The story may be apocryphal, but I read once long ago that Morgans (then)
were painted by one person, using a brush.
I have painted cars occasionally for about 35 years. I have always
sprayed them, but extensive experience dealing with the results of my
imperfect spraying technique and the bugs and doghair that fresh paint
attracts convinces me a perfect job could be done with a brush. (My spray
technique has been likened to using a brush.) The limiting factor in
achieving perfection is how much one is willing to sand and polish. When
I sprayed the front end assembly of my bugeye (with catalyzed enamel), I
lost focus and got one hellish run, about a foot long, over one wheelarch.
I knew from bitter experience that the yellow pigments in the lime green
paint would settle to the bottom of the run if it were left alone, leaving
an unremovable yellow line even if I sanded the run off. The standard
cure would be to repaint the assembly, but I wanted to show the car in
just a week. So, with nothing to lose, I brushed across the run with a
two inch brush, stroking lightly perpendicular to the run. This pulled
the paint up and kept the pigments stirred. I quit brushing as soon as
the paint started to set. The paint leveled a bit as it cured.
The night before the show, I wrapped 600 wet/dry around a wooden paint
stirrer and carefully "filed" off the peaks of the brush marks. I went to
1500 grit in stages, always sanding the high points until the surface was
flat. A hard backing for the sandpaper is essential so the high spots are
removed first; people usually botch sanding runs because they sand through
a low spot before the run is completely gone. I then buffed with a wheel
and compound. The repair is undetectable.
This will work with any paint that can be sanded and buffed to a shine,
such as acrylic lacquer or catalyzed acrylic enamel, as long as it is
non-metallic (I'm sure metallic paint would end up mottled). You could
paint the car with a broom, if you were patient enough sanding and
polishing it. The better your brush technique, of course, the less work
you have to do later. Labor aside, a problem is that some of the best
paints emit very toxic fumes. If you hunker over your car for two or
three hours brushing on a coat of catalyzed enamel or imron without some
very fancy breathing equipment, your heirs will get the job of polishing
out the brush marks. You would probably survive using acrylic lacquer
with the slowest drying thinner available and a standard activated
charcoal mask, because lacquer is comparatively non toxic.
It might also be possible to sand and buff acrylic enamel that has been
allowed to cure without the (toxic) catalyst. I suspect it would work
just fine, if the paint were allowed to cure for a few weeks before
sanding and polishing. If I were determined to brush paint a car (and I
cannot imagine why anyone would be), I would try uncatalyzed acrylic
enamel on an old fender; it probably would polish out fine. Has anyone
tried this?
WHATEVER YOU DO, HOWEVER, DO NOT BRUSH ON CATALYZED ENAMEL WITHOUT
EXCELLENT FORCED AIR BREATHING EQUIPMENT.
Ray Gibbons
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