Hi all,
I am planning to have several panels on my 86 300E painted within the next couple of months (when they quit salting the roads!) and was wondering if I should request any particular sort of service for this (pricey) endevour. The reason this needs to be done is RUST. Breaks my heart, but sometimes even regular washing/waxing/rustproofing/etc. just doesn't do the trick, and I want to get this done before it really shows.
Any comments would be appreciated,
Nick

Hey Nick,

If you're doing this to chase rust, you had better stand there and watch them do the surface prep before putting on the paint. Once the rust starts, there is only one place in the world where it's dry enough to get a good prep done (the Sahara in the middle of August), Seriously, if you can wait until spring or early summer to get the job done, then do so. Winter is a crummy time of year to be exposing bare metal to the atmosphere. If it is cold and you have a dark, heat absorbing final finish, your sheetmetal is going to expand and contract quite a bit while the paint and the clearcoat are setting up. This will almost always give you problems later. Bottom line--Wait until the spring or early summer. BTW, who is doing the work for you? :D :D :D uh oh, better get MAACO :D :D :D. Seriously, surface prep is the big item when repainting. You should see what goes on at the factory on the paint line. (Saw a Toyota line in New Jersy). It looks like something out of NASA.

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Jeff L
1987 300e
1989 300e
1987 BMW 325

[This message has been edited by jeffsr (edited 02-13-2000).]