MadaboutKitcars

Remember that some of this was done by a firm in Southampton just near the Itchen Bridge who's name escapes me but was recommended by Chris and some was done by Nubodi. You cannot tell which bit was done by which company and it looks totally harmonious even though one end is glass black and the other is clear coated.

Summary of Progress

1) Stone Chips - Complete, but on going

2) Scuff marks - Partially Complete

3) Gravel Rash (Heat damage?) - To Be Commenced when the tempurature drops

4) Scratches - Partially Complete

5) Dent in the door - Complete

6) Crack in the paint above the dent. - Forgot to as Jeff's advice on this so On hold for the moment but all advice from all people welcome

7) Paint anomalies.- - To Be Commenced when the temperature drops

8) Repair and fit a door card - Complete

Machine polish, no need to thank me.

And it is a Z300S in the short nose configuration* as any fool would know...

;-)

*Z300S rear and SWB nose cut to fit

Oh yeah.

For the record

Great mopping by Jeff H.

And I love the Z300S SWB combination WCA

Apologies for getting the models wrong - sign of old age

Dave

Not a problem Steve, it happens to all of us...

WCA - For the record, where would we find Jeff in the real world?

I live in Sunny Dorset Paul,

A small place called Ferndown, one horse town, that sort of thing lol, Not far from Tribute HQ as it happens.

Pop in you are ever down this way, Garage called Hilltop Motors, been in the family since 79.

Could have sworn there was a reply on here from Jeff but if it has been removed I am guessing there was a reason. Anyway...

...1, 2 & 4) Scuffs, stone chips and scratches

Start off with some gloss black touch up paint (Thanks Jeff) and a tiny little brush. Shown here next to a wood engraving I have made for Jeff as a thanks. It is not perfect, some of the edges aren't perfect and it needed some sanding - just like the Tribute it is a picture of :-)
20160512_130058 by WCA!, on Flickr

A close up next to an M8 bolt to show just how fine the brush really is
20160512_130031 by WCA!, on Flickr

I then forgot to take a Before picture, d'oh!, but imaging a whole series of small white scratches where something had been pushed over the surface. Too big to polish out but too small, I thought, to paint in.

I wiped them over with some spray alcohol and a blue rag to get any dirt out of the scratches and sat for about 5 minutes with my tiny little paint brush filling one line at a time.

It is not really painting but more like placing the paint in the scratch so it forms a slightly raised blob that is about the same width as the scratch. I then moved the brush slightly along the length of the scratch and the blob was dragged to fill it. Reload the brush, fresh blob, drag the paint. Repeat until you get to the end of the scratch.

It is a bit time consuming and I almost resorted to a magnifying glass for the smaller scratches.

I am please with the results here pictured from about 1 foot away. The white bit about the number plate is a bit of leaf and the scratched were just below that.
20160512_125219 by WCA!, on Flickr

Seen from very close up with careful angling to show the repairs, and the leaf litter.
20160512_125311 by WCA!, on Flickr

I next time I clean and polish the car I will give the mark a little extra polish and I reckon it will disappear completely.

2) Scuff mark - Completed

A bit more paint added and it looks level and even.

Before
20160505_104424 by WCA!, on Flickr

During
20160507_164550 by WCA!, on Flickr

After
20160512_172059 by WCA!, on Flickr

1 & 2 ) Scratches & Stone chips - Complete, or at least I have done all the ones I can find and once todays paint work has dried i shall was and polish to check that are no others I have missed

6) Crack in the paint above the dent - Stopped until I can get it looked at properly. What I have done as slightly improved it but isn't the solution as explained below.

Started by cleaning off the dirt that has accumulated while the car has been sat still
20160512_164517 by WCA!, on Flickr

Taped off the area to limit the damage I would do. Obviously a professional would have decent width masking tape
20160512_164826 by WCA!, on Flickr

Choice of 1500 or 2000 wet and dry. It seem fundamentally wrong to put sandpaper anywhere near paintwork but...

...anyway, I started with 2000 as I could always go rougher if I needed to
20160512_164846 by WCA!, on Flickr

I soon had the worst of the sharp edge off but noticed that if I pressed the paint below the crack bubble appeared along the edge of the crack. It looks like a bubble of paint has lifted from the metal door.

This was the point I decided to stop. If the paint wasn't stuck to the door for what ever reason then no amount of sanding and touch up paint would help.
20160512_165142 by WCA!, on Flickr

Unfortunately I couldn't just leave it like this and again I wondered why you would ever rub sandpaper over your paint work?
Yeah, that looks SO MUCH better than when I started
20160512_165453 by WCA!, on Flickr

Never mind I remember the magic of the machine polisher so I went to the garage to see what equivalent I had.
A waffle pad to apply the G3 scratch remover and some Colour Magic polish to add to the G3 when I wanted a finer polishing paste. I almost felt like I knew what I was doing
20160512_165944 by WCA!, on Flickr

A couple of minutes rubbing the stuff around on the paint, diagonally one way and then the other to try and avoid swirls or straight lines along the length of the car that would catch the light and i felt I was winning. After I had wiped clear as shown in the photo below I then used the Colour match with just a drop of G3 added to get it looking near perfect
20160512_165950 by WCA!, on Flickr

The paint looks bad in this shot because I had just used surface cleaner to wipe off all the polish before painting the crack line to reduce the visible impact
20160512_172124 by WCA!, on Flickr

Not perfect by any means but when the paint dries I will wash and wax it again and hopefully it will be acceptable until I get it properly repaired.
20160512_172429 by WCA!, on Flickr

Summary of Progress

1) Stone Chips - Complete

2) Scuff marks - Complete

3) Gravel Rash (Heat damage?) - I will probably try to remove the panel and spray the end of this with a rattle can as my tiny paint brush isn't up to this scale of damage. TBC

4) Scratches - Complete

5) Dent in the door - Complete

6) Crack in the paint above the dent. - Complete. Until done professionally

7) Paint anomalies.- Complete. Or at least I have one the ones that are within my abilities. The sunken screw heads on the bonnet that weren't caught before it was painted are the only ones that really bug me now

8) Repair and fit a door card - Complete

Just one task and a wash and polish session left before I post up some proper shiny car pictures!!!

WCA - I remember seeing it too?

I am sure it was telling us the name of the Garage and where it was.

Perhaps you could check and re-post his details if he is happy about them appearing.

Cheers, Paul.

PS
Great job on the paint repairs.

Could the crack be anything to do with the modified door handles?
I would imagine they could put quite a bit of flex on the door panel.
I presume they were welded in, a weld may have snapped, to be honest you may have to dig the filler out first to check otherwise it may well happen again.

You can get the polishing machine on Ebay for about £40, well worth investing in one, I've had one for years and am constantly surprised at how much I use it. I have a couple of red Mitsubishi GTO's one in standard red the other has been repainted in Ferrari red. The Mitsubishi red had faded all over to a nasty pink, a common fault with them. I mopped it with a G3 paste then a fine paste. Coat of autoglym and again buffed off, it is now a very bright red and you honestly wouldn't believe it was the same car.

Thanks for the very informative thread. Great to see examples of real world hints and tips for people living with their creations.

It looked bloody good already and now looks 'like new'

Dave

Jag-I suspect you are correct as it is closer to the door handle than the dent. I am guessing the panel flexed when it was dented and the welded bit didn't flex as much.

I hope to get time to wash and polish it over the weekend and then I will start getting picky but at the moment I am really pleased with how it is going.

WCA I would recommend leaving the touch in paint to harden for a week prior to cutting back/polishing, it can be very easy to polish out your hard work as it's softer than the paint surrounding it. The harder it is the better the blend will be.

Good call Jones. I shall take your advice and leave it alone until next weekend. Thanks

After deciding to leave the Barchetta alone I had a look at the Mighty Merc which was pretty neglected with cobwebs on the wing mirrors and a coating of dust, dirt and leaf litter
20160513_101205 by WCA!, on Flickr

First a quick was and then see if I could use some 'product' to reduce the visible swirls. This isn't machine polishing or mopping, this is using something called Poorboys Black Hole to mask the swirls. Again, it isn't a polish or something that removes the swirls just makes them less visible but if you put a wax or gloss over the top it works well in my experience.
20160513_114605 by WCA!, on Flickr

Before
20160513_114605 by WCA!, on Flickr

Taped off for before and after with some of the black hole on an applicator sponge
20160513_114724 by WCA!, on Flickr

Rub it over the paint like you are rubbing in sun cream, remember this isn't trying to polish out the scratches. Leave it to glaze which is almost instant in the current heat and with black paint.20160513_114806 by WCA!, on Flickr

Use a microfibre cloth folded over a few times to let you gently rub off the residue. Folding it over means it is more padded and seems to work more effectively that a single layer
20160513_114834 by WCA!, on Flickr

Well I can spot the tape line and that was all done in about 10 minutes
20160513_114928 by WCA!, on Flickr

Given that the bonnet is quite large and I am quite lazy I dug out my cheapo polishing machine to see it that would work. It certainly spread the Black Hole in pretty patterns
20160513_120110 by WCA!, on Flickr

now that is noticably better. I did redo the piece I did by hand and it got even better
20160513_120304 by WCA!, on Flickr

Now it is really hot and sunny so I will wait until this evening before doing any more I think

I think you deserve a beer after that hard work..

Afternoon Nick all that hard work is really paying off , both cars looking good . On a separate thread you mentioned a figure of 30,000 miles in the Barchetta , should that have been 3,000 or have you got a high mileage limit on your insurance? suppose the BMW mile-ometer could be faulty! Geoff .

I make the numbers up at random as the bulb behind the odometer has gone out.

I think I have a 10,000 a year limit on the insurance and so three years equals 30k.

The exact numbers don't really matter, the point is I drive about 20K miles a year split between the Z300S and the Mercedes. I know I do less than 10 in the Mercedes and probably less than 2 in the truck so the rest in the Barcetta.

Basically mileage isn't an issue for the car, nothing more was meant

Can't find the thread you are referring to but if I said 30K a year then that was wrong*, 10K a year.

*I may have had a beer