Breadvan_update_073: hand polished and painted car
Filling and tightening a custom car
After the Breadvan Hommage has been painted with the epoxy, and that material has hardened, we move into the next stage. This is filling and tightening this bespoke custom car. The filler has an excellent adhesion to the epoxy. Classic Car Painter Fred works from top to bottom. So, he starts with the roof. Before he starts filling, he puts tape on the facet line of the roof. This is to keep a clear sharp line during filling and sanding. Once the entire roof is put in the filler, it is dried. After drying of the filler he starts with P120 to sand the roof tightly. Then the low and high lying parts of the roof appear. The car painter stops this operation when the roof is 80% tight. The next step is to fill the lower parts and let the roof of the one-off car harden.
Sanding the Breadvan Hommage coachbuilt car
The next step is to sand the filled spots with P120, after this P180 and as final step P240 will be used. The putty is sanded away as much as possible. In car painter jargon this is called “sanding to the plate”. Fred performs these steps on all parts of the Breadvan Hommage coachbuilt car. This goes for the front and rear fenders. But also the doors on the left and right hand side. And the lovely rear-end of this handmade beauty. At this stage the Breadvan Hommage is ready for a layer of spray filler. The painter applies this with the primer spray gun. This smoothly sprayed layer ensures that the last small transitions can be removed. A true mirror finish of the paint is the goal.
Special custom car paint procedures
The following step is to start sanding the layer of filler with grit P180. This is followed by grit P240 and P320. Every part is then checked for tightness by wetting the part. By using lamps on the wetted parts to see any imperfections. Now all parts are tight and ready for the next phase. The Breadvan Hommage is again masked. The first layer on the car is epoxy. This epoxy layer insulates the sanded sheet metal. In this way we get a closed anti-corrosion layer under the primer. After evaporation of the epoxy layer, 3 layers of primer follow. This off-white primer provides a good covering surface for the bespoke, specially designed paint. The primer layer is given several weeks to fully cure. So it loses all of its solvents. This is better for the quality of the end result.