Re: Duetto restoration

["Denis, Jean" <Jean_Denis@domain.elided>]

I may as well throw in my 2 liters worth on this:

>>I've been told by a couple of experienced Alfa painters that unless there
is bodywork repair to deal with, going to the bare metal is both far more
expensive and a lot harder to get a decent job. The reason being that these
all-welded bodies have the seams hand-filled and leaded. Stripping to the
bare metal will generally require re-leading the weld seams, which is pretty
laborious.<<

If you strip the paint off a car with leaded seams using chemicals, the
seams won't need to be re-leaded as the lead will not dissolve in paint
remover. All the plastic body filler (sometimes used to finish seams) will
come off though and, every duetto i've seen so far has some Bondo on its
pointy little nose and cute little tail.

If a body man says that you can get a better job by not stripping the paint,
well it depends. Most of the time it WILL cost WAY LESS, but on at least two
cars i have stripped i've found small rust "spiders" starting under the
perfect looking paint. Also 30-40 year old paint technology is nowhere near
as good as current technology -especially primers.

Personally, i like to see exactly what's under the makeup, create the
opportunity to get rid of any rust mites and use the best technology
available - so i (almost) always strip - the older the car, the more likely
i am to strip (reverse for women).

To say that you can't get as good a result if you strip all the paint is the
opposite of true.

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