headed into paint. sugar scoops on or off?

[RJK]

hey all, got a paint question for you. so i will be painting my '72 240Z this spring/summer, and am neck deep in prep work. i'm feeling really good about where i'm at, but have one question right now. i pulled one of the headlamp enclosures/sugar scoops to deal with some cracking on it. i've got that fixed, but while it's off, i started thinking....during my prep work/priming, i found that the seam between the fender and the sugar scoop just looked generally.....crappy, when painted. parts of the seam show distinct separation, but in other places, the primer kinda "bows" from one to the other. i just found it looking generally shitty. so it got me to thinking; should i pull the other one, and have them painted separate from the car, and THEN re-install? or should i send it to paint with them both intalled? (also, any other tips/tricks/notes to consider before i send 'er out?) thanks for any thoughts, RJ

[Patcon]

What paint are you using. SStage or 2Stage, solid color or metal flake?

The more coats you stack then the more likely you will have problems at this joint. If you are doing a solid paint then there is no real harm in painting the pieces separately, as long as they get the same amount of coats and reasonably the same coating thickness. If you are doing a metallic then I recommend painting the whole car assembled. It makes it less likely to "tiger stripe" and it means the flake will lay similarly from panel to panel. If you were to paint the sugar scoops off the car with metallic and the flake doesn't lay the same, then they could appear to be different colors. Also when you paint the parts separately you are using a different portion of the paint in the cup on adjacent parts. If you don't keep the gun agitated enough the mix will be a little different from the top of the cup to the bottom, which will throw the color off.

You could also loosen the sugar scoop bolts as much as possible and space them off the fenders so the paint can shoot down between the parts for a little better coverage...

[87mj]

I took mine off.  It would really bother me to see those seams filled with paint.  I snapped one of the studs which was very nice. 

 

[RJK]

gotcha. thanks guys. yea, the "bridging" i was getting in primer while going over the body to get it smooth and straight drove me nuts at the one joint. this idea of loosening the scoops, but leaving them in place, is perfect. gonna do that.

 

any other tips/tricks before paint? obviously i have the glass/trim out. not painting engine bay at this time. single stage, no flake/metallic.

[Patcon]

Be sure and check the lead joints at the roof really well. There can be little cracks there that show up in the paint later. Be careful that is real lead there and at the bottom of the windshield. Sanding it can be hazardous! You don't want lead poisoning!

[Captain Obvious]

If I ever get my car painted, I'm going to weld the sugar scoops to the fenders to make them one piece. I've seen a couple people do that and I really like it.

[EuroDat]

1 hour ago, Captain Obvious said:

If I ever get my car painted, I'm going to weld the sugar scoops to the fenders to make them one piece. I've seen a couple people do that and I really like it.

I've seen that done on a 260Z. I thought he had some sort of fibreglas fenders/scop combination installed, but then he explained that he welded the scoops to the fenders. He stitch welded and leaded the joints to use as little filler as possible. The result was certainly impressive. I would definitely consider doing that.

6 months back, maybe longer someone posted a photo of his welded scops/fenders on this forum. I can't find the thread.

[RJK]

patcon: where are the lead joints? luckily, i didn't do any dry sanding, and all the wet sanding i did was paint.

[Patcon]

One is on each side of the windshield near the bottom. The other two are near the upper corners of the hatch, above the quarter glass where the factory roof seams are

[sweatybetty]

15 hours ago, RJK said:

.

 

any other tips/tricks before paint?

clean, clean and more clean.

[Patcon]

8 hours ago, sweatybetty said:

clean, clean and more clean.

Yes this too! Don't sand with out cleaning the car very well. Use a wax and grease remover after washing the car twice. Then you can sand, otherwise you grind wax and other contaminates down into the paint

[esmit208]

19 hours ago, Patcon said:

One is on each side of the windshield near the bottom. The other two are near the upper corners of the hatch, above the quarter glass where the factory roof seams are

Right here. You can see the texture difference where the "A" pillar meets the base of the windshield.