Paint: Need A Good Body & Paint Man In Eastern PA - Western NJ

[reichsrundfunk]

This can probably be answered by someone in the Keystone or DelVal or Garden State Chapters:

My new and all original 63 Lark Sedan has the original rose metallic paintwork on it and it's in pretty decent shape overall. But it needs a damned good buffing and then there are a few stain spots and a few spots where scratches were covered with touchup rather poorly years back which need to be professionally addressed and color blended. Finally the whole car needs to be polished - not waxed but polished - with a good quality glaze polish. The objective is to make what is original look as good as it can considering the wear without totally repainting.

The car has absolutely no rust issues; only the paintwork needs to be buffed out and old touch ups redone professionally by someone who knows how to work with old cars and the older enamel finishes.

No modern body shop wants to touch the car unless I have it completely repainted, which is not my objective. Sooo....... anyone know of a really good body shop who has worked on classic cars and who knows what he's doing who I could reach out to and have do this work? I'm in the Lehigh Valley, on the New Jersey border and would talk to anyone in the Lehigh or northern Delaware Valley or western New Jersey area!

Many thanks!
-George-

[Warren Webb]

It sounds like the paint on your car has gone flat. Body shops are hesitant to work on it due to what will happen. You see, you can buff the car out & it will look great, but after a few weeks it will return to being dull. If parts are painted after buffing, even if it matches dead nuts on, the newly painted areas will look great but the rest will go dull. They do not want unhappy customers, especially in this day & age with internet rating sites.


Another factor is most paint today used in shops are 2 stage, meaning the base color goes on dull & is topped off with 2 or 3 coats of clear. Applying a clear coat though cannot be done (especially to paint that is 50 years old) unless the paint underneath is fresh or it will peal right off due to lack of adhesion.

Buff the car out & leave the rough areas alone. You have a "survivor" so any of the original patina is acceptable. When I visited the Studebaker National Museum back in 93 the last Studebaker made on display there had dull & really orange pealed paint. The paint wasn't totally dead (at least not yet) but has since been repainted during a restoration a few years ago.

[reichsrundfunk]

It sounds like the paint on your car has gone flat. Body shops are hesitant to work on it due to what will happen. You see, you can buff the car out & it will look great, but after a few weeks it will return to being dull. If parts are painted after buffing, even if it matches dead nuts on, the newly painted areas will look great but the rest will go dull. They do not want unhappy customers, especially in this day & age with internet rating sites.


Another factor is most paint today used in shops are 2 stage, meaning the base color goes on dull & is topped off with 2 or 3 coats of clear. Applying a clear coat though cannot be done (especially to paint that is 50 years old) unless the paint underneath is fresh or it will peal right off due to lack of adhesion.

Buff the car out & leave the rough areas alone. You have a "survivor" so any of the original patina is acceptable. When I visited the Studebaker National Museum back in 93 the last Studebaker made on display there had dull & really orange pealed paint. The paint wasn't totally dead (at least not yet) but has since been repainted during a restoration a few years ago.

Yes, absolutely this is a survivor! My goal is to make it look as good as possible while still keeping it original. About 8 or 9 years back I acquired an all original 63 GT Hawk that had dull flat paint. A friend of mine who has been in the body business for a good 40 years and i got together and really buffed it out and it looked like factory fresh. He advised me to keep the car either in a garage or under a car cover, and to repolish the paint every few months to keep it looking fresh, and I did that for a number of yers and it kept up beautifully. Unfortunately, have some back problems and if I tacked this buff job myself I'll be spending the rest of August in Easton Hospital recovering!. One shop simply suggested I take it to a very good detailer and let him do it, but I want to see what good options that other Stude owners in these parts have found that work out. Id take it to an older timer who really knows how to work with these older paints and can do what I'm looking for right!

[52 Ragtop]

Contact a Good detail shop, that probably can do what you would like to be done.

Jim