Painting a Model A

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Some interesting comments above. Maybe I can offer some observations/thoughts from the 'Cheap Seats'.

Dave, to answer some of your questions first, -you asked how hard is it to paint the car. Maybe the quick response back would be 'How hard is it to catch a fish?' For some, its as simple as throwing a bare fishing hook into a pool of water. For me, its a struggle!

As for what is involved, ...what are your expectations? Is the goal to make something that lasts for decades and can win at a small car show? Is it to look good from 20' away and just good enough to last a few years?? I often tell hobbyists that a quality paint job is 1/3rd of a full restoration. That goes for Time required, -and for costs. To do the job correctly where it will last generally requires the present paint & substrates to be removed to bare metal. To do a proper job of that requires removing the Body from the Chassis, removing the interior, the glass, and the top material at the minimum. Removing the tank, the windshield, doors, etc. allows for better quality.

From my vantage point, a Spray Booth is probably NOT as essential as being able to control the paint during the application process. "Control" in this scenario means keeping it out of your lungs, away from your eyes, and managing where the paint is going. As mentioned by Jeff, a plastic draped garage can work well because the plastic sheeting can generally create static electricity which tends to attract overspray. If you are going to spray the paint, you need a method of removing overspray so that you can see what you are doing, and keep that paint from falling onto the wet freshly-painted surface. Many painters have been creative by building evacuation fan banks using 20" box fans to move the air. To this day, we still wet the floor of our Spray Booth to control overspray dust. Also, it keeps the floor from getting sticky which makes it difficult to walk around, and the water keeps from the paint sticking to the Booth floor.

It is worth a mention that technology within the paint industry changes very frequently where what someone may have been familiar with 5 years ago has totally changed. A great example of this is the application of Primers. We now roll our Primers onto the surface about 95% of the time. This is done to save costs of wasted product, and as a labor savings time where cleaning a Booth, and moving a vehicle in & out of a Booth requires non-productive time. A great example of this might be this hypothetical scenario where you have blocksanded the entire R/R Quarter panel, so instead of waiting to finish sanding other areas of the Body before pushing it into the Booth, the tech just mixes only the amount necessary to apply 3 additional coats onto that R Quarter, and rolls the first layer on with a 4"foam roller. Then the tech begins working on the L/R Qtr. while the first coat partially dries. Then in 10-15 minutes, the tech applies a 2nd coat of primer to the R Qtr. and allows it to dry while he returns to the L Qtr. and begins sanding again. Generally we apply three medium coatings of high-build primer which when it is sprayed will take in excess of 60 minutes by the time flash time, prepping the Booth, mixing the paints, and cleaning the gun is involved. During the spraying process while you are waiting on the drying, about all that can be done from a productivity standpoint is cleaning the work area. By rolling the primer, the productivity level generally stays above 90% because the tech can continue sanding in other areas while the primer is drying. Another topic of discussion regarding productivity is cheap production paper costs more. While we rarely use sandpaper any longer, buying a top-quality (i.e.: expensive) sandpaper will stay sharper longer which makes your efforts more productive (i.e.: takes less time)

With regard to 'how do people know the "original" color of their A', I can only speak to what we have found, but generally speaking, the Model-As that were restore are either fairly unmolested original cars, -or poorly restored Model-As that were quasi-restored several decades ago. In those situations, most of the 60s & 70s Model-A restorations were actually a Repair & Repaint job where the vehicle was rarely disassembled. In other words, the Tank remained inside the car during the repaint but upon disassembly now, we see traces of original paint. The same applies with the vehicles that were never restored. Another way is many people have either the original Title or an old Title that often has the color listed on it. While it may not state the actual Ford color, it will say Blue or Green or Brown or ?? that we can get a clue from. That doesn't always apply, but sometimes it does. Outside of that, if there are not any distinguishable clues, then it is the Owner's word against someone else's. I will also say that Ford manufactured their own paints until 1936 until Ditzler (PPG) got the contract. Since that time, PPG has been vigilant in crossing the original samples into their latest paint lines. Both Clubs have also worked closely where the color chips in the Paint & Refinish book are very, very close. At that point, the paint chip in the Paint & Refinish book is the benchmark as to whether a color is authentic or not.