Thursday , March 28 2024

1962 356B Porsche Restoration Project Final Straightening

Final straightening (hand sanding) & Paint!
porsche restorationA “mist coat” of red primer was used over the heavy-build gray primer. Doing this helps detect low spots. When hand-sanding the car with a flat block, low spots (dents) remain red while the rest of the car sands to gray.

Then spot-putty can be used on the low stops. You can see some pink spot putty in the photos above. I use water and a sponge to help keep the sandpaper clean.

THE CAR IS FINALLY TAPED AND READY! AND….TA DA!

So there it is! Except all didn’t go smoothly. There were a lot of “dry” spots (spots that didn’t shine). Later I found out it was because the hardener the paint store sold me was a fast-drying hardener for “spot repair”. There was no way I could have sprayed it wet enough to get a good shine! Maddening.

porsche 356 painting

So I had to use a scuff pad on my finally-painted Porsche…I’m obviously not super happy about it. It took 10 hrs to paint it the first time. When I painted the car the first time I had the motor lid off of the car so I could paint the underside of the motor lid and the engine compartment. I was planning to paint the top of the motor lid when I painted the doors and hood (which still are no where ready for paint). But since I had to spray the whole car again I mounted the motor lid so I could paint it with the car.

porsche 356 painting

After I spent about 6 hrs getting the car ready for paint again I started into spraying more color–this time with the correct hardener. But after spraying the roof of the car and the driver’s side fender, I noticed the PAINT was CURDLING in spots!

So then I stopped spraying and called up Welle Auto for more advice. The owner, Ken Welle, drove out personally to see the problem first hand. He concluded that the weak link in my process had been the single-stage primer that I used after the epoxy primer. This single stage primer (no hardener catalyst makes it a single stage) was reacting to the thinner in the wet color coat. SO! More work.

Obviously I had to sand off the curdled paint, but then Mr. Welle suggested applying a TWO-stage primer over everything. This two-stage primer would hopefully act as a barrier between my new color coat and the single stage primer that was under the first paint coat and sealer.

I had some fun while priming over the color…I needed a good laugh.

Here’s the Porsche after the two-stage primer. After spraying the “protective” two-stage primer I had to sand the entire car yet again! Whew. All of this was happening while TRYING To get paint on the car before winter took hold of Minnesota! Daytime highs above 60 degrees were becoming scarce.

So finally the car is ready for paint a THIRD TIME!
And here it is.

VERY NICE. Now that’s the kind of shine I worked so hard to get.

Thanks for reading! Wave goodbye. But wait…


More progress to come this spring. In the mean time check out the rest of the Web site!

Here is a video you should watch before starting your paint:


Click Here to Learn More DIY Paint Techniques

 

Go to Porsche Restoration page 1
to see how this restoration began.

See Porsche Restoration Page 2 for Rust Repair.

See Page 3 for More Rust Repair!

See Page 4 for Stripping! Ooo. Racy. (paint strip)

See Page 5 for panel straightening & priming!

This is Page 6. Welcome.