Looking for a paint job

A Paint job can be a costly business. I have seen paint jobs on Cobras’ cost anything from 800 to 10,000 sterling and had no intention of mine costing the latter figure!  Shopping around proved interesting, there are a lot of paint shops out there; my intention was to find one that would do a good job for a reasonable price. The only way to be sure about a company, is to check out the work they have already done.

I know a few Hawk 289 owners and have had a good look at their cars. The prices quoted for a reasonable job, starting from a gelcoat finish were 2000 - 3000 sterling.  The rule of thumb seems to be that you just won’t get a decent paint job for anything less. I eventually went with a company in Hastings called Sovereign Coachworks Ltd. They were not the cheapest around, but I noticed by talking to the various people who had dealt with them, that they had high standards and a lot of experience in GRP bodies. They also possessed an in-depth knowledge of historic and classic racing cars and had a lot of enthusiasm for them. In the time I spent there, I saw a genuine Jaguar Lightweight E type (only 11 in the world) and a Lister knobbly pass through. These cars must have been worth six figures, and I imagined owners like that would only trust their cars with a reputable company!

The Price

I met up with Gordon, one of the owners of Sovereign, to discuss the work. I said that I had done a bit of paintwork before and was quite eager to get my hands dirty again. We came to an agreement, and he would allow me to do the preparation on the car, under guidance, they would do all the paintwork, and this was exactly what I was after, allowing me to learn more about paintwork, while also keeping the price down.  

Undressing the Cobra

Before any bodywork could begin, all the bits on the car had to fit correctly. Now is the time to make mistakes and get it all correct. Later on, when the car has been painted, mistakes are expensive! Part of the agreement was that I would strip the car down and refit all the bits after the car had been finished. The car took a day to strip and all the bits were stored in order, bagged, labelled and arranged. The more that could be stripped off the better. I opted to remove everything that would come off.  Later on that week Sovereign dropped by and trailered the car to Hastings.

Hawk 289 stripped and ready to start on its journey

The work begins

Outside Sovereign before the work began ..... spot the 289.

On the day one I turned up at 8.30 am and met everyone. A rough work plan for the car was sketched out and I started the job. The GRP body is comprised of a top coat, which provides a smooth finish, known as the gelcoat, and a lower layer that provides the strength and this consists of resins and fibreglass matt, either woven or chopped.  The gel needs sanding for two reasons: one to create a key for the next layer of primer/filler, and the second to remove such imperfections as the flashlines left over from the moulding process. Heavy imperfections are removed with 40 grit (coarse) sandpaper and then finished with 80 grit (slightly finer). Using a block or a similar type tool with a long flat surface to it is the best way of achieving a surface that won’t resemble hilly terrain. The smaller the block, the less likely you are to get a flat surface; this can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the shape we are trying to achieve. The blocking action is used in two different directions front to back and then side-to-side, it also greatly depends on the shape being blocked as to what pattern is used. Flattish areas are easy to block off but compound curves can be a real pain!

Alternate pattern used on a long sweeping curve. A long block of about 12in would be used.

If the curve is not the right shape and more material has to be added then the only way to do this is in the form of a filler paste. Sovereign used fine stopper/ filler. Generally, filler is spread in thin layers, although I found better results with achieving good shapes by applying more filler/stopper then needed and to a greater area. Blocking this down takes longer but the curves and shapes come out better.
          

My plan was to work my way around the car, removing the flashlines and gapping the panels as I went. Getting the panel gaps correct is important, as it makes the paint job look that much more professional and also doors, bonnet and boot lid to open and close without chaffing the new paint work.

Gapping the driver’s door

A useful trick for getting constant door gaps is to double over a piece of sand paper and slide it into the gap, work it up and down until the right gap is achieved. This works for all the panels. It took me a day to get just one door right! I found filler had to be added to the door or the body, in places to get them both level. Before any stopper was added the area was blocked down using either 80 or 40 grit, so as to achieve a ‘key’ for the stopper to grip to. Parts of the door and body, were masked off so a minimal amount of stopper  found its way into the door gap or the higher panel. 

The standard spatula works well with stopper, but if you have a fairly large area to fill, then a nice 12in metal ruler works a treat, but just remember to clean all the junk from it before it goes off! I also found that the stopper could be cut like cheese with a Stanley knife as it was going off and this is useful when filler had found its way into a door gap.

Driver’s door gapped and blocked down - the roughest areas were sanded down with 40 grit, then 80 grit paper. The hole in the door is for the roundel light.

The same method I used to gap the doors was used on the boot. When gapping the boot, it is important to gap it with the boot-seal in place. I used a rubber that you can either get from Hawk Cars or C.O.H. Baines Ltd (Tunbridge Wells) and this has a sticky back to it. Once the boot has been gapped the rubber has to be removed and disregarded, as there is no saving the rubber and it just sticks too well. One good thing is it’s very inexpensive. The boot took a little longer to gap and get right since it’s a Le Mans split affair.

Boot lid, almost finished gapping, seals have been fitted. Hinges and
handles are also in place and this is to insure the boot will sit correctly .

Car looking a mess – what would Gerry say! Front wing flat spot and flash lines have been blocked down and a skin of filler/stopper has been applied to the top of the wing
and the front scuttle and  when set this too will be blocked down.

The bonnet and passenger door were another two days work. I found the bonnet to be the hardest to gap, not because of the shape but it just seemed to go on forever! I guess in total it must have taken me six days to gap and block down the whole car, on the 7th......... I blocked it down some more! I found the best way of feeling the shape of a bump /dent / curve was to slide the palm of my hand along the area, this is necessary since the eye, will sometimes miss a dent. The Hawk bodies are pretty good and the gaps aren’t too bad, but it’s amazing just how much preparation there is to do.  At first this is a bit disconcerting since I could feel small dents/bumps everywhere, I did the same thing to a genuine Cobra and that was covered in them as well, so I guess this is normal.

There comes a time when the car has been blocked down enough but it’s hard to know when that is. I found it to be roughly about the time I started getting bored with it.  The next stage was to clean the car up and get it ready for a coat of thick spray polyester spray filler. This is a two-pack affair and is extremely high build. Sovereign Coachworks tend to use this on most GRP cars for a number of reasons; it acts like a thin smear of filler over the whole car, which takes out 99% of the blowholes and discrepancies left on the body. It also helps prevent anything from below rising up into the paint layer and causing problems later on in the car’s life.

The car being masked up after cleaning.

Spraying the two-pack polyester high build filler stopper onto the car, done in a special air-fed spray booth.

The car Polyestered and in the process of being trace coated

The car was warmed up in the spray oven and allowed to cool slightly to make sure there was no moisture in the gelcoat. The spray booth doors were shut, the spraying began and I got out. There was a real feeling of achievement to finally see the first part of the bodywork finished and once the car had been coated in Polyester the whole thing really looked like it was coming together. Once baked on, a thin mist of black was sprayed onto the whole car. This acts as a trace or guide coat and is good way of monitoring the blocking down process as any small dents will show up.  The next stage was to block the whole car down again with 80 grit paper..

Glossary of Terms