It depends on how far you want to go with the car, but the factory finish is this:
1/ Black etch primer over all the bare steel on the entire body shell.
2/ Red oxide primer over the black etch
3/ Body colour acrylic lacquer over the red oxide
4/ Black primer (375-1690) or black acrylic lacquer (599-5285) on the undersides of the wheelhouses, and mostly the underside of the car.
5/ Black acrylic lacquer (599-5285) on the firewall - except for GTS and Brougham and maybe Premier
6/ Black acrylic lacquer (599-5285) on the front subframe,
7/ Black acrylic lacquer (599-5285) on the front fender undersides,
8/ Warrigal Black acrylic lacquer in the engine compartment and firewall for GTS, Brougham and maybe Premier.
This lacquer is gloss by definition, but was baked and not buffed, which is why the finish can vary in gloss level so much.
Body deadener was applied to the wheelhousing section of the front fenders (and not the subframe),
the rear wheelhouses, the floor section outboard of the rear "chassis" rails as far as the beaver panel, and the underside of the spare wheel housing.
Seam sealer was used on all of the floor pan section joins inside the car, in the seam areas around the rear inner wheelhouse panels, to fill up the tooling and drain holes in the floor pans, in the floor pan to sill joins, in the floor areas under the rear quarter windows (Monaro, obviously), and in quite a few other areas. The caulking compound used for the inside joins was GMH part number 7425347, also known as Elastite, full of asbestos, and obviously no longer available. Likewise, true Red oxide primer is full of lead, and also unlikely to be available anymore.
Note that some of this detail varied from plant to plant, and from car to car. For example, not all cars have the black colour on the underside of the floorpan. Your best guide is what was actually on your car.
The top surface of the dash is done in (assuming black is your colour) Dulux Dulon Suede black, 563-6912 (to prevent reflections on the windscreen) and the remainder of the dash in (I think) 578-0990 Low gloss black.
Note that I don't think the underside of the vehicle is Warrigal black, although you will get other opinions. The engine bay inner fenders, firewall, and some of the front section of the tunnel is. There is a lot of variation in the gloss level on original cars, as the paint was applied fairly wet and baked, but not cut or buffed.
As far as substitutes go, if you prime properly prepared bright metal in a good 2 pack you could delete the etch primer. Protec make a 2 pack Zinc Phosphate epoxy primer known as EX-408, which can be had in a red lead colour and which approximates the original red oxide colour. It is a fairly mild 2 pack, and does not contain iso-cyanates, so can be sprayed at home with a respirator.
My choice when using this is to scuff it up and go over the top of it with black acrylic primer, followed by acrylic paint for final colours. This gives the same colour paint layers as factory, with the exception of the black etch.
You can delete the scuffing step if you want to go all 2 pack, which is a better coating but to me just doesn't look the same.
Whatever else you do, talk to a reputable paint supplier and get a compatible primer/filler/topcoat system.
You will also find widely varying opinions on the virtues of sandblasting, and the skill levels of various operators. My personal preference is not to use it and do it the hard way, mostly because of the amount of sand left in the body shell to be discovered while you are painting, and in years to come.
Good luck.
Edited by user Wednesday, 16 December 2015 11:32:03 AM(UTC)
| Reason: Not specified
