Early Mustang Door Grain

S

Stillboardin

Started working on my doors on my 68 Mustang. The interior side of the doors has a metal stamped grained surface.
The "Vintage Mustang" forum says the best way to strip these is to use a paint stripper on the interior with steel wool to get the paint off.
My goal is to strip the doors and repaint the door.
I don't want to obliterate the grain and I think epoxy would be too thick for this. I believe the original paint was a thin lacquer and from what I see primer is not there.

The question is, what do you guys suggest my course of action should be?
 
I've done them by chemical stripping and scouring with a red scotchbrite to remove the old paint and give it some light scratches, then shoot one thin coat of epoxy mixed 1:1:1/2, then base, then clear. The last one I did was a 66 light blue metalic done in base/clear and the grain showed up just fine. You do have to keep your buildup down though and over reducing the clear or singlestage does help to get the paint on thin but wet. I never had any adhesion problems even thought the metal wasn't sanded/textured per the epoxy recomendations but if you're worried you could lightly sandblast the surface with some fine abrasive without losing the stamped grain.

Stay away from the acid etch primers or wash primers, they'd need to be sealed or primed over anyway before topcoating so there's no advantages build wise.
 
Bob, is that lacquer paint on the inside without primer? PPG still sells lacquer and metal prep for adhesion, could that be an option for a thin layer? It would be easy to touch up.
 
Fred I bet you're right, it's probably lacquer over a phosphate etch but I don't think I'd trust it for durability, I know the doors I've worked on had some wear showing for sure.
 
1:1:1/2 on the epoxy is as thin as a coat of lacquer primer, imo. It's what I use as well, just barely wet it out and once the solvent is out of it the grain will show perfectly.

I would not try to duplicate the factory process!
 
I have seen 10's of thousands of pounds of 1 side embossed aluminum that had a square "pillow" pattern thats end use was for Ford Motor Company, but I have never seen a I side embossed panel of any type metal actually on a car.
 
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