Just a quick blow over...

[Mr Bean]

After about eight years I decided to give the old bus a quick blow over. Well not really that quick but at least it didn't need any welding.
I did a deal with my mate using his yard and doing both his Mercedes people carrier and my van. His Mercedes needing some tricky welding .
Nearly all of my experience is with cellulose and successful apart from a few instances of reaction when someone had used household paint or silicon polish. I was not very happy about when cellulose got banned.

I was pleased to find that his colour - Mercedes Hyacinth Blue - could be mixed in cellulose and so presumably I could have the colour of my choice mixed for my van. Sadly though cellulose was not available eight years ago when I did mine so I had to use synthetic again .

So it would appear that cellulose is available now in common commercial vehicle colours and by inference any colour mix of your choice given that the supplier has mixing/formulating capability.

In the event the cellulose went really well on the Mercedes - even blending on a part panel repair while I did the hang of the synthetic on my van apart from a couple of runs. Her Ladyship is well impressed

Any other back street respray practitioners on the forum?

CS
PS My compressor is a 1960's Triumph Tigress 250 cc scooter engine with the crank rearranged for 180 degree throws sitting on a Calor Gas bottle alongside a 2 HP electric motor.

[sweetaswesty]

I'm planning to respray our Westfalia in the next few weeks/ months.
I'm not sure whether to go the rustoleum route or use cellulose. I sprayed our T2 Bays many years ago with cellulose using an Apollo HVLP and it did the job OK both times. Having used cellulose before I'm inclined to use it again. The two things I'm not sure about with Rustoleum are first, the slow drying times and second, not being able to paint it with anything else ever again.
Lechler Macrofan MAC5 (M5000) sounds like it could be a really high quality cellulose paint maybe as good or even better than it was in the olden days. Has anyone had any experience of it?
A couple of questions - what brand cellulose did you use? And, did you spray your hightop and if so, how did you prep the fibreglass? Sorry that's three questions

[meggles]

Used to use celly years ago with my brother who was a qualified and damn good painter! I did the welding and fitting, he did the spraying. it was my full time job and he just came along when I needed him. Happy days...... We'd respray with or without a mask and no extractors!!! Thinking back we were so stoooppeeed!. Whilst waiting for paint to 'go off/dry a little we'd go to the pub over the road. 2 pints and p!ssed. That paint really gave you a 'high'. I have to say I much preferred cellulose, it was much more forgiving, though when 2K came along we got an almost guaranteed shine! And now we have Rustoleum.
sweetaswesty: I've never sprayed Rustoleum so can't comment on that sort of job. However I've rollered a few now and won't ever be spraying again. The rust resistance properties (is that the correct terminology) of Rustoleum are far better than cellulose. Also it's easy to do a small repair. As you say, the longer drying time can be an issue but as long as you choose a decent day the problems associated with that can be minimised. I also rollered the high top on mine last year. Although I haven't used it much it has been parked outside and looks fine still. All I did was give it a good flatting and a wash off, made sure it was dry and off I went.

[Mr Bean]

Sweetaswesty said:
A couple of questions - what brand cellulose did you use? And, did you spray your hightop and if so, how did you prep the fibreglass? Sorry that's three questions

As I said I couldn't use cellulose on my van as I had used synthetic previously and the cellulose tins are at my mates place. But we got it from R.A.Davies Motor Factors 01462 892304.

No I did not do my white high top as I have been unable to decide on a suitable product/process. I jet wash it every year or so and am embarrassed how much dirt comes off. I believe the jelcoat has become slightly matt or porous at the surface and that what appears to be dirt is in fact some kind of algae or some such. If this is so then I would imagine a jet wash plus thorough de-greasing with something like isopropyl alcohol would be adequate prior to painting.
If retaining the white colour I might consider just using a clear lacquer as it looks good at least for a month or so . I don't mind the white as it is cooler in the sun and visually de-accentuates the height/length ratio of the high top van. Cor that was a mouthful . To be frank I would probably need to hire scaffolding to do the top as I am a bit wobbly on my legs these days.

For my part I would have loved to use cellulose again as it flashes off rapidly thus avoiding dust or insect problems. I have used acrylic with some success and our only experience with twin pack was a near disaster as the entire insect population from the vaulted ceiling of the workshop we used died and fell onto the car - a Pontiac fire bird.
CS

[Titus A Duxass]

My brother is in the process of respraying my new bus.
He's got it in primer and one side has a dust coat of the toffee brown basecoat.

And because we have tho use what paint we can get were using acrylic 1k.
Did think about 2k but we don't have the air.

[bigbadbob76]

I like the sound of your compressor CS.
Any chance of a picture?

I take it you made fittings for the spark plug holes and tee'd them together with one way valves to fill the gas bottle?
Did you blank off the exhaust ports?
hmmmm.... I have an old Kawasaki 250 parallel twin doing nothing.

[Mr Bean]

I like the sound of your compressor CS.
Any chance of a picture?

I take it you made fittings for the spark plug holes and tee'd them together with one way valves to fill the gas bottle?
Did you blank off the exhaust ports?
hmmmm.... I have an old Kawasaki 250 parallel twin doing nothing.

I need to get into photobucket again as I would like to show off my van while it is fresh in its new finish.
But in the meantime words will probably give a better description of how I modified it: I did this over forty years and it is still going strong.
First I removed the crankshaft and cut it in two then (surprisingly ) arc welded it back together with the crank throws at 180 degrees taking care to align the shaft axis correctly and maintain the integrity of the oil ways.
I then re-fitted the crank replacing the sump with a flat plate to provide albeit at reduced oil capacity and a base mount and shortened the dip stick and oil pick up accordingly.
The cylinder head was replaced with a one inch block of steel with ports drilled in top and bottom with communicating ports from front and back similar to the poppet valve layout but with thin spring steel shims acting as read valves the intake ports simply communicating to atmosphere while the exhaust ports communicate with a collector box welded onto the port block. This collector is plumbed to the tank, regulator and pressure switch. So the compressor now comprised effectively a short engine with a reed valve head assembly and a simple flat plate sump cum base mount.
This is mounted on a Calor Gas cylinder together with a 2HP squirrel cage single phase electric motor geared down about 2:3 controlled by a proprietary pressure switch and a home made spring loaded safety valve.

CS

[blacky]

BSA did a rebadged job of the Triumph Tigress if I'm not mistaken ?

[Mr Bean]

BSA did a rebadged job of the Triumph Tigress if I'm not mistaken ?

Yes so re-badgeing is not at all new then. Although The idea of taking a mass market model these days and popping an MG badge for instance on the grill really doesn't add much the the machine apart from fitting some often difficult to replace components. Folk are easily impressed though.
Although just carrying the name over as in the MIni and the Beatle for instance with virtually everything changed is another interesting concept in marketing.
Maybe you have one...
CS

[Mr Bean]

An update on my paint job:
When sorting out the details of my paint at the supplier I got them to fill one of their aerosol cans so I could clear it with Her Ladyship. (After over fifty years of wedded bliss I eventually got that one worked out )
I was pleasantly surprised at the spraying pattern and delivery volume from the can and to save setting up and then cleaning, will use the can to respray the door runner panel which got marked somehow and will be keeping the can for any future dings or local repairs.
I guess these today's tech aerosols could be viable to do a whole vehicle if you never had a spray gun.

CS