I
wish I had taken a pic of this car when I first got it about
a year ago. It came to me painted totally red and no
window glass. I stripped the body in SPIC-N-SPAN for
about 2 weeks until it looked like you see above.
There was still some residual red paint in spots, especially
underneath and some leftover factory paint on the grill and
tail lights but it is almost all gone.
You
may
want to visit my FAQ page
on PAINT for more info & tips.
No
silver
paint at all on the license plate or wheelie bar
either. The roof had some unsightly scratches as well.
I had to get the remainder of the red
paint off from underneath the body that the Spic-N-Span didn't
take off. I like to use Testors #1159 Laquer thinner brush
cleaner for paint removal on factory bodies as it has about a
10-15 second work time without damaging the finish.
It will remove most thin leftover
paints.
YOU
CANNOT DO THIS WITH REGULAR LAQUER THINNER!
I use a cotton swab and work the
remaining paint out from underneath the body and elsewhere.
Move from one-spot to another not
working in one area for too long. Use toothpicks to remove
paint in door seams.
The scratches on the roof were deep
enough that a polish couldn't remove them by itself. So, I
used 2000 grit wet sand paper and sanded in a front to rear
motion. The factory toolmakers typically did their final
sanding and polishing in that direction so always sand in the
same directions the factory did. If you need to, go ahead
and sand in a circular motion but then do your final sanding in
the front to rear motion.
Once I finished sanding, I used Novus
2 plastic polish to bring back the shine. On some color
plastics like green and especially red, if you polish using a
rotary tool the body color will actually lighten and not match
the rest of the car, losing it's patina, so I simply use a paper
towel and vigorously polish this BY HAND. It took
a few minutes but I did not change the plastic color at all.
ELECTRIC
POWERED ROTARY TOOLS ARE NOT RECOMMENDED FOR USE ON ANY
PLASTICS AS IT CAN CREATE TOO MUCH HEAT AND MELT THE
PLASTIC. 2-Speed
BATTERY powered dremels are recommended if you must use one on
LOW SPEED. Use a cloth sewn-together wheel not the felt
wheel for your battery dremel.
The roof is now nice and shiney, so I
worked all around the body in any other areas that needed
polishing. After polishing I cleaned the body scrubbing it
with a tooth-brush to remove any dirt and residual polish, then
some soap and water to clean the entire body. The body was
ready to paint.
Once it was ready to paint, I
used the new RRR Paint
Mask template for the Willys (RRR #1401-T). I laid
in the top hood scoop template first (above).
I used an airbrush to spray my silver
paint. The silver was Dupli-color Auto paint (small touch
up aerosol cans found at auto parts stores). I shot the
paint STRAIGHT DOWN or, perpendicular to the hood, to give it
that factory fuzzy edge. Remove template.
I was then ready to paint the front
headlights and grill so I readied that template.
Install the front template on front
of car.
Spray silver and remove template.
Do any cleanup now using some Testors
brush cleaner.
The rear wheelie bar/plate template
is ready to install.
It simply slips down between
wheelie bar struts and align
license plate.
Painting STRAIGHT DOWN, or topside,
to give the wheelie bars that
"topcoat" silver paint they always had.
With template removed, hopefully
you can see the factory look paint job. Sides of struts
and underside of bar are not painted, but have a little of
that classic fuzzy edge overspray Aurora gave them.
I placed the rear tail-light
template into position
and then covered the wheelie bars
with masking tape
to protect them from red overspray
paint.
Using FLAT RED Tamiya acrylic
paint, I LIGHTYLY painted
the tail lights. The first
time I painted it, they were too bright
so I cleaned them and reshot it
again but with less coverage.
Here's the finished painted body.
Front view
This car didn't have glass, so I
installed some RRR #1401-G reproduction
glass.
I had some crappy old AJ's alum.
wheels, so I cleaned and polished them up.
I think they were appropriate for
this now great looking car.
Materials & equipment used:
Paasche Model VL Airbrush
Novus Plastic Polish
Testors #1159 Laquer thinner &
Brush Cleaner
Willys PAINT MASK Template - RRR #1401-T
Willys
Reproduction
glass - RRR #1401-G
Dupli-color Silver Spray paint
Tamiya Flat Red paint
2000 grit wet sand paper
Spic-N-Span
Paper Towels
Cotton swabs
Masking tape
Soap & Water
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