KrisDR Posted February 26, 2018 Share Posted February 26, 2018 I thought it would make total sense to take all panels (including doors, roof etc) off (RRC) and have them resprayed separately till I spoke with a body specialist who told me that this shouldn't be done. His argument was that it is better to allign all panels and then have them painted on the car. What does the collective LR4X4 think about this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paintman Posted February 26, 2018 Share Posted February 26, 2018 (edited) No reason why you can't paint all the panels separately. Did this with my RRC - complete respray over several days a few years ago during a hot period. Only panel I took off & did inside was the bonnet, partially to enable the removal of the decker panel & partly to avoid anything falling from the sky whilst I was painting it! You MUST buy enough colour coat to do the whole car & keep it in one container for uniformity. If you have to buy it in litre tins buy a 2.5 or 5 litre tin & tip it all in. This will avoid any slight variations. Mine's Cypress Green metallic & I had no panel to panel shade issues. IIRC I bought 2.5 litres of basecoat ( the colour) & I've still got a bit left - I was repainting the same colour & not a colour change & I don't know how much you would need if dong a colour change as you may need to paint the door shuts etc if they are coour painted on yours & not the black as mine. I buy 2k clearcoat by the 5 litre clear/2.5 litre hardener so used what I already had to hand. The basecoat was Lesonal SB, a solvent base which is still available. I SMART repair professionally so had a pretty good idea that it would be doable & know what I'm doing with a spraygun which helps! Sound old paint properly prepared makes a very good undercoat. I made use of a customer's workshop (a caravan dealer who I do quite a bit of caravan body repairs for) to do the roof so I could get the whole car inside & used a couple of their big stepladders. Edited February 26, 2018 by paintman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotts90 Posted February 26, 2018 Share Posted February 26, 2018 I did a complete strip down/full colour change with everything removed, as said above buying enough paint for the whole job and keeping it constant is the key. I mixed my base coats together so the colour was even through the three tins, turned out just fine. If you were going for a fancy pearl or mica where panel orientation may create an issue with shading/reflection of the metal flake then I could see where the body shop was coming from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davo Posted February 27, 2018 Share Posted February 27, 2018 I'm planning on doing the same thing with my RRC, and I also know damned well that it would be a good opportunity to fix whatever rusty horror I find underneath the body panels as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miketomcat Posted February 27, 2018 Share Posted February 27, 2018 My experience has been doors off the car (not lr). I found you need to hang the panel the same orientation as it will be on the car, I didn't and it was noticeable. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davo Posted February 27, 2018 Share Posted February 27, 2018 Good point! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrisDR Posted March 1, 2018 Author Share Posted March 1, 2018 Many thanks for the replies. I'll stick with the original idea to have them painted separately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landroversforever Posted March 4, 2018 Share Posted March 4, 2018 Not so applicable to a rangie but I'm going to do my 90 panels all apart in case of future assembly/disassembly. It means I won't get any gaps and also better protection of the panel edges. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troll Hunter Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 I'm doing all my CSW 110 panels separately for several reasons: I already have them all off and separate, and being a complete newbie to spraying I'd rather learn on a couple of the smaller panels than have a full vehicle in front of me; if I screw up on them I don't have too much to re-prep for a second try; and having individual panels takes far less space than a whole vehicle. BTW, I'm also keeping the original colour - Alpine White. I was very pleasantly surprised at one of our local motor factors, who is supplying my paint, when he asked me for make, model and year of my vehicle and straight away came up with the range of colours available for a 1991 Defender. Impressed, because Defenders are virtually unknown here, unless they are private "vintage" imports, but the north American paint supplier still had the mix recipe details. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eightpot Posted March 10, 2018 Share Posted March 10, 2018 It's generally not accepted as good form to paint separately as you risk getting a different finish on each panel, unless you are well skilled at spraying. Your mix will vary each time, as will air pressure, gun settings and temperature. You can also notice differences if a panel is sprayed in a different orientation. A good paint shop should be able to get a nice consistent finish though, but it's a fair bit more work painting panel by panel. On a Rangie you do get a nicer finish if panels are painted off the frame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troll Hunter Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 I'm sorry, 8-pot, but I don't understand what you are recommending. Most of your post seems to recommend painting with all the panels fitted, but the last line seems to be totally against that philosophy!. Please explain, since I am about to get all my body panel sprayed separately. Manhy thanks, Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrisDR Posted March 11, 2018 Author Share Posted March 11, 2018 2 hours ago, Troll Hunter said: I'm sorry, 8-pot, but I don't understand what you are recommending. Most of your post seems to recommend painting with all the panels fitted, but the last line seems to be totally against that philosophy!. Please explain, since I am about to get all my body panel sprayed separately. Manhy thanks, Mike I have spoken to a few body shop folks in the meantime and all have agreed that in case of a Defender or RRC it makes sense to spray separately. The agreed that precautions have to be taken though. I guess hanging the panels in the sprayboot as if they were on the car would make total sense. I don’t see that there could be an issue like that. Even the roof access would be easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotts90 Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 If you are going with a solid colour then it's not so much of an issue, metallics can be affected by the way in which the base is laid down. As mentioned earlier having enough paint to do the whole job is a start but a pro-paint shop should be able to replicate exact batches time after time. Gun settings and pressure consistency are easy to keep in check but in the DIY booth temperature is an issue. The biggest problem is the tool holding the gun! A decent painter is worth his weight in gold, the amount of "pro" jobs I've seen that are simply shocking is phenomenal...it all depends how fussy you are and like most things you only get what you pay for. Painting off ensures the panel edges are all well coated and saves any masking issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eightpot Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 On Sunday, March 11, 2018 at 4:36 AM, Troll Hunter said: I'm sorry, 8-pot, but I don't understand what you are recommending. Most of your post seems to recommend painting with all the panels fitted, but the last line seems to be totally against that philosophy!. Please explain, since I am about to get all my body panel sprayed separately. Manhy thanks, Mike I just mean that on one hand it looks better to paint off the car as there is no overspray on the frame that way and it looks neater. Not much gained if all the panels look slightly different though. Wasn't sure if you were taking all the panels at one time, or in batches, which could lead to some variation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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