care of Glasurit paint

[n/a]

Greetings to all,

My 70 280SL has just been repainted in its original Glasurit Tobacco Brown.  The depth and saturation of color are incredible.  How do I keep this paint looking like this?  What products do you all recommend and how often should detailing occur.  The finish seems to scratch at the slightest provocation.  Any advice on how to deal with that.  Also, swirl marks!  As I have none at the moment, how do you avoid them on a dark color?

Many thanks,

Steve Murphy
Los Angeles

[Douglas]

Steve,

Congrats on a new paint job using Glasurit. That stuff is pricey! Bob Geco is the resident paint guru here, so I'll let him expound on this. I'll say this though -- you want to treat the car as gently as possible and to use the absolute gentlest materials at all times. This includes the cleaning agents, the towels, and the wax. I'm not sure what the concensus is these days on drying time for fresh paint, but you may want to wait for a bit before you wax it.

Douglas Kim
New York, NY
280 SL #016220

[George Des]

Steve,

 You should know that the original Glasurit paint that our cars were painted with was a synthetic (Alkyd) enamel. Glasurit sold this under their 20-line brand. It hasn't been produced for many years and I would venture to say that any remaining stocks have been either used up or have expired i.e.the product turns to an unusable jell. Glasurit stopped making this paint for a number of reasons--durability and environmental concerns primarily. Glasurit, now part of BASF, is, however, one of the leading producers of the high tech polyurethane enamels. These paints are highly durable, fairly easy to apply because like a lacquer paint they are fast drying and can be color sanded and buffed, and they give a great shine. They also are not susceptible to chipping like an enamal or lacquer. The major drawback to these paints is that they contain a highly toxic catalyst called polyisocyanate--it's sort of like the hardener in epoxy glue and this catalyst is what makes the paint durable and dry quickly. Special breathing equipment is required while spraying the paint. the paint dries so quickly--not as quickly as lacquer though--that it can normally be color sanded and buffed in 24 hours. There are recommndations for the application of wax as well, but the time between paint and wax with this type paint is relatively short compared to the days of lacquer and enamel paint jobs where you had to be concerned about "trapping" solvents from the drying paint. These polyurethane paints normally come in two types--single stage and base coat-clear coat--Glasurit and companies like PPG produce both and when properly applied it is difficuult to tell the difference between the two. My suggestion is that you find out exactly what type paint your paint guys used and get what is called a P-sheet for that product--it will tell you everything you need to know about the care and feeding of your new finish. All the major paint producers have websites that will provide access to their P-sheets. Another good authoritative source paint and body work is Len Stuart's Autobodystore site at <http://www.autobodystore.com/cgi-bin/config.pl?index>. Len is a great proponent of the Glasurit line of paint products. I personally have used the PPG line and have obtained excellent results on my own 1967 230SL restoration. Good luck and hope this helps--George Des

[n/a]

Steve
Tobacco brown is a lovely color - seeing that I have one also - I beleive it is also call Baraslona Brown (sp) You have advanteage - you can dive your 280Sl more than I can. Will we see you in Ohio in July?
Ron Burg
St. Paul, MN
71 280Sl
97 E430

[mdsalemi]

quote:Originally posted by SoCalSteve

Greetings to all,

My 70 280SL has just been repainted in its original Glasurit Tobacco Brown.  The depth and saturation of color are incredible.  How do I keep this paint looking like this?  What products do you all recommend and how often should detailing occur.  The finish seems to scratch at the slightest provocation.  Any advice on how to deal with that.  Also, swirl marks!  As I have none at the moment, how do you avoid them on a dark color?

Many thanks,

Steve Murphy
Los Angeles

Steve,

My car was painted with Glasurit as part of the restoration in 2001.  There is no way short of never using the car (trailer queen), and keeping it dust free, to prevent some minor scratching.  It is part of the life of a car and the paint.  It is expensive; the reducer was over $200 per gallon back in 2001.  Materials alone--reducer, solvent, paint etc. for the 113 was over $1,000.  But the results speak for themselves.

You can avoid classic swirl marks by doing most everything by hand.  In your area, take your car to Bob Geco, and keep it out of the sun.  Sun will do more damage to a car then any other weather.  If you leave it outside, get a proper cover for it depending on your storage conditions.

My paint job seems to carry a permanent wax job.  It shines like no other I've seen.  Water has always beaded up on the surface.  I wash it when dusty (never gets really dirty) with Zymol wash.  I rinse when I can at my own car wash, where I exclusively use RO distilled "spot free" water.  I dry it and polish it with a microfiber cloth.  Chamois is product of the past.  Microfiber outperforms chamois in every respect.

After 4 years I do seem to have some minor scratches--simply from foreign particles in the wash water, etc.  Cannot be avoided.  I think a good "clay job" will remove some of these that are on the surface.  Zymol Carbon (hand wax) and one step cleaner wax (a liquid) will finish it off.  I don't think that a machine job is in order, simple hand work for me at this point.

My repaint is so far superior to what the factory put on.  That, and the care that a classic gets today ensure my car stays looking pretty good.  Yours will too.

In between washings, I use one of those "California Dusters" to remove the dust.

Michael Salemi
1969 280SL
Signal Red w/Black Leather
Restored

[n/a]

Many thanks to all.  This is exactly the info I need.

Steve Murphy