RE: painting ... long

["Jeff Greenfield" <alfaguy@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Brian -

I think the difference is more in the finesse that may be needed to work
with the lighter and in some cases alloy body panels of the more exotic
stuff. Different primers and other materials are used to prep aluminum vs
steel.

I'm not saying I'd bring a rare 1 of 3 alloy bodied Fermaggio Prima Vera
down to local vocational high school for them to learn on, but ... in
general it all comes down to the preparation.

A good shop (and more importantly the guy who actually does the paint work)
should be up on all the latest technology and products, and should know what
to use for what application. This alone can be daunting, as the sheer number
of different products (paint types, primers, etc) is phenomenal these days.

The end result is a direct product of the preparation and amount of time
that goes into the preparation. I'm sure that the amount of time spent on a
100 point pebble beach restoration of a Ferrari GTO is phenomenal, and that
is why the costs are so high. But, the process is the same nevertheless, and
I don't think there is whole lot of difference between types of cars, and
besides the paint does not know what is stuck to.

Peace ... may yours be shiny and remain so :-)

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Shorey [mailto:bshorey@domain.elided]
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2003 10:01 AM
To: 'Jeff Greenfield'; 'Spencer, Graham'; alfa@domain.elided
Subject: RE: painting ... long

<snip>
> Go to some local cruise nights if you can. Look at the paint on some
of the
> amurican muscle cars and hot rods, talk to the owners about who and
where
> they were painted and how much the job cost. It does not matter to a
body
> shop if they are painting a Ford Falcon, GTO (Ferrari or Pontiac), or
an
> Alfa ... it's all pretty much the same to them.
<snip>

I'm not a paint and body man either, but I think there is a difference
between some cars, especially vintage ones.

I can remember reading something in Sports Car Market Letter, written by
Michael Sheehan, I think, about the differences between body prep on a
vintage Ferrari vs body prep on other cars of the same vintage, modern
cars, etc.

Now, maybe he was simply trying to justify the hundreds of hours of body
prep he whacks his customers for, or maybe there was some real
difference.

For the stuff we're talking about, I personally tend to agree with all
that you said.

bs
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