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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Spray Booth?

I'm going to be respraying my '67 midget over christmas, although i'm v. worried about the finish we'll get in the end due to the difficulty getting the right mix of ventilation/heat in my small, cold garage...

As such, i was wondering if there is anyone out there who
a) knows about a place which would rent me a booth in Surrey/London (I'm Kingston Upon Thames)

or b) if anyone has a booth that I could hire from them (although I don't have loads of money - I'm 16 and have just spent 2000 (my life savings) on her and now I'm pretty skint!) for a few quid!

Thanks!

Josh
Josh 'Midget Mad' Spooner

Hi Josh

First welcome!
I think you might be the youngest here so well done.

Are you sure you want to do the respray now?
If i am correct you can not drive the car for 2 years and damadged paint in storrage is more common than cats sh*tting in my garden.

For the money you spent i'd think there are some mechanical issues and some metal replacement to do first

Then you could pospone the paint job to the warmer days.

Anny pics of your midget?
Good year for a first mine was a "67 as well though i hope it is not as rotten as that was.
Switched to the slightly better looking "66 mkII with 1380 power ;)


Onno Könemann

I painted mine satin black from a spray can in order to have a year to sort out major mechanical issues. Three years now, and I have no desire for glossy paint. I spend all my time driving and tinkering and do not have to worry about polishing. And the car stands out from the crowd despite its low budget paint. I still plan on finishing the body work and painting it with proper paint, but for the moment I'm having too much fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GWufFToTSs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94s3KJDtSFs
Trevor Jessie

Josh,

A good point that Trevor made. Spray cans may be your friend in this situation. As I understand it from your previous post, you need to get some paint on it because you stripped it to bare metal. So, spray can paint will keep it from rusting, and it will be easy to sand off later to do a proper job.

I've seen Trevor's car, and it looks well preserved. What did it take, Trevor, 8 or 10 cans or so?

Charley
C R Huff

I honestly do not remember how much paint it took. I do remember it being a lot less than expected. I think 6-8 cans. I used the ones that have a fan pattern rather than the round pattern. Touch up is easy too. :)
Trevor Jessie

built my own booth it worked ok i had heaters to warm it up first then turned them off to spray quite pleased with finish for first attempt used 2k paint with air feed mask and separate compressor placed outside to feed mask.


mark (1977 1500 Midget) Preston Lancs

more pics


mark (1977 1500 Midget) Preston Lancs

another


mark (1977 1500 Midget) Preston Lancs

last pic


mark (1977 1500 Midget) Preston Lancs

Hi everyone,

Just to be clear, my Dad and I have sanded down pretty much the whole body, but not entirely to bare metal, just to a good key and. However, in a few places, we have had to go down to bare metal and build up with filler/primer...
I'm driving in 53 days and we've bought all of the 2K paint etc, so not spraying isn't really an option!

I'm really impressed with the spray booth you made - couldn't believe it when I saw it!

We've sorted almost all of the rust so we have one of those fairly rare commodities: a (practically) rust free MG!

Any further ideas would be MUCH appreciated (e.g more tips on how to make the best of an annoying situation!)

Cheers again,

Josh
Josh 'Midget Mad' Spooner

Some of the smaller autobody shops in my area allow some of the workers to "moonlight" on the weekend using the shop's spray booths. I had a friend get his car sprayed for $200. Like you he had the car prepped and supplied his own paint.
Trevor Jessie

Beg borrow or steal the money for a booth with full airfed mask.
The risks of sprayng without that have been made clear in a recent thread.
Onno Könemann

Can you wait for warmer weather? It's really not a good idea to spray at this time of year, the Garage will be cold and full of condensation. NOT GOOD!!!!
Cheers John
HALL JOHN

You're at that phase of your life when you have more time than money (that will switch at some point but you'll only realise that about six months after it happened). Bearing that in mind I'd seriously consider hand painting it. A friend did his Morgan a few years back and with patience you can achieve very good results. It probably won't be as good as a spray job but it will look fine and if you keep the car you can consider spraying it in a few years time.

There are companies that specialise in the appropriate paints and materials, google is, I'm sure, you're friend in finding them.
Jeremy Cogman

Josh,
If you do consider hand painting this link is interesting

http://wiki.club8090.co.uk/index.php/Bodywork_and_Glass_Roller_painting

Alan.
Alan cotterill

I made a similar booth to what Mark did, although I did mine from wood and just stapled plastic to it from from the inside. easy to do and the booth can be disassembled and reused.

But I'm totally with John at this point, wait for warmer weather, you must keep in mind that the object you spray must be at least three degrees Celsius warmer than the environment you spray it in otherwise you'll get blisters all over the paint, but since it's so cold right now there's also a lot of other aspects to keep in mind and I bet you already know this.

But it really comes down to this, if you don't got the money to hire a booth don't paint it. Wait until warmer weather and spray it in your garage. Otherwise you'll just end up having to do it all over again. I know it's not what you want to hear but patience is key to doing a proper job.
Alexander Sorby Wigstrom

If you construct your own booth, think in terms of feeding air into the booth with a fan rather than trying to use the fan for exhaust. If you feed, you can filter the air coming in; if you exhaust, unfiltered air will be coming in from hundreds of spots and contaminating the surface. This is strictly ventilation and nothing to do with breathing while spraying epoxy-based paints.
David "I wanna try the Rustoleum" Lieb
David Lieb

Hi,

I would love to hire a spray booth but everywhere I've tried in london/surrey seems to have some kind of insurance problem with hiring it out...Any ideas?

The massive response about waiting is making me worried - I know it would be wiser to wait, but I'm not sure I have a choice now because I'm taking up so much garage space and house space and I'm fairly sure that my mum is soon going to be delivering an ultimatum! (I'm being 100% serious by the way)

As for building my own, surely it wouldn't help because it would be outside in the same temperatures anyway?

Thanks a trillion for all of your help so far!!

Josh
Josh 'Midget Mad' Spooner

Divorce your parents if your mum won't let you have loads of house space for your MG - get used to it, coz some women are fussy like that ........!

On a more serious note - can you give me a roughish idea of where in Surrey you are as I know a couple of people down that way, so might be able to pull in some more ideas for you to try.
rachmacb

Jeremy, Alan,
looking at that link on the rollering VW buses, very tempting to give it a go. Do you have any experience of doing this with a curvy car? might give it a go on my spare wings and see. Once I eventually get the new rear wing and rear valance on I'm looking at pretty much a full re-paint anyway, hence the interest in something which does not involve the black art of spraying!
Cheers,
-Craig
C Robertson

I have tried the Rustoleum on a spare wing I had. I tried rollering first. This produced a slightly stippled result. I then tried spraying with an Apollo HVLP. It takes a day to dry either way. Rollering reduces the chances of runs and sags and is a lot tidier way of applying the paint. It requires more flattening out though. I've also tried spraying cellulose which initially lloked great after flattening out and polishing. However I did get microblistering a few months later. From my experience it's harder to make mistakes with the Rustoleum, but you need more time and effort. I now have an MGB to paint and am seriously considering roller painting. I have a spare bootlid I'm going to practice on to remind me of the amount of work required.
Steve Church

Craig,
There is a Spridget in the second row of the February page of the 2011 Spridget Calendar that is undergoing this. I believe it has the first three coats done and it looks pretty good. Just wondering how you do things like rain rails around boot and bonnet openings.
David "trying to give Daniel some competition in the shameless plugs division" Lieb


David Lieb

Josh, no I'm afraid no direct experience but of course it is the way all cars were once painted though with brushes. It does involve a great deal of flatting hence my comment time vs. money. My Morgan three wheeler owning friend achieved very good results and I think the technique would have died out if it was hopeless. You won't get as good a finish as spraying but it will get you on the road and you'll learn as you go.

What's the shelf life on the two pacj you've bought I wonder, or you could ebay it.

Yes David, I'd wondered how you did the fiddly bits, with a brush I guess, before the rollering.
Jeremy Cogman

I brush painted my MK-II in 1975 (summer, outdoors) and had a great finish... the paint moved around to fill in any brush strokes I left.

In my memory(!), it appeared to be magic.

A
Anthony Cutler

Thanks for the info, guys. I think the idea would be to brush all the tricky bits and then to get on with the rollering.
I realise there will be a fair bit of flatting down required, but my previous attempts at spraying (with fan-jet rattle cans admittedly) required that also!
I've also heard good things about the Apollo HVLP machines. Just wondering how the plastic pots stand up to celly thinners?
-Craig
C Robertson

I believe that until the 1960s all Rolls Royces were hand painted. They just used lots of coats and did lots of flatting down between each. The depth of shine achieved was considered better than any spray finish.
Guy Oneandahalf Sprites

This thread was discussed between 11/12/2010 and 16/12/2010

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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