Re: What Painting Process to use

Posted by Bob Johnson on March 06, 1998 at 09:53:13

In Reply to: What Painting Process to use
posted by Craig on March 06, 1998 at 07:49:11

Craig,

OK it is time to get on my soap box again.

When the Model A was originally manufacutered the paint of choice for the body was pyroxylin lacquer.After the car was primed it was painted once and allowed to dry for five minutes. Then the body was painted a second time.The body was sent through the drying room for 20 minutes. This process was repeated for the second color if the car was two tone. The car was then wet sanded. The last step was polishing with air driven lambs wool polishers using a solvent to speed up the process.Since Ford was producing millions of cars the cars the finish on the car was not perfect and glass like.Sure on the main body panels it was smooth but they did not have time to make every corner smooth.The fenders were diped in enamel and run through the drying room.

Many times when a person restores a Model A for show they will use 5, 10 or even 15 coats of lacquer with hand polishing between each coat.Now do not get me wrong the results is a paint job that has great depth and luster.However that is not what the car looked like when it left the factory.I am sure every car originally had bad spots (orange peel etc) when it left the factory. Back in the 50's and 60's many of the award wining Model As had frames and engine blocks that were polished smooth and were painted to have a glass like surface. My point is that you do not need a $5000 paint job on a Model A to make it look like it originally looked.

OK off the soap box now.In todays world of ever changing auto paint you should use a good grade paint recogmended by your local distributor.

Bob




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