Need advice on re-paint

[bobo]

I just bought a '77 911S. Everything is original except the paint. The PO re-painted the car 10 or 11 years ago with burgundy color over the original brown. The paint job was done so hastily that orignal color can easily be seen in a lot of places such as near the sunroof rail, engine compartment, trunk,..etc.. Some rubber pieces were also covered with burgundy color. After all these years the color is now dull and due for a respray.

I was thinking repaint it to original brown so I tried water-sand it last week in an attempt to get rid of those burgundy color but the color was painted so thick that sanding it off is so time comsuming...so my questions are:

1) Should I continue watersand it until all the burdundy color is gone? Should I use chemical paint remover instead (my friend told me this would possibly also strip off the original brown color down to bare metal and maybe very messy or costly) ?

2) Should I just respray the whole car with brown over the burgundy without totally removing it? or respray with burgundy color again?

3) Is there a way to remove the burgundy color without totally removing the original factory brown underneath it? I figure that repainting it in brown over the original brown would make the car look less terrible if the paint got chipped in the future.

Any suggestion or comments are greatly appreciated. Thanks

[epbrown]

From your description of how badly the burgundy paint was done, your best bet is indeed a strip and repaint. As far as the method, there was a recent thread about painting.

I'm getting one of my cars painted and we've decided on soda stripping. Chemical strippers can seep out later and damage new paint, and other media are too hard for the aluminum on some of the panels. I think it's around $500 to have that done, plus getting it painted.

Emanuel

[Milu]

It sounds as if the po made a real pig's ear of it!

My amateur advice would be to continue sanding off the burgundy. It only seems like a never ending repetitve chore, there is light at the end of the tunnel. I can't help with advice on paint strippers as I've never used them.

I think the best job you could do would be to return to the original colour for the reasons you gave and, in my experience, colour changes are never very satisfactory if you don't invest in very serious preparation time, either yours or professional. Staying with the burgundy would be making the best of a bad job.

Don't lose heart with the prep work you are doing. It's 80% of a good paint job.

[dean]

If the burgundy paint is not peeling off I would scuff the paint and shoot it. I think you only have to strip the old paint off it is in bad shape (flaking or peeling)
Dean

[Rot 911]

Having painted more than a few cars and motorcycles, I have to disagree with Dean when he suggests just scuffing up the burgandy paint and shooting over it. You really run the risk of the paint cracking or crazing due to the multiple layers. If you really like the brown color, continue to wet sand until you get all the burgandy off. You should be wet sanding with 220 wet/dry. Anything higher and you will spend the rest of your natural life sanding. Once you get back down to brown, wet sand with 400 wet/dry to get out the 220 scratch marks and then you are ready to paint. You should not need a primer unless you sand down to bare metal. Then just primer the bare metal parts.

[DAVIDM]

Right idea, wrong application. Wet sanding with finer grit sand paper is the finishing part of the job.- Slow Uncountable hours Removing old paint is done with heavier grit. Fast 20 hours or so of hard work with good tools.
Really high quality paint jobs start with very smooth surface. Removing only part of the old paint will result in an uneven, wavy surface. How much uneveness is too much for you is based on the amount of time you want to spend or how much skilled labor you want to buy from a paint shop. It is very difficult to get several layers of paint smooth and then seal off the old dry paint and keep it from sucking up the new paint.
Best results come from.
1. Remove all old paint - sand, strip, media blast
2. Reprime with high metal adhesion primer - acid based or zinc chromate.
3. Prime with high solids, hardened primer.
4. Block with medium grit 400. 8 - 10 hours
5. Repeat step 3
6. Block with finer grit 600. 10-14 hours
Extensive process and why good paint jobs cost so much. 100 hours or more for best results. This includes taking off and reassembling lights, bumpers, door handles, mirrors, chrome, etc.
New paint over 10 year old paint over 20 year old paint will not achieve great results.

Assuming your paint is good. No peeling, no cracking. Good but not great results can be had by:
1.A good wet sand with 320 or 400 grit on your top coat. 2.Feather out chips and scratches. Fill with Evercoat 417.
3.Spot prime those areas with GOOD aerosol primer.
4.Sand the primered areas with 400 or 600 wet.
The local Maaco, owned by me, will paint the outside of a car prepared like this with good, inexpensive base/clear for $300 -$500. This means you should keep the color the same. Door jambs cost more. Better paint costs more. Fixing what inexperienced hands have messed up costs more. Wet sanding and polishing the new paint costs more. Looking for good, not great results. We will even look at first attempts and tell you what needs improvement. Not all Maaco operators will do this.
David.
PS Somewhere, I have some pics of an SC we did and will try to find them.