Advice needed painting a wooden body Touring

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capewake
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Advice needed painting a wooden body Touring

Post by capewake » Mon Jul 01, 2019 5:53 am

Hi,

I am restoring a 1910 Model t Touring and the bodyshop are going to repaint the wooden body.

Its probably been repainted back in the 1980's and has splits in the wood
IMG_2525.JPG
IMG_2521.JPG
I am not sure if they need to use paint stripper and take all the old paint off back to the wood or seal the cracks with epoxy?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

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Humblej
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Re: Advice needed painting a wooden body Touring

Post by Humblej » Mon Jul 01, 2019 8:02 am

Wood naturally moves with humidity by expanding and contracting across the grain, even plywood moves but much less, way less. New paint is flexable and can move with the wood untill it hardens over the years to the point it cannot keep up with the wood and the paint cracks and chips. Old hard paint shoud be removed down to the wood or the old hard paint will continue to crack under the new paint.
A crack in the wood is a different problem. The wood crack will take the brunt of the natural shrinking and swelling, no paint or body filler will hide it for long. Depending on the structural integrity of the panel and the depth of the crack, cutting a V to open up the crack and filling with epoxy may hold, but if it dosent hold, you will make a hard to notice naturally occuring crack a unsightly goobered up crapy repair gone wrong. I would not trust a regular run of the mill auto body shop with this. Wood body repairs are even beyond the ability of many auto restoration shops. Modern air powered sanders and grinders can cut into wood like a warm knife through butter, in fact typical old paint may be harder than the old wood.


Topic author
capewake
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Re: Advice needed painting a wooden body Touring

Post by capewake » Mon Jul 01, 2019 8:48 am

Many thanks for the advice


RGould1910
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Re: Advice needed painting a wooden body Touring

Post by RGould1910 » Mon Jul 01, 2019 9:45 am

I have the same problem with the body I just purchased. It has a crack in the rear door caused by mishandling. Because the crack was not caused by the body twisting as when the car is driven over on uneven surface I have no problem using a wood filler. I am tempted to hunt down someone who restores horse-drawn carriages to see what they recommend, however.


Rich Bingham
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Re: Advice needed painting a wooden body Touring

Post by Rich Bingham » Mon Jul 01, 2019 2:14 pm

Richard, yielding to temptation would be a good thing ! :lol:
"Get a horse !"


Steve Hughes
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Re: Advice needed painting a wooden body Touring

Post by Steve Hughes » Mon Jul 01, 2019 5:12 pm

I would use West System epoxy. It is used extensively on wooden hulled boats and is designed for wood. If you want someone to do the work, try finding a boat repair shop to see if they would do the work.

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Walter Higgins
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Re: Advice needed painting a wooden body Touring

Post by Walter Higgins » Mon Jul 01, 2019 9:11 pm

Strip to bare wood (I prefer a heat gun / scraping followed by hand sanding) and then coat, sand, recoat as needed with West System to block to your desired level of flatness. No need to V-out the crack. Over time with the different rates of expansion you will faintly see the crack line telegraph through and there is nothing you can do about that, but if you V it out you will see a line the width of the V where the epoxy is more dense.

This was one of several cracks in this body fixed in such a way and none have come back and cracked the paint. The second photo is the same area eight years later. If you catch the light just right you can just barely see it and the other cracks on that panel. I've had success using this process on another body much worse than this. It's a bunch of work but prep is everything if you want it to last.
Attachments
PC070573.jpg
20190701_205747.jpg


otrcman
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Re: Advice needed painting a wooden body Touring

Post by otrcman » Mon Jul 01, 2019 9:53 pm

+1 with the guys who recommended West System Epoxy. The only two things I can add are:

1. West has a first rate staff of technical advisors who will work with you to find the best solution for your particular problem. These guys are great and there is no consulting charge. They even have a toll free number for you to call. The name of the business is "Gougeon Brothers Inc". West Systems is the name given to the products that they manufacture.

2. Expansion and contraction with humidity is a real problem. You can minimize the effect by coating EVERY surface of the item. If you coat the entire part, the moisture absorption rate is drastically reduced, and thus the wood becomes dimensionally stable.


Topic author
capewake
Posts: 86
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 10:23 pm
First Name: David
Last Name: Herring
* REQUIRED* Type and Year of Model Ts owned: 13 Touring, 14 roadster
Location: Sarasota
MTFCA Number: 22001
MTFCI Number: 24521

Re: Advice needed painting a wooden body Touring

Post by capewake » Wed Jul 03, 2019 2:40 am

Thanks everyone who has posted some great advice which I will be taking, I will post some pictures of the finished body.

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TonyB
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Re: Advice needed painting a wooden body Touring

Post by TonyB » Wed Jul 03, 2019 11:57 pm

I used the West System on the 1909 I am restoring. I had many cracks and some complete loss of wood especially around the rear fenders. The only problem I found was that it works better if it’s horizontal, that’s why some of pictures show the body balanced on its nose...
I refrained from responding earlier as I don’t know how it will hold up, but the guys tell me to expect 20-40 years, by which time I doubt I’ll be around to care.
I painted the body by hand using enamel paint and covered it all with Spar varnish which has help up on the boat for close to thirty years.
Tony Bowker
La Mesa, California
1914 Touring, 1915 Speedster, 1924 Coupe.

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