Mopping

[David Large]

Peter,

Be careful if you use longer screws, you may end up with a cracked windscreen - I woulsd ask Simon about the problem.

David

[Roger King]

Those screws are BA sizes. As David says, if too long they can crack the screen. As they're into brass be careful you don't overtighten. Try a threadlocker.

Roger

[PeterT]

As usual David you are ahead of me. I will go back to Simon next week for him to fix. Thank you Roger for your suggestion. Had to look up "threadlocker" on the interweb, now I know ! I was certainly aware of the danger of cracking the screen, now I know even more. This Forum must be the reference library in the world for our type of cars.

Peter

[agnoraan]

Hi, did you resolve this issue? The white spots you're referring to is "bloom" in the paint, the white that you see is the imprint left by puddles of rain. The car probably had rain sit on the paintowork prior to the paint being fully cured. In doing so, moisture can ingress into the paint surface & later manifest itself as white spots on the surface. Years ago when Cellulose paint was prevailant, "bloom" was a continuous problem for paintshops that didn't have a low bake oven to spray in. To overcome this they would use "anti bloom thinners" which cured the problem. Years ago I managed a bodyshop that had a low bake oven & a car was painted in 2K paint. Unbeknown to me, the painter finished his shift early & didn't fully bake the car. It was put out in the rain the next morning, assuming that it had gone through the bake cycle. A few weeks later the car came back with white water spots all over it. We put it back into the booth, baked it for 45 minutes & the bloom was "pulled" to the surface & was lightly polished off. There were no other problems with that car afterwards.

With your car, I would firtsly give it a light mopping on one surface just to see if it does make the spots disappear. I'd then leave it for a while to see if they re appear. If they don't then I would proceed to mop the rest of the car. If they do come back then I would speak with a bodyshop that has low bake facilities & ask the to "force dry" the car. You CANNOT bake fibreglass, but you can force dry it around 45-50deg C. This should draw any moisture out from the surface & when mopped, it should be cured. Failing that it's a repaint I'm afraid.

As to the cost of mopping a car, it really does depend on how good a job is being done. Does the cost involve flatting the surface down with 1500/2000 wet & dry prior to being mopped? In which case that is good value for money as there's a lot of work in that process. If, however, it's just to cut back the surface, then it's a bit on the pricey side. It would probably take around 4 hours or so to just mop & clean the surfaces.

The other question is how old is the paint & how many coats are on there?? If it has three coats of 2K then you're good to go with a flat & mop. If it's only 2 coats then I'd just mop it. If the paint is 3 coats thick & over 6 months old & not baked then you'll get away with flatting & mopping it. If the paint is older, you'll struggle to get the flatting down marks out & good gloss back in the opaint. The older the paint the harder it becomes to cut back hth

cheers...Nige

[PeterT]

Nige,

Many thanks for this very helpful explanation. It makes sense even to someone like me whose technical knowledge is limited to say the least. Russell Hennessy did the mopping for me and we agreed, just as you have suggested, to see what happens now before doing anything else. Tomorrow I will wash it for the first time since the mop and hope that those spots do not reappear. I must say that the appearance after the mop was very, very good indeed.
I will be going back to see Russell later this week and will take a copy of your comments for him to see.
Peter T

[Dave Woodward]

Well that sounds like a pretty comprehensive summary of the situation! Thanks for the insight Nige.

Looks like we might have somebody who can compete with Roger on detail

[Dave Woodward]

Also, on the point of sun visors, I confess that I bought a pair and couldn't even fit them without stripping the threads on one of them. The screws only had 1 turn of bite, and just came straight out. Really hacked off as the visors are just sitting on the workbench with no real way to fit them now.

I sourced very slightly longer BA screws, but no joy. Might get some 'NO NAILS' on the case

Kidding.

[Roger King]

Well that sounds like a pretty comprehensive summary of the situation! Thanks for the insight Nige.

Looks like we might have somebody who can compete with Roger on detail

Eh?? I lay no claim to being a painter!

[Paul Blore]

I think Dave was referring to attention to detail Roger.