58367 The $75 Junkyard Carrera coupe restoration

[gkw]

Your totally right Justin.
The skin is the primary goal with the jambs secondary.
Good luck -- Gordon

[James Davies]

Justin, the car looks great in the photos. Sorry the metallic is getting you down. I hope you get it sorted. It seems like there's some good expert opinion here to help you out.

If it makes you feel better, Reutter had its own problems with metallic coatings when they switched from nitrocellulose lacquer (nitrolack) to synthetic enamel (kunhartzlack) paint. Nitrolack was easy to lay down, but it didn't last long. It shrunk, cracked, darkened over time and lost its luster without lots of maintenance, so Porsche was looking for something better. For the '54 model year Reutter started painting the solid, non-metallic colors in synthetic enamel, still doing the metallics in nitrolack. In 1956, they were doing all colors, solid and metallic, in enamel.

From Frank Jung's "Porsche 356 by Reutter" book:

On February 1, 1956 Porsche complained in writing to Reutter about a "downright frightening deterioration in execution and processing" of bodies delivered. There was in fact reason for Porsche to be dissatisfied based on the previous high-quality deliveries from Reutter. Increasingly, there were problems with the painting of the body shells which included fine pores in the sheet metal and inclusions of dust and tiny metal shavings in the subsequent paint layers. While a nitro-painted exterior body skin could be reworked and repaired, it was difficult to do this for the new resin coatings. This was especially true for metallic finishes which were very popular with customers. The proportion of metallics ordered in January and February 1956 were 75% and 69% respectively of all bodies to be painted. Reutter was very interested in reducing such coatings and asked Porsche to limit the offerings to their customers. The painters had particular difficulties with the standard color Aquamarine Metallic (color code R 607). Reutter even threatened no more standard specification applying this color.

So rest assured that your problems are not unique!

Of course for 1957, Porsche accepted Reutter's request, and Aquamarine was made non-metallic, the rest of the metallic colors were scrapped, and the only metallic offered for the rest of 356 production was Silver metallic.

Anyway, I'm learning a lot here in this thread. My '53 coupe was originally Fish silver grey, one of the 3 early metallics (fish silver, radium green and adria blue) used by Porsche, and I hope to eventually get the color and finish done right after lots of bodywork.

I would be interested in finding out what sort of silver paint and especially metallic flake you used. I know the 50s German metallics used a very, very fine flake, which must be difficult to find these days.

I was looking at the Mercedes Benz race cars at Lime Rock Historic Festival last month. The Mercedes museum in Stuttgart brought Moss's 1954 300 SLR and a W196 Grand Prix car to show and demonstrate. They had them parked next next a 1939 W154 from the Collier Collection (Revs Institute, Naples FL). The Mercedes museum cars had modern silver metallic paint with very large flake. The W154 from 1939 had a nitrolack silver paint job that used a very fine metallic flake, just like the samples I have from protected areas on my car. Paul Russell I believe had repainted this car many years ago in nitrolack. It looked fantastic.

Anyway, I wish you luck!

James

[neilbardsley]

"the painters had particular difficulties with the standard color Aquamarine Metallic (color code R 607)"

I'm reading that with interest because it's the original colour of my 356.

[roy mawbey]

After reading Bruce's comments about a sanding party for Justin and removing a foot square of top coat at a time. Just how long will it take to do all that? I bet it will take Justin many days manually or is it best to use a power sander on the larger area's? So easy I guess to go through the top surface??

James, My 1952 car was red when I bought it in the mid 70's Would you believe I kept the hinge plate with the chassis number ident on it when the car went to the breakers!!! Anyway a while ago I looked at the plate and thought I saw a speck of silver underneath the red. Can you believe the plate had been sprayed red without primer and I was able to lightly scrape off the red to expose the original 1952 'Fish silver' metallic. You are correct the flake is so fine. With it being covered in red for so long it polished up like new. I know a while ago Bruce mentioned how the silver metallic's from the 50's faded so fast on the cars. Could take a photo if you needed one.

Hope all goes well Justin.

Roy

[JTR70]

Thanks so much for all the input guys! I'll do a proper response post after I recover. I've been slamming on it all week in preparation for today. I got started at 1:00 this afternoon and just got home at mid-night. A full day to say the least but.....Its painted!
Here's a quick shot. Hitting the showers and off to bed to recover. More later. Justin

[JOP]

WOW Justin,

She looks marvelous
Now you "only" have the good things left to assemble it back to its former glory.
Thx a million for sharing your ups and downs with "the 75$ Junkyard Carrera"
I will offer you a even 100$ for it to relieve you for any further pain...
/ Per

[roy mawbey]

Justin,

The car looks fabulous really great. Those front hood gaps have made me go green

Well done indeed, so much work but so worth it.

Bet your dad thinks the same!

Roy

[MMW]

It looks really awesome! Reading between the lines in your previous post you seem excited, relieved & just ready to sit back for a bit to admire it. All that matters is if you are happy with it which it seems you are. What a road to have travelled to get to this point. Congratulations!

[merbesfield]

First thought, WOW! It looks amazing. You must be mentally wiped out. So many ups and downs along the road, but you are still standing. Well hopefully sleeping. Great job.

[spyderwerks]

Way to go Justin , she looks Beautiful !!

[356JAGER]

Awesome job Justin. A fitting time for a break to catch your breath and savor the results of your journey.
Cheers,
Joel

[JTR70]

Thanks Gordon, I eventually get my priorities in order.

Thank you James, Interesting bit of Reutter history. I can certainly understand why they eventually cut their metallic paint options to minimum as production progressed. Not only is the pattern of the flake a concern but with today's two-stage systems you also must worry about previous and slightly aggressive sanding scuffs showing up into the surface. The Clear, unlike wetting the surface with water doesn't hide them but instead just entombs and preserves them and can be detected in the flake when viewed at certain angles. So the prepped surface has to be just so. Then there is the battle with lint and other trash before you get it sealed behind the clearcoat; did I mention potential nats that seem to be just drawn to fresh paint? It is quite the juggling act especially with the lighter colors like silver. The pattern of the flake was actually the only thing we had going for us last weekend but it was contamination that threw the wrench into our works.(will go into that next) As for the flake I chose to go with Spies/Hecker as they are the supplier here in the states for proper smaller European metal flake. A lot more money than PPG slightly larger domestic flake but worth it to me.

When a brand new Mercedes goes in for collision repair this is the dealer required paint system for the job. I'm not a fan of paint fumes but I have to say that their clear has really nice citrusy smell to it.

Thanks a lot Roy! A sanding party of 1 all through this last week was the only possibility as at this stage in the game I could trust no one else but me to ensure it was prepped right. I could not risk letting anyone else who wasn't up to speed just aimlessly sand and risk in the process changing my lines, edges or door gap shapes I had worked so hard on creating. During last Saturdays marathon Rick's buddy thought he'd help block sand with us. I found him using a hard plastic on the cowl which was etching the rolled approach up to the windshield with the corners of the block. I about lost my mind but I was able to calmly explain that we had it covered. I spent the next 1/2 hour cleaning that back up; If you want to help me, "please don't help me".
Didn't have to take the new top coat back down to the sealer just long boarded it for shape and where I felt excess thickness.

My sincerest thanks to Per, Mic, Mark, Max, and Joel for your great words of encouragement and empathy. I greatly appreciate having your company on this seemingly endless journey. Thank you again Guys!
Justin

[JTR70]

First attempt on Saturday Oct. 10
Contamination not flake pattern would be the downfall of this go round.

I had localized contamination to the inner left front fender(highlighted in green) in the form of one good sized "fish-eye" (that simply refused to die)with three smaller satellite dimples. The left door had about a 3 inch scratch that was reacting much the same way as the fisheyes also in green. It had contaminants in it that the paint just didn't want to touch. BTW: this was also after adding a cap full of Fish-eye preventer to the base as insurance.

What normally causes this is either oil or silicone. Before I sent the car over to Ricks I did a full and careful preliminary wipe down with wax and grease remover solvent. Then after the car was in and settled it was wiped completely again. I never figured out where the hell this contamination came from but at the very least it was localized to just those two areas.

What made it all the more frustratingly sad as the day wore on was that the rest of the body and the closing panels could not turned out better; they were ready for clear coat and call it a day. Rick shot the first coats around 11AM then it was a cycle of letting those troubled areas cure for about 45 minutes then carefully sanding them back in anticipation of another coat of base to try and bury these flaws. By the second try the door was fixed BUT I ended up wiping it down clean again with laquer thinner as it was much quicker than waiting for it to dry. (what a mess that was) By the fourth attempt all the smaller fish-eyes were gone on the fender but the large one while smaller was still reappearing. It was getting into late afternoon/early evening by this time and patience was wearing very thin with all of us as the risk of losing the rest of the body as the clock as ticking to apply the clear to the curing base.

The fifth try was very promising but as it settled in the divot started to form as I said earlier we were all getting pissed. Rick tried to flood coat it but to no good end. I finally took my finger and just smeared it out! Felt good to do it but that was it, we were out of road for the day and it would have to wait until morning. Leaving this mess pictured above to set overnight would open a brand new can of worms for me on Sunday morning. We should have wiped it off. We don't have a "crying" emotocon but I sure could use one here.

Before we called it quits Rick wanted to at least get the closing panels finished in clear so we'd only have the body to deal with on Sunday.

My "police car" doors looked so pretty, which also made it all the more sad.

I was happy with hood too..

The troublesome left door looked fine as well but on Sunday I'd find wisps of sanding scuffs in the flake around that same trouble area that I just could leave after all that I'd been through so far. I'd try to talk myself into thinking that they weren't so bad but I just couldn't let it go. By this time it was past 10PM and it was a very stressful and largely unsuccessful day. We were all beat up, hungry and tired with another trying day directly ahead of us to get this thing finished;which we would not. Sunday bloody Sunday next.
Thanks for reading this! Justin

[Jonesy_356]

Wow, mate, what a bloody drama! Well done for pushing through. In the years to come you will know you've made the right decision. That fish-eye would have driven you mad and it is obvious that you would never be happy with it. Glad it has all worked out in the end, thanks for sharing. I'll be sure and buy several filters for my air supply, and do that extra wipe down before spraying just to be sure, to be sure!

Jonesy

[Don C]

Two words: THAT SUCKS!