chinks
Member
- Joined
- August 30, 2009
- Messages
- 12
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1997
Hi all
I am posting this as this forum has been an absolute god send to me since I got my Ex so I hope this gives a bit back and is a help to others wondering what to do with their faded door pillars.
When I got my Ex one of the first things I wanted to do was restore the front and rear door pillars back to black rather than the dull, faded and pitted grey they had become, see below
So I searched the forum to find what others had done and this ranged from painting through vinyl wrap to engine laquer.
I decided on the painting option - so here is how I went about it. This took me about 6 hours, on and off and 4 cans of Stella!
Firstly I wanted to remove as much trim as possible so it would be easier to mask up and not get any rough paint edges against the trim. The trim at the bottom of the windows is easy to get off, remove the small nut on the inside of the door and pull gently up. The top trim is held on with pop rivets as well as a nut and I didnt want to start drilling these off so I removed the nut and used a small piece of plastic to hold the trim away from the area to paint.
Next job was to drop the windows and gently pull the rubber window channels away from the door and out of the way.
So to the preparation, because the grey paint was pitted I rubbed it down with some fine wet and dry paper (1500 grit) until they were smooth.
Next job was to mask around the area to be painted, for this I would not recommend using the wife's unread magazine as I did!
Now to the painting bit - But first a recommendation, take it slowly, many thin coats of paint are better than a few heavy coats, because as sure as a sure thing that just won first prize in a sure competition, if you rush or are heavy with the paint you will get unsightly paint runs. Also if you dont have a garage you can do the job in and have to do it outside, best do it on a warm day when the wind is not blowing crap about - yes we did have one a couple of weeks ago!
So I applied a few coats of black primer. When fully dry I used the very fine wet and dry to smooth this down. (all the paint I used was from B&Q, about £6 a can)
When I was happy all the pitting was filled in I applied 2 coats of black satin followed by 2 coats of clear laquer.
Then left overnight to harden and built back up. Because I used a gloss laquer I got a shiny finish but you could use a matt laquer for of course a matt finish.
Finished result
Before re-paint for comparrison
I hope this is of use to someone and just to add I was so pleased with the result I did the wiper arms as well as the had flaking and faded paint and they came up great as well.
best regards everyone
Chris
I am posting this as this forum has been an absolute god send to me since I got my Ex so I hope this gives a bit back and is a help to others wondering what to do with their faded door pillars.
When I got my Ex one of the first things I wanted to do was restore the front and rear door pillars back to black rather than the dull, faded and pitted grey they had become, see below
So I searched the forum to find what others had done and this ranged from painting through vinyl wrap to engine laquer.
I decided on the painting option - so here is how I went about it. This took me about 6 hours, on and off and 4 cans of Stella!
Firstly I wanted to remove as much trim as possible so it would be easier to mask up and not get any rough paint edges against the trim. The trim at the bottom of the windows is easy to get off, remove the small nut on the inside of the door and pull gently up. The top trim is held on with pop rivets as well as a nut and I didnt want to start drilling these off so I removed the nut and used a small piece of plastic to hold the trim away from the area to paint.
Next job was to drop the windows and gently pull the rubber window channels away from the door and out of the way.
So to the preparation, because the grey paint was pitted I rubbed it down with some fine wet and dry paper (1500 grit) until they were smooth.
Next job was to mask around the area to be painted, for this I would not recommend using the wife's unread magazine as I did!
Now to the painting bit - But first a recommendation, take it slowly, many thin coats of paint are better than a few heavy coats, because as sure as a sure thing that just won first prize in a sure competition, if you rush or are heavy with the paint you will get unsightly paint runs. Also if you dont have a garage you can do the job in and have to do it outside, best do it on a warm day when the wind is not blowing crap about - yes we did have one a couple of weeks ago!
So I applied a few coats of black primer. When fully dry I used the very fine wet and dry to smooth this down. (all the paint I used was from B&Q, about £6 a can)
When I was happy all the pitting was filled in I applied 2 coats of black satin followed by 2 coats of clear laquer.
Then left overnight to harden and built back up. Because I used a gloss laquer I got a shiny finish but you could use a matt laquer for of course a matt finish.
Finished result
Before re-paint for comparrison
I hope this is of use to someone and just to add I was so pleased with the result I did the wiper arms as well as the had flaking and faded paint and they came up great as well.
best regards everyone
Chris
