should be able to get the fomula for V2 Hemi Orange (Dodge) or Tor-red (Plymouth) in a new base/clear.
https://www.autocolorlibrary.com/pages/1971-Plymouth.html
The textured argent paint for the grill will be difficult.
There are a couple of sources here in U.S., but I don't think they will be able ship the paint to you due to environmental regulations.
Alternatives if you can not get the paint made locally or have it shipped in:
1. Ship your grill to a restoration shop in the U.S. have them refinish and ship it back.
2. Strip the grill and paint the grill body color. Some EV2 71 Cudas have body color grills, while others have argent (depending on build date).
I'm not trying to step on anyone's toes here. But... That's definitely not solvent pop. Solvent pop looks like tiny pinholes close together and caused from the top skinning over to fast and the lower coats still releasing gases/solvents. Solvent pop reveals itself by the time the paint has started to cure. Looks nothing like these pictures.
I have seen this issue caused by a few different things. One thing that was mentioned is poor surface prep. Other possibilities are moisture in the air supply used to spray primer and or paint. This is my main suspect. Covering the car in a humid environment can cause this but the root problem leads back to paint prep or air supply quality. Climate controlled environment with some air movement would probably keep this from happening even with the prep issues. :alan2cents:
Thanks for the comments.
Think I should be able to request the textured argent paint be shipped by land. Is it the light or medium tone?
How many cans of spray should I order?
Which is the best one to buy and were?
I was going to guess moisture, but I don't know anything about paint so :-X :rofl:
71 is dark argent. 1 can will do your upper grill and lower trim with some left over.
And would this be a good brand??
Here,
I haven't sprayed that exact product so I can't really say how good it is. I have sprayed this guys stuff and I can say it's excellent. Texture and color look spot on. 1 can goes a long way as well.
https://8774paint1.com/
Thank you Shane,
Is there a PPG code for the dark grill paint??
Quote from: Manuel on August 20, 2020, 05:53:35 PM
Thank you Shane,
Is there a PPG code for the dark grill paint??
I'm not sure about a paint code. But he list the different paints by application. He has the one you need listed "dark gray argent"
Quote from: Manuel on August 17, 2020, 05:19:36 PM
Thanks for the comments.
Think I should be able to request the textured argent paint be shipped by land.
Yes, most paint and volatile chemicals automatically ship ground as they are not allowed in aircraft.
Ended up buying the Dark grill paint from Roger Gibson restaurations.
Abaut $95 a qt.
Has anyone used it to know results?
Here underneath the bubbles
YIKES ! Are you going to repaint the whole car now ?
Down to bare metal, Repaint 100%
Q.
They are afraid that the chrome moldings around the windshield and rear window will bend when pulling them out.
Any ways to avoid that?
Do they sell the chromes?
Quote from: Manuel on September 02, 2020, 08:42:25 AM
Down to bare metal, Repaint 100%
Q.
They are afraid that the chrome moldings around the windshield and rear window will bend when pulling them out.
Any ways to avoid that?
Do they sell the chromes?
They do sell reproduction window trim, but with patience and the proper tool, the old ones should come off without bending.
Good news, tks!
This also for Cuda´s?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgN5M1PWhBc
Is that white under the green a primer or body filler? Looks like a contaminated surface is your culprit. Up close do the little spots look like surface rust? All the trim should come off without damage if you just take your time. Probably one of the easier cars I have worked on for removing trim.
No reason for filler. Must be primer I guess.
Paint shop told me they believe this all was moisture between the primer and the paint and that the metal is still ok.
I will go to the shop today and see al in detail.
Having this help here is great.
By the way, already have 1 pint of grill paint. Do you all think it will be enough to do the front grill and wheel centers?
Thank you much!!
That should be just the right amount of paint for what your doing.
On the car. It looks to me like the moisture was on the metal under the primer. That's why the primer is popping loose I'm going with my original guess that moisture was in the air supply when they primed the bare metal. :alan2cents:
Good news that 1 pint will be enough.
Here a better pic of the bubbles
The metal is rusted/pitted, hard to say whether it was in the metal to begin with or moisture was trapped in there when doing prep or bodywork but no matter what that metal needs to be cleaned up of any rust before going any further or it will just come back again.
The car had not one bubble when I took it for paint to Mercedes some 20 years ago.
They must have had moisture in their system I guess.
Agree with you, anything that was painted by them which is pretty much the whole car needs to go bare metal in order to remove any rust.
Rust is very superficial on the sampled areas.
I know its is very hard to give a figure but lets say there is no rust and you want to do a job like this with top quality PPG paint, around how much could that cost in the USA?
It's all but impossible to quote a paint job on a older restored car in person let alone from pictures. Jobs like that are done by time and materials. Figure 10k and up.
That gives me a good idea. Tks
The problem with my car was really something very isolated. There are very good paint shops here in Guatemala and I hope this job will be top quality.
Fortunate for me labor is quite lower in this part of the world so my paint job will cost quite less than that.
Paint shop tells me that the white coating was for some years standard at Mercedes Benz.
Kind of a thick initial primer.
Moldings came off ok.
Waiting for some sort of rust inhibitor to come from the USA and then go bare metal for all car.
Thanks a bunch.