Chassis prepping and painting.

[Gingerbread Man]

I plan on repainting my chassis with Por15, it seems the paint for the job.

Clean up - what's best for removing the old flaking powder coating and surface race?
Drill with wire burst attachment? Elbow grease and wire wool/ light sand paper?

Degrease the chassis before moving onto the painting aspect.
Primer or straight on with the finish coat?
I hear that it's best to go with the 6 smaller pots.

Any tips and tricks would be much welcomed. The car will be fully assembled, so that's something I've got to work around, but hopefully I've a 2/ 4 poster to work under which is nice.
Where's best to jack it when using a lift?

[sjmmarsh]

Por15 sticks well to exposed metal - a wire brush and degrease is sufficient. It doesn't stick as well to the powder coat though. I use the small 6-pot stuff as you don't use much and it goes off a bit each time you open it.

It also lasts better if you give it a top coat of Chassis Black, which doesn't fade when exposed to sunlight, so better for wishbones etc, rather than the under-car chassis tubes and half shafts.

I haven't used the primer as you only seem to need this for brand new metal.

Steve

[Gingerbread Man]

I'd hoped that I wouldn't have had to remove all of the powder coating if I could key it. Or do you think it'll all have to come off?

I'll get some Chassis black too for the exposed areas then.

[Gingerbread Man]

Tempted by the POR15 Chassis Painting Kit as oppossed to the POR15 6-Pack Black Rust Preventative Paint Kit.

I'm not likely to use 6 tins of the rust preventative am I? The former kit with 3 tins of preventative and 3 tins of top coat for UV resistance looks like a better bet for me I expect.

Is the POR15 Marine Clean worth a shout?

[BertBert]

My experience of dodgy powder coat on a Caterham chassis is that it is a complete pain in the backside to get the loose stuff all off. Certainly on the poor cars of the mid-90's the rust runs along under the powder coat. Hoep yours is easier!
Bert

[Gingerbread Man]

Mine is a 1999 car.

[sjmmarsh]

There is no need to take all the powder coat off. Just key the surface. Make it an annual check and top up any patches you find. The POR15 flakes off the powder coat eventually, but the chassis black seems to slow this down.

Steve

[Gingerbread Man]

So the 3 tins of each is the best bet?

Oh and how far does a pot go? Do people buy then have quite a few left over?

Edited by Gingerbread Man on Monday 22 October 18:57

[sjmmarsh]

3 of each is best. I have the 6 pot set and am halfway down the first pot after 4 years of touching up. That includes two major paintings of the half shafts.

Steve

[Gingerbread Man]

Ordered. Let's get painting!