Color Test: Green Mallard

I am NOT going to repaint this car in its original "Harvest Gold" color. I absolutely hate that color. But I really want to try to stay with an orignal color choice, and like the dark 'British Racing Green' on these cars.

"Green Mallard" was one of the original factory colors offered in 1972 for the MGBGT. It's a fairly unusual shade of green, and it's difficult to find good color references for it. The factory color code, BLVC22, is no longer known in any current paint databases, and I don't have access to an original-paint car to take a color sample. One has to rely on color cross references found online, that are also very old themselves.

I just did a test sprayout, with some of the topcoat that I'm probably going to use, to check for color. It's a PPG single-stage urethane from their "Concept" line. This is PPG's best and very expensive, so I only got one pint of color mixed right now. I used a hastily prepared panel that I had cut off from a fender previously (so it still has some rust holes). This Concept really sprays out nice - flattens very nicely right off the gun without having to pound it on. For this test the gun I used was an Iwata Kiwami 4-13BA4 with 1.3mm cap. For only about $160, it's a really nice spraying gun.

I had to get it out in the sunlight to see the true color. The 5600K shop lights just don't have much color spectrum in them. The color really woke up when I got it out in the sunlight. Looks about right for green mallard I think.

 

Urethane surfacing primer

 This was after applying two coats of a urethane primer/surfacer - PPG Omni MP282. I wasn't very pleased with the application of the Omni 282 - it sprayed very dry and dried so fast that a lot of dry overspray was created. I had to work fast to keep a wet edge when spraying. Part of that, I'm sure, was due to using the fast reducer and hardener I had purchased in anticipation of spraying in cold weather. Well, it turned out to be an unseasonably hot day when I sprayed it.

I block sanded this with 320 then finished it with 600 by hand. I wanted to get a slick finish so that I can preview the flatness to see if it's ready for paint.

 

 

It was rolled out of the shop to be washed down. All the accumulated sanding dust was rinsed thoroughly, inside and out.

 

While it was wet, I had the opportunity to evaluate the flatness by examining the reflections on the wet surface. Found just a couple spots that will need further attention.

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Block sanding the polyester primer

Twenty four hours after spraying the G2 it has hardened well for sanding. I rough-blocked it with 80 grit to break the polyester 'glaze' and knock off the worst of the orange peel. That was followed with a misted spray-on black guide coat. This will next all get knocked down with 180 grit to prepare for a couple coats of urethane surfacing primer. In the process, most of that 1-gallon of polyester primer will end up being sanded off, remaining only in the formerly low spots.

 

 

 

Polyester surfacing primer

Sprayed one full gallon of the Evercoat Feather Fill, G2 polyester primer/filler. This fills all the 80 grit sanding scratches, the pinholes, and most small voids, waves, and irregularities in the body filler underneath. Now most of this will get sanded back off, leaving a perfectly flat surface, I hope.

 

 I had some paniky, near-disaster, moments when spraying this. The spray gun I used was a cheap LVLC gun and the packing nut for the needle loosened up on me in the middle of the 2nd quart. Well, these guns have a pressurized cup, and it was a full cup. So, when I tipped the gun to do the roof the G2 started squirting out the back of the gun past the needle packing. It made a huge mess, and left great big splatters everywhere on the roof, my coveralls, and the floor. Big cleanup mess!

The good thing is that this stuff hardens just like filler - it's catalyzed with the same type of hardener used in body filler. So the big drips hardened up just as well as the rest of it. Fortunately it sands well. I knocked the drips all off quite easily with 80 grit sandpaper.

It's also kind of a pain in the ass to have to clean the whole gun out after every load. The stuff reeks for hours too. No way you could work with this stuff without a good respirator. But the smell was mostly gone after it hardened.