Kerry's 330 GT Restoration

Painting

The actual painting doesn't take too long compared to the preparation work, but it is a critical part.

The first step is to select the actual color.

Another 330 GT owner had recently painted his car Argento 25090 A [Acrylic] It. [Italver], the same color as mine was originally.  He provided the paint code information that he used.  He used Sikkens paint with the following formula:

I provided this to my body shop.  They use PPG paints, but PPG offers a FER101, a silver metallic.  The standard FER101 is the modern formula for Argento Nurburgring as used on Ferraris from the 90s on.  PPG also has two retro formulas for FER101, so my body shop ordered a ½ pint of each and sprayed a couple of panels.  The one on the left is the retro Argento Nurburgring, 36520, and the one on the right is Alpine Silver, 34285.  It's hard to tell in the pictures, but 36520 is a bit brighter than the 34285.  Both use a finer metallic flake compared to the modern Argento Nurburgring.

In addition, a friend recently painted his PF coupe with the modern Argento Nurburgring, so I stopped by to take a look at how it turned out.  He had a couple of body color interior parts that had not been installed yet, so he loaned me one to take to the body shop.

Here are all three panels together.  The top is the modern Argento Nurburgring, middle, the Silver Alpine and the bottom, the retro Argento Nurburgring.  Note, you can also see reflections of tree branches as I took the picture outside in the sun, a rare commodity in Seattle this time of the year.

I had some pictures from the previous owner (the car was bare metal when I bought it), but pictures fade and the original color doesn't necessarily get printed accurately. When I painted it red, I did a pretty good job covering all of the areas where there might have been some original silver paint.  But I had the rear window in the car, so the package shelf area which had gotten over spray originally was still silver.  Of course, this wasn't final coat polished paint, but rough, being sprayed over whatever dust and metal that were there.  But it was enough to compare the test panels to see how close they were.

The net result was that I liked the retro Argento Nurburgring the best.

The painter expects to use about 1½ gallons of color with 5-6 coats.  They will do three coats, wait a couple of days and fix any dust nibs, etc.  Then more color coats followed by the clear coat.  I'm headed out skiing tomorrow for three weeks, so the next time I see the car, it will be done, ready for me to pick it up.

I got back from skiing and the car is now silver.  They are in the process of polishing the paint.

       

The doors, hood and trunk were painted on the car, but then removed for painting the undersides, etc.  The scoop and door hinge panels were painted separately.

       

After the polishing is complete, they need to hang the doors, put on the hood and trunk and strip off the masking.  Then I'll go out with the driver's seat, turn signals and brake lights and the battery so I can drive it home.  I'll put it on the lift so I can remove the wheels.  The tires are almost 15 years old, so I'll have them removed and the rims cleaned up and painted.  I'll have to go back through the tire selection and pick some new tires to put on the car.

The shop used ½ gal of sealer, 2 coats; 1½ gal of color, 6 coats; 1 gal of clear, 4 coats to finish the car.

The car was ready and the weather cooperated as there are no side windows, so I had to have a nice day.  It took about an hour to install the seats, battery, license plate, front turn signals and rear brake/turn signals to get it ready for the road.  At least there were no police to hassle me since the car was missing quite a few parts.  Now it is back home and I have quite a bit of work to put everything back on it.  The staff was out there taking pictures when I was leaving and I promised to bring the car back once it is all back together.