Paint services
High quality paints, experienced sprayers, passion for your project.
After countless hours in the workshop your project is nearing completion and the time has come to bring it to life with paint. You spend a couple of days sorting out your make shift paint booth (garage, living room, marquee in the garden), spend a pretty penny on the best brushes, spray guns, thinners, masking tape, dust sheets, tack cloths, panel wipe, spent your evenings watching YouTube tutorials then finally get round to applying the paint....only to discover despite your very best efforts and the job taking 5 times longer than you ever expected the finished result isn't quite as good as you are hoping for.
Don't be disheartened I (Tom- company owner) was just like you! Which is why at Legacy Vehicles we offer fellow vintage vehicles enthusiasts a professional paint service at an affordable price. Its not just steam engines, we can handle all vintage vehicles including classic cars, motorbikes, tractors, boats, trailers, lorries...in fact pretty much anything that will fit in the spray booth!
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The right people - Our main painter has over 30 years of experience in various industries and makes spraying look frustratingly easy! The rest of us have all spent countless hours restoring vehicles and between us can we sort any job that comes through the workshop including welding, bodywork and specialised surface finishes.
The right prep work - Everything we paint is taken back to bare metal first, whether that be done in house or by our local sandblasters. For other materials such as wood this is normally done in our workshop with the correct sealants and primers applied before the paint.
The right paint - After various trials we have opted for two main suppliers, Lechler for the 2 pack spray systems and Craftmaster for coach enamels. Our suppliers offer an excellent colour matching service and paints can be supplied in virtually all colours.
The right environment - We have an in-house spray area with filtration, extraction and heating. Its not a full professional spray booth but has proven perfect for what we do, by making it quite large we can facilitate a lot of components at a time keeping your costs down.
Keeping the job affordable
There is no denying on vintage vehicles a hand-painted finish using coach enamel offers a depth of colour and effect that cant quite be matched by modern methods however this is very labour and time intensive. The vast majority of people now opt for a 2K sprayed system for their projects, this paint provides excellent coverage, quick drying times, bright and deep colours and excellent corrosion protection and was the automotive industry standard for many years. (For those that want the brush painted look there is a little cheat of doing a coat of varnish over the top to give the brush marks)
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With any paint job the finish is all in the prep, we take everything back to bare metal before painting, this can be done in house or by yourselves before being dropped off. Some might think this is overkill but to not do so is a false economy in our opinion as all it takes is a minor reaction between old and new paints to ruin your finish. We have a local sandblasters who offer keen rates for our customers.
During the painting process some rubbing back between coats might also be necessary to give a better final finish, as we understand what we are painting this is normally only done on the seen areas offering a considerable saving in time and labour costs. By all means we are happy to do everything should the customer ask but generally there is little point having a mirror finish on the underside of a rear tender or inside a mudguard!
We aren't just taking on full repaints but also happy to paint just parts of your builds, cant bare the thought of painting around all those wheel rivets?... drop them off at ours and we will get it sorted.
Restorations and Rebuilds
With our fully equipped workshop we are able to undertake full restorations and rebuilds of most steam and vintage vehicles. Although we mainly specialise in miniature steam engines our passion extends to vintage tractors (any age), motorbikes and cars (post 1960ish.) Like with our Steam Traction World Builds we are happy to work with owners and pick up the project and progress it as far as required.
To ensure all projects are completed to the highest standard we work closely with a choice selection of other specialised companies We know our limits so where it makes financial sense for the customer we may recommend parts of the job are outsourced to our trusted partners such as (click on name for webpage)
Craftmaster Restorations -
Machining, Coach-painting, Original Steam Cars
Sign Writing, lining and gilding
Boiler work including welded repairs
Steam Fittings, Engraved Plates,