Painting (2001)
The deal was the the Capri would be resprayed with the engine in place. The engine bay would be masked off at the tops of the inner wing so that these would be painted as well as the front cross member, but not the sides of the inner engine bay. To remove the engine and repaint the entire bay would have proved too complicated and costly. In fact although the paint looked dirty and yellow it actually cleaned up quite well and a bit of T-cut made all the difference.
Terry had agreed to fit my Motorsport front spoiler during the rebuild and this was duly attached prior to the respray.
Terry had quite a few tricks up his sleeve used by the professionals. He used a special sponge material made by 3M which is fixed in place wherever there is a join between old and new paint. It partially soaks up the paint and when removed the join is hardly noticeable. Also he used another 3M product which was a very strong adhesive tape which pulled the screen rubber back on the rear screen (this was the only piece of glass that wasn't removed as it is bonded in). This allowed the spray paint to go behind the seal giving a very neat finish with no signs of paint on the rubbers!
The Capri was prepared for painting by having all non-painted areas covered and masked off with the proper masking material (no newspapers here!). Terry first prepared the lower 4 inches of the entire car by spraying a stone guard layer on. This was the pucker stuff as used by the car manufacturers and was also applied to the front spoiler. Once dry it will accept an over coat of paint and is virtually unnoticeable.
As mentioned before the shell of the car was sprayed separately to the doors, tailgate, bonnet and petrol flap. Terry used a cold setting 2-pack diamond white (original cellulose paints are no longer available). The new paint contains an epoxy resin which makes it extremely hard and durable when finished. also the paint dries to a very high shine and doesn't need lots of T-cutting to get it finished.
To my surprise Terry waited until a wet rainy day before spraying. These are perfect conditions as the rain prevents airborne dust. As long as the garage doesn't leak of course!
In all Terry used nearly seven litres of paint which is a lot! Bonnet doors and tailgate were sprayed in a horizontal manner to prevent paint runs. The paint dries remarkably quickly and after and hour or so is quite dry to the touch.
Because the doors were off the car Terry could spray places such as the A-posts where not even Ford could get to (cars are usually sprayed fully built in the factory). The inner regions of the tailgate were resprayed but not the actual well of the boot. again this was in pretty good condition and was cleaned up later.
With the respraying complete the Capri was ready for rebuilding and finishing off ......
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