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Repainting a D90

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5K views 23 replies 14 participants last post by  BMGmotors 
#1 ·
So my D90 has never been repainted and since it sat out in the sun a lot when owned by the previous owner much of the clearcoat on the car is coming off. I've noticed this on other Rovers of age, particularly on the hoods, and so I would also like to know what it is about Land Rover's clearcoats that makes them not last? Mainly I would like to know if there are any pointers anyone would like to give me regarding repainting a D90. I have experience in repainting steel bodied cars but not so much aluminum ones, are there any differences in applying the paint that I should be aware of? Is there a special kind of paint/primer I need to purchase. I plan on going with the original BRG, probably PPG. Lastly, there are some minor corrosion spots (around the rear corners and on the front/nose of the hood at the front corners) I believe it's from where the steel reinforcements rivet/etc. to the aluminum... the result is some small bubbles visible on the body and paint. The worst I believe seems to be right underneath where the roll cage mounts to the front fenders, right in front of the doors, the aluminum is slightly misshapen there. Can anyone give me any advice on what to do with those problem areas? Hoping I won't have to remove the front fenders or anything. I'm going to be replacing my front door hinges I think, they're too pitted to save and look good again I believe. And if repainting a D90 is something that should really be only carried out by a real pro (i.e. ECR) let me know; but then again I just don't have $1000+ to hand to some guy in a shop, I'd just rather spend the $300-400 on paint and do it myself. Thanks anyways you're advice is appreciated. :)
 
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#2 ·
kkind of on the same boat with my 95 classic lwb, it was sold as british racing green, second owner had it painted white, it has been peeling for sometime showing the green.
two months ago, I was using a power washer to wash it and the left doors and quartel pannel lost the white paint to show some body work on the green.
so now I drive a two face car... left side is green right, top, front and rear are spotty white and green.
Im thinking of doing all the prep and sent it to maaco for a 300 $ job. just so it is one color..
 
#5 ·
x3, I paid $800 for a paint job on my old disco. That was for cost. It still turned out like crap. A quality paint job is going to cost you at least $3k. Take it to a reputable body shop that routinely deals with high end cars. Call the LR dealership, Mercedes, Porsche, or whatever and ask who they send their cars to for body work. You'll hate a bad paint job worse than the current condition. Believe me...I did. I paid another several hundred dollars just to get another body shop that was reputable to clean up the cheap job i paid for.
 
#6 ·
EWR:
I'm in the process of painting a 1975 Triumph TR6 right now, I've spent about $300 on some superior paint by PPG, not to mention the $150 spray guns, the $70 gallon of primer and thinner, hours of prep work including the masking, priming, the sanding b/w 400 and 600 grit. That's at least $520 of materials. Meanwhile body shops were quoting me anywhere from $2000-$2500 to do the entire job for me. It is not that expensive to paint a car yourself. You don't have to sacrifice a quality paint job in order to be cost effective if you are doing it right.
 
#7 ·
If you can get quality paint for 300 and you have the skills/equipment/booth then, you have your answer. I just did/ had my 110 painted in pieces, color change and it took a lot of paint. There is a lot of surface area on a D, don't under estimate it.

If there is corrosion, you can 1) replace the panel 2) cut and patch 3) ignore it. :)

Good luck with your project.
 
#8 ·
Hmmmn....I paint probably a dozen Defenders / Series trucks a year and I've yet to get the materials down to under $1000 (usually more like $1200). All painted disassembled as they should be. The whole job comes in at least 6k, for the paint part.
 
#11 ·
Matt, how do you deal with the rivets?


The cappings and corners etc are generally coming off and getting galvanized, if it's painted capping's etc then the rivets get painted (the cappings still get removed and galvanized)
With the bonnet I paint the inside and re install the galvanized frame and then paint the outside so the rivets get painted.
 
#10 ·
As BMG, I just painted my Re-build Double Cab. It is white which is a pretty forgiving color. However I did paint the 90's top when I switched over to the NAS style top. It is green. Both turned out pretty well. I did both in the driveway, in the morning to get away from the afternoon bugs. As a kid I worked at a body shop to make extra money. He painted a lot of stuff out in the lot. A booth will give you a better dust free job but it you paint at the correct time of day, temperature, humidity you will do just fine doing it yourself. One thing I would suggest is to do a lot of coats so that if you get "orange peal", look, you can wet sand and then buff it out.
Prep work is the KEY when ever you are anybody else is going to re-paint any vehicle. That is one reason the Quicky Paint job companies do not have a good reputation. They have a tendency to paint everything and charge more for custom mixed colors. I went to the local Automotive paint supply company and got my stuff. I used a one stage paint and added the reducer and a high gloss hardener. I purchased a cheap spray gun, $14.00, from Harbor freight. It is by no means the best gun but did a pretty good job. Check the specifications on the guns to make sure that you do not have too much air pressure at the gun. Some of the more expensive guns do that themselves. I think I spent around $400.00 for everything when it was all said and done.
If you do not take care of those corrosion bubbles they will be back in a fairly quick fashion. You will be amazed at what damage has been done by the dis-similar metals. You will need to fill in the damaged metal. You have a bunch of options from Bondo to Red Lead. After using the filler and finished sanding you can use a dark color primer. It would be best to use the primer on the entire vehicle but it can get a bit expensive if you use a rattle can. You can use a primer in a large can but the inexpensive gun might not spray it. Always test the gun before spraying to make sure that you have a good pattern and the correct viscosity of the paint in the gun.
Re-painting is a lot of work to do it correctly, that is why it cost so much to get it done. You can do it yourself with a good outcome but the prep work is the key.
 
#12 ·
I spent 450 just in materials to paint the seat box, floor panels, and tunnel to bulkhead filler piece. This did not take into account having the battery tray and tool box galvanized or the hardware needed to reassemble it. I did buy DuPont products and started with epoxy primer however I did not pay retail. 5 years ago I purchased a working body shop that had been in business since 1981 so I get a pretty good deal on products.

Throwing a Maco paint job on a 20-30k truck seems like false economy to me.
 

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#17 ·
That makes a difference. However, I have painted more than a dozen vehicles....300 for paint....I doubt it was "superior" as you mentioned. I've paid more than that for a gallon...

Whatever though, as others have posted the prep is EVERYTHING..... I have seen decent paint jobs that were done with PPG's lesser brand of OMNI.... but the prep work was spot on....so, take your time, and I'm sure it will look great. Good Luck!
 
#15 ·
The cost to do just the exterior side of my father spare tire engine hood was around $320. That was about half of what a bigger shop quoted me. From what I could tell they all (shops) worked from the same book (insurance) to work up an estimate. They cant just give you a figure for the one part or what ever have you. All I did was bring in the hood.
 
#16 ·
I think you need to take into consideration how you plan to use your 90. If you expect trail rash then a do it yourself job is fine. If you are painting with resale in mind then expect to pay for a quality job. For a cost estimate for a do it yourself job, I painted my Series IIa 88 (just the outside) with DuPont Urethane a couple of years ago for agound $375 in materials. As folks have said - prepwork is the key.
 
#20 ·
I'm sure others who have done the entire truck can be more precise , but I just did the 2 front fenders and 2 ST doortops in AE primer and 3 top coats w/ HVLP gun and I went thru about a qt. Add to that the solvent, hardener, cleaner, fisheye eliminator, & reducer. Granted, there is more economy in doing more surfaces and at the same time.
 
#21 ·
A good 3 stage job will require some work.

If you are a $10B auto company with robots doing all the work and multiple climate and HVAC controlled booths, with all parts on an assembly line, you will be able to spray without any hand work.

In real life, you will have to wet sand and possibly buff each layer of a 3 stage (primer, base, AND clear) to the same level of finish you want in the final product. Most auto sprayers say inane things like "Don't wet sand the primer or basecoat." They're wrong. If you have the time, wet sand and buff every layer to a mirror finish that you can shave with.

I believe you could get the materials for a good 3 stage job on an entire defender (excluding stuff like the frame, spats and other internal ancillaries) for less than a thousand. Doing it yourself can save money. You can achieve a mirror finish with a $20 HF spray gun (I've done it before) it just takes time to get rid of surface imperfections.
 
#22 ·
Thanks, good to hear some encouragement. I'm posting a pic of my TR6 I just painted myself just to show an example of my experience, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out, I went with a single stage deal, and hoping I'll have just as much if not more luck when I repaint my D90. I know the D90 doesn't need nearly as much body work as this car did, nevertheless I do appreciate any tips for my next project. For instance on the D90 my left rear quarter panel corner, right where the back and side panels rivet together, has a dent from when the previous owner backed into something. I imagine I'll have to straighten this out but after that I'm not sure if bondo is good for aluminum (?), I have a feeling it's not, maybe I won't have to use any there. Also does anyone know what the kind of paint LR used originally to paint these cars was made of? For instance my TR6 was originally done in acrylic lacquer, but I redid it in I think acrylic urethane.
 

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#23 ·
BMGmotors, a question... Are you going to go with the original color (which is?) ?

Or something new? You have a soft-top so you may get out for under $1,000.00 USD.


Cool Thread...



Couldn't have come at a better time, as I just got a used 2004 Volvo V70 to replace my ailing Toyo Van, but she was a contender at one point haha... What I mean is, I had this crazy idea of restoring (and I almost did) a 1988 Toyota Cargo Van with absolutely no rust, just a lot of sanding. I couldn't agree with SORONOS more, he hit the nail right on the head.

In the attached pic, my friend who worked spraying for Maaco and myself did the van from start to finish in 44 hours (basically friday night til monday morning straight with sleep/food breaks but nothing else) and used SHERWIN WILLIAMS 7000 Series paint & clear coat. Couple/Few coats we'll say.

Soronos is right, you really need to spend about a thousand... And JUNKYDDOG11 is totally right because you'd need a good amount of paint to paint this truck right. That's why he has a price of $6k and a higher-end paint place in Tallahassee named Roslund's quoted me $7500 for high end Glasurit and removing the stock safari roof rack.

And to the original poster, I really liked the single stage Triumph... For that kind of money it is a great job. Just depending on what you want to do with the vehicle and your budget, etc. For me, I'm getting to a stage with my Defender where I don't get to go to many rally's and there's not much of a D90 community around here so I'm thinking of painting it and banging out a couple of dents and making it 'like new' in a sense. I took this sheet-metal shaping class in Sturbridge, MA from a guy called Wray Schelin and I learned a lot about straightening sheet-metal and aluminum. I want to strip mine down and repaint it from scratch.
I really like the Defender Rough edition that I think they're releasing in Germany that is white with a black roof and black wheels. So I'm going to attack mine hopefully within the next 9 months, and go with a Glasurit paint, black top and TRY to source those freaking black wheels I saw (actually in another post here) ... I have an INEST AWATA HVLP Sprayer that I haven't even used yet. We did a pretty good job with my buddy's equipment at Maaco that weekend, but what a shitty filtered booth, the owner is such a scumbag it's disgusting. I'm going to be better up hanging thin visqueen and a light fan.

In the end if you can get good some good coats of paint & clear and get it on the car without a lot of DIRT, you're good. A drip here or there can be buffed.


I will definitely be checking this thread out more.
 

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