Maintaining a paint patina?

The M38a1 tub I got for my project has a really cool natural military paint. It has cracked and rusted to give it a neat looking patina. Problem is, the cracked paint keeps flaking off a bit.

Should I wet sand with a high number grit sandpaper to keep it?

You only have the genuine patina once, the result of years of weathering - I guess what you are trying to do is stop the hands of time and preserve it in its current state....
By sanding it, I expect you are wanting to smooth the edges to keep it from flaking ?? What is likely happening is the paint is gradually shrinking and drying out at the cracks, moisture, etc., gets under the edges so it curls up and breaks off. What you need to do is seal the surface somehow, like with a flat clear coat. Problem is that when spraying it on, it's very tough to get enough in the cracks to seal it well unless it is on a flat surface so you can lay it on heavy enough without running. Or is it just me that when I spray clear, theres gonna be runs...[S

zzrodder said:

You only have the genuine patina once, the result of years of weathering - I guess what you are trying to do is stop the hands of time and preserve it in its current state....
By sanding it, I expect you are wanting to smooth the edges to keep it from flaking ?? What is likely happening is the paint is gradually shrinking and drying out at the cracks, moisture, etc., gets under the edges so it curls up and breaks off. What you need to do is seal the surface somehow, like with a flat clear coat. Problem is that when spraying it on, it's very tough to get enough in the cracks to seal it well unless it is on a flat surface so you can lay it on heavy enough without running. Or is it just me that when I spray clear, theres gonna be runs...[S

Click to expand...

Yes, pretty much. I went to clean out the tub of all the crap that had blown into it from years of sitting under trees (the stuff that didn't blow out on the trailer ride home). I pulled out my leaf blower and got most of it, but I noticed sometimes that little bits of paint would sometimes blow off as a result. One spot was kinda cool because it blew off paint that was covering some of the original military lettering, but I stopped after that.

You can see how it looked when I got it home here:

http://www.ratrodsrule.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27901

Also, I'll have to do quite a bit of welding on this tub to fix some of the cracks and re-attach the rear tailgate-ish panel. What do you suggest using to cover up the bare metal and fresh welds to keep the "patina" look in those areas? I figured just some ruddy brown primer, but I'd love to see home suggestions. I doubt I can match the weather faded paint color, even with Mil-Spec paint.

Rat Wax!!![ddd

After welding, don't bother to try to match patina. What you do now will be part of it's history in 5 years - it'll have it's own patina. I assume you aren't planning a full resto on this in the future, so relax a little. As for the paint, if you wanna keep it as it is now, maybe rub it all down with a rough cloth to get the flakes off and clear coat it. Every spring, clear coat it again - even over the rust. Sanding is going to thin out the paint still attached also.

As for welds - on my Olds, some of the bodywork I worked fairly smooth (some not so smooth) and covered with a close color rattle can paint (dark blue), some with flat black, some I just ground down the welds and rattle canned blue or flat black, and some I just left the welds (not even grinding some) to rust naturally. I did have to sand the blue paint with 500 grit to take the shine off and blend it a little better into the rust and old paint.

Primer doesn't seal out moisture (unless it's epoxy), so you'll need a top coat to stop it from rusting underneath - or don't seal it and let it create it's own patina in a year or two. Go ahead and go with a military green, it doesn't need to match perfect, the red might add too many colors. Or lay down the primer and the green on top so you still see a little red overspray in spots.

Quick rust!

We ran across this mix: 2 parts bleach[non-splash] and 1 part vinegar. Rusted our new welds and grinder marks really quick![cl

try to put on a tack coat of clear, and then do medium to heavy coats, thats what i do to get it flow, but i havnt shot alot of matte clear.