Welcome to Coach Painting UK

Providing information on coach painting - Various painting tips, Land Rover paint colour codes including Land Rover colours, Saab Colour Codes, Rolls Royce Colour Codes and a BS-381C colour chart.
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Coach painting is a very old fashioned method of applying paint to a surface using a brush leaving no trace of brush marks or any other imperfections. The finished surface has to look as if it was sprayed. Don't think of it as painting an outside toilet but a way of painting horse drawn carriages like the Queen's own coach that still is painted by hand, in later years motor vehicles even Rolls Royce's were all painted in this way. Also suitable for painting commercial vehicles like coaches, trucks, vans, and of course Land Rovers.

Preparation of the panel or work area can vary depending on the state of repair and vehicle being worked on, (see Preparation section).

Tekaloid Coach Enamel is (or was) without doubt the finest coach paint you could possibly buy, Tekaloid consisted of the exact ratio of thinners, oil, finely ground pigments providing the perfect paint medium, the linseed oil gave a very long open time allowing the user to rectify faults or contaminations before the paint starts to pull or drag. As opposed to linseed oil, Alkyd resin reduces the open time considerably and the paint may need a reducer to slow the drying process down, also adding too much turpentine, white spirit etc can actually accelerate the drying process and not slow it down.
Tekaloid also manufacture synthetic varnish that can be added to or painted over certain colours providing maximum durability, (see Tekaloid & Varnish section).

Synthetic products are slow air drying, provide excellent gloss similar to cellulose, colour will eventually fade over time unless *over-varnished*, can be sprayed brushed or even rolled on, no mask required unless sprayed. Because of the superior brush or gun finish achieved when applying synthetic substrates, polishing is not required or recommended.
Synthetic paint can be painted on almost any surface without worrying about solvent reaction lifting or bubbling previous paint whether it's old or new, (see Polishing Paintwork section).

*(Over-varnishing applies only to Linseed Oil based paint, it is not required with modern Alkyd resins).

Terebine Driers can be added to synthetic paint or polyurethane varnish, The quantity can be varied according to the strength required to speed up drying, particularly useful late in the day to avoid a damp spell or extreme cold that would normally cause blooming. In extreme cold weather conditions a heavy bloom will turn varnish a milky white colour it may be necessary to flat and paint the areas again if they become severely bloomed.

Genuine Turpentine or pure gum turpentines are dilutents and should only be used for thinning synthetic oil paints if absolutely necessary, thinning reduces the opacity and quality of the overall product. Genuine turpentine is produced from "pine trees" so it should smell like pine. On quality work never use cheap turpentine or turpentine substitutes they smell like "paraffin oil" reduce drying time due to impurities and the finish will either dry dull or become dull very quickly. You can use lesser quality turpentines or white spirits for thinning undercoats or primers with no ill effects.

Cellulose products dry by evaporation of the solvent, are cheaper, quick drying with softer durability high gloss finish and require an ordinary spray mask. Colour will fade, lose it's gloss, Less liable to stone chip damage and spray application only. Use a conventional suction feed spray gun in the DeVilbiss JGA range is the best quality gun you can purchase and is ideally suitable for Cellulose, Lacquers and Metallic basecoats by using changeable nozzles to use with varying paint substances.

Two-Pack or two component products dry by chemical action after adding a hardener and often contain isocyanate, Two pack paints are the most expensive but do provide a very hard durable super high gloss finish, yet they require breathing apparatus to use safely. Non colour fading or loss of gloss, liable to chip easily, spray application recommended. However it is possible and in some instances favourable to brush paint two pack in well ventilated areas but a mask should still be worn.
When spraying two pack substances a HVLP (High Volume Low Pressure) spray gun is better suited because of the considerable reduction in overspray and far less paint being consumed.

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