Painting an E-Type Bonnet

[AussieEtype]

I am going to have to do a bare metal respray of my bonnet.

Clearly the mudguards have to come off the central bonnet panel to get primer/paint etc along the join but is it best to paint the whole thing with mudguards off and then bolt them back together or have it all bolted back together before the final coats go on.

Also - when putting the chrome strip that goes down each mudguard back in after painting what is the risk in scratching the new paint when the chrome beading is pushed down into the join.

Thanks

Garry

[MarkE]

With my S1 the bonnet was completely taken apart, the rusty bits sorted out and etch primed, and the bonnet dry assembled. The whole thing was then rubbed down and levelled and put into etch primer. The wings were then taken off and the underside and the flanges painted in primer then top coat, and the wings put back on. Then the whole 'outer' bonnet was then painted in a primer / filler and top coated, after the underside had been masked off.

It's a huge job to do properly!!

[christopher storey]

Really, it should not be necessary to take the mudguards off for the repaint, as if the bonnet has been properly assembled , there should be washers at each point where the bolts go through which keep the flanges apart by about 1.5 mm /one-sixteenth inch, and the gap allows paint to reach the flanges.

As far as I know the professionals always trial fit the bonnet to the car, making such adjustments as are necessary, and then having removed it from the car paint the bonnet as an entity, with all parts attached, as otherwise you run the risk of having to loosen bolts to reposition wings etc after fitting the bonnet to the car

Putting the chrome strips back on is a bit nerve-wracking, but what I do is

1. Tape old towelling to the areas of bonnet/wing where the strip might hit

2. Put 2 layers of masking tape along each side of the join ( fiddly but doable) which then prevents the brass staples from scratching the paint

The trick is to just engage the staples in the gap in the join one at a time, and then only push them home when all of them are engaged in the gap. It also minimises the risk of damage if you only put 2 or 3 staples in the beading to start with , sliding others in ( I do it from the front) as each preceding one is engaged in the join

It is a good idea to trial fit the staples into the bead before you go near the car, making sure that they will slide along it in both directions without jamming

I hope this helps

[1954Etype]

Agree with Chris S on this one. If you do want to strip the bonnet down to paint the underneath and seams, don't put the final coat on the outside until you have the bonnet fully built and trial fitted to the car. Re the chrome strips, I spray Waxoyl along the seam before fitting the staples and strips - ensures that it is protected and provides lubrication which helps the staples move easier. (I always have a can of clear waxoyl which is used to spray into cavities etc when I take something off the car).

[MarkE]

Well I guess it depends if you're doing a restoration to make the car as new, and protecting it for the future, or just tidying it up to make it look good for a few years.

If you don't remove the wings and treat any surface rust the chances are it will come back pretty quickly and ruin the rest of the bonnet paintwork. There is no way you can get paint between the upper panel and the wings, but even if you could, you would just be leaving any rust untreated. My cars were both rust-free Californian car, and neither have ever been welded. But there was a fair bit of surface rust in the flanges when they were taken apart, purely because the car wasn't painted properly in the factory. I guess that the clips holding the chrome strip down will also rub what little paint there is away pretty quickly as well.

The other issue with bonnets is the bonding with the inner wing panels and the main bonnet panels. This has invariably dried up over the past 40 or 50 years, and in the worst cases let moisture in behind the bonding material. The only way to sort this out is to completely disassemble the bonnet and re-bond, after removing any surface rust that may have formed.

Remember that these were very poorly painted in the first place, with lots of vulnerable places for rust to start like the wing flanges, hence they rusted so badly!

[AussieEtype]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all those great points - my bonnet was a new bonnet in 1982 when I bought the car in the UK so hasn't suffered the bad climate but it was painted rather badly and surface rust bubbled up soon after. The bonnet has been stored in the open (Aust not UK) for a couple of years so will have surface rust in the joins.

So I will dismantle and repaint all the joins in surface colour then reassemble - then paint the bonnet as a single unit.

Cheers for all your advice - good stiff.

Garry

[Dave K]

I removed all the paint, sorted and minor rough parts out, oiled all the panels, put it back together and go it just right, removed and stripped it all down again, degrease every part, etch primed and then used high build primer, flatted it all down and painted every surface in base coat and then lacquered it and rebuilt it.
It took me ages and I did it all but worth in the long run.

You have two choices do it right or flash it over it's up to the individual.

Dave

[00series]

For a cleaner less messy alternative to waxoyl, especially for those small & visible areas ie: bonnet & body trim seams/joints - i use ACF50 spray - its not cheap but creaps very well into inaccesible areas & is a very good rust preventative spray as used in the aircraft industry.