Speedster

Been looking for info on original primer colours and came across the following information relating to preparing and painting...

I'm basing this off 1953 coupes mostly, but it is true for cars going back to 1950 and up through '55 too I think. Would be happy for corrections:

Body color for a coupe:

- exterior, including headlight buckets
- interior and exterior of both front and rear lids, including latches. Not sure about the spring on the front latch.
- exterior and partially (sloppy) on inside of doors. Be sure to prime the doors well, and the schutz (undercoat) on the inside of the skin. Exterior color overspray is fine on the inner door structures that hold the handle and winder.
- interior passenger area up to the A, B, C pillars (roof kept in primer). Be sure to get the area behind the dash, including the defroster tube/funnels. Be sloppy here, so you get some nice runs on the defroster funnels and leave some exposed primer on the backside of the horizontal defroster tube.
- dash gets 1 coat of exterior color front and back. Then, if the exterior color is light and the dash is dark (almost always the case), then the front side of the dash gets the dark color. Be sure to get some nice overspray on the rear of the dash, just like Reutter did it.
- sides and rear of luggage compartment get body color.
- aluminum door hinge covers get body color just on the front side. Just primer on the back.

Black semi-gloss:

- luggage area floor except for side and back walls (which get body color). Some of this will also get covered in schutz.
- battery box (also gets shutz)
- engine area (also gets covered in schutz). Reutter I think just did schutz over the primer. But all black.
- Above driver/passenger knees below the gas tank. Spray this from driver's side so you leave some primer exposed on the angles you don't hit. Just like Reutter. Footwell. Floor. (If the carpet was dark blue, the areas here gets painted dark, dark blue) The footwell and floor get this black (or dark blue) color covered in 1 layer of schutz, some of it brushed on around the tunnel and pedals (so as not to get schutz inside the tunnel or on the pedals arms.
- inside of the front nose, above battery box. The latch and jack holder area. Bottom of latch gets black, top body color. Do body color first, then black over the top. Feel free to leave some primer exposed. Did your car have grey primer or red oxide primer? Mine has lots of red oxide primer exposed. Some exterior colors used a beige primer. It seems to have varied by manufacturer and time? Typical were a red oxide primer or a beige primer.
- rear parts of lid hinges, the parts that recess into the body.

Schutz (undercoat):

- originally this stuff was terrosol or terroson
- A couple thick layers on the complete underside of the car, including fender wells, inside front of nose and rear clips. Remember, this stuff is "stone guard" and a good part of the sound insulation. Modern stuff like Würth will probably require several coats to get the ~2mm thickness original to our cars.
- Single layer (~1mm thickness) on the inside floor of the car, including the rear quarter panel side walls, rear seat cushion area (bottom buckets and back).
- General rule on the interior: if you're going to glue carpet there, it doesn't get schutz. Gluing carpet to oil-based tar stuff doesn't work well, and Reutter didn't do it as far as I can tell. This goes for the luggage area sidewalls and rear wall too, which got vinyl padding (in 1955) and tar-board sound deadening on the walls around the fuel tank. Not schutz on the front kick panels where the carpet pockets are, though do put shutz on the side footwell areas where carpet doesn't cover and are covered by the wood pedal board.
- whole engine compartment gets schutz for '53 and earlier cars (just like Speedsters). Don't know how the '54 and '55 coupes and cabs were, as these also had vinyl padding as sound deadener. Schutz in the engine area also on the inside of the exterior bodywork panels all the way up to the rear latch. Bottom of rain gutter does not get it, so mask that off, or be a little sloppy there; Reutter was.
- battery box floor and walls (though not inside of front nose (curved area). Get the little stands that hold the tire at and angle too. No schutz on the luggage compartment walls were the vinyl padding goes (or carpet padding on earlier pre-As). Top side of the little platform where the jack clamps are attached gets shutz. Feel free to sloppily get parts of the jack clamps too. Get schutz all the way back behind the battery onto the torsion tubes and little narrow floor area in the center below torsion tubes.
- luggage area floor from the tire up to the gas tank. Under the gas tank does not get schutz, just black paint and felt strip pads between floor and gas tank. Areas to the side of the gas tank get schutz. Mask off the chassis number raised area from getting shutz. Just black paint there.

A thicker version of Terrosol was used as a sealant on all the seams before the car was painted and given schutz. Brushed on with a wide brush So bottom of the car seams gets it, and the inside areas in the seams behind the dash, etc. Any seam that might let in water gets it, especially areas behind dash below windshield, around the hinge pockets, etc. Then the paint is done over the seam sealer on the inside, and schutz over it on the bottom side.