Mat's BX Blog

Tell us about life with your BX, or indeed life in general!
Tinkley
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by Tinkley »

Mat wrote 'It seems one of the bits of trim around the estate side windows has been partially painted before, and whatever they used has reacted and crazed'

That will be cullulose reacting on top of acrylic I'll bet. If you get it off, the new paint will be fine.
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mat_fenwick
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by mat_fenwick »

You could well be right; anyway, it's all sanded back now. Interestingly, the strip across the middle of the tailgate has also cracked, but in a different way. Much wider spacings, and the paint between the cracks is fine. Almost as if the paint film has shrunk since application! I've started to sand this back too, but it's slow going by hand!

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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by Stinkwheel »

The black band on the back of my red estate (ex dollywobbler) has done exactly the same thing Mat.
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by citsncycles »

I've seen this on several estates (Timex has done it too), but can't offhand recall seeing any hatchbacks doing it - slightly different paint technique / mix at Heuliez perhaps?

I've seen this on other vehicles which have been resprayed - usually down to a thick layer of paint shrinking back and cracking on top of a layer that hasn't been properly prepared before spraying.
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by Tinkley »

The only other thing is that the colour cracking is dark grey or in some cases maybe black. The expansion under hot sun is pretty dramatic on 'bodies' of different colour. I would speculate it is caused more by differential expansion between the upper and lower coats of paint. As Mike suggests could just be not abraded or coated within sufficient time window for cure. I've not seen it on hatches but they don't have that 'stripe'. Though the tail of the rear window was black at the bottom on my 14. Could even be the original paint supplier for the body colour was different for the dark grey and very slight difference in paint make up causes it. Could even be the solid pigments giving different expansion/contraction.

The only way to prove it is to try it on a BX and keep it running for 20+ years..... :lol:

To be fair other than the metallic red, which faded badly on the plastic parts, most of the paints have lasted pretty well for colour fastness and lack of peeling without chipping etc on the BXs'.
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by Philip Chidlow »

Sand it flat, masking off the red and removing badges. Black satin finish 5-year vinyl. Job done?
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mat_fenwick
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by mat_fenwick »

I did wonder about vinyl, but seeing as I have the paint for the window surrounds I might as well do the whole lot. I got bored of sanding, so this evening I sprayed a bit of the grey/black paint into the aerosol cap and brushed it over the cracks. Once it's died I'll sand off the excess, and hopefully it will mean I don't have to sand the rest back quite as far.

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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by Vanny »

You could come and do my window surrounds when your finished.

When you get to a suitable point, i'd love to see how your masking the windows off. I just can't figure out a simple way to do it!
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by mat_fenwick »

Well, I would have done it today, but it rained all day :evil: I'm planning to just drop all the windows, pull the seal out and then pop a sheet of card in where the window would have been. I may get chance tomorrow afternoon (weather permitting!), so I'll let you know how the theory works out.

The window seals come out quite easily, but in doing so one of the rear window channels has completely disintegrated. So I now have to rig something up to hold the glass up. Duct tape being a plan B...
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mat_fenwick
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by mat_fenwick »

What a shit job! Just got back in from replacing the window channel - I had a spare for the other side so adapted it to suit by swapping the long and short slider sections around. But getting the window back in was a nightmare; everything was so slippery it kept sliding out of my hands.

[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/ ... _n.jpg[img]

I'm having second thoughts about fully taking the seals out on the other windows to paint the frames, as they come out a lot easier than they go back in! I might just pull the top section of the seal out and leave the lower sections within the door still in place. I think that will still protect them from overspray if I put a sheet of car in the window aperture.
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by RxBX »

mat_fenwick wrote:.........................

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:?

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:wink:

.
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Vanny
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by Vanny »

Oh my it is rather wet where you are. Finally an advantage of the midlands, no weather, just variations of grey clouds!

Once painted, the seals go back in much easier with a smear of vaseline on the sides. Best to put the lube on the channel and not the rubber though!

How far are you going to paint then? just the outside of the door? the black obviously wraps all the way to the inside, which is what was vexing me, it pretty much means striping the whole door down to spray the whole lot.
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mat_fenwick
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by mat_fenwick »

I was just thinking of doing the outside, but then I figured taht without the window seals in place, I could spray the inside with the doors open. I had to take the trim off to remove the mirrors anyway so that didn't need masking.

The rain stopped this morning, so had dried out by the afternoon and I started to mask it all off. Forgot to take any before shots, but this gives an idea of what the paintwork looked like to start with:

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After about 3 hours of masking, the first coat went on. Had to splash out a whole 70 pence on The Sun, to provide masking material - it was the best value for money after feeling the thickness of all the Sunday papers!

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And then the finished job :) (Needs a wash though!)

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Not a perfect job by any means - the wind got up a bit after I started - but a million times better than it looked before. Next task is to sort out the faded repair job on the nearside rear door.
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Des Smith
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by Des Smith »

Well done Mat! So much better and the best use for a copy of the Sun I can think of!
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Tim Leech
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Re: Mat's BX Blog

Post by Tim Leech »

Looks great Mat!
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