what to paint with?

[hallsie]

Ive got the front suspension in bits to change all the bushes ball joints and bolts, so while Im at it I will be painting stuff.

Firstly Ill take off the surface rust and crap and make sure ive got a sound surface to paint, but then what to do?

Do I rust treat, primer and spray from a can in black (matt)?

Or

rust treat and paint in smooth hammerite?

Im not after concourse results but I want it to be obvious that Ive made a bit of an effort!

Stu

[AM400]

I would bite the bullet and get them blasted and powder coated. I did this with mine and they look as good as new 3 years down the line.

If you do paint them I would go for POR-15, much tougher than Hammerite.

Andy

[MJG280]

Well to remove rust on suspension parts get a plastic box fill it with vinegar and immerse the part for 2 days It takes the rust off nicely. Smells different as well just don't dip your chips in it.

[B-Reight]

I recently POR15'd my outriggers and i've got to say, the stuff is a complete pain in the ring to work with! It's very thin and needs bloody loads of coats, which need to be applied within a specific time window (otherwise you need to key the entire surface again each time) meaning you need a full 16 hour day to do it in.

You'll also need a good quality mask as the vapours are bad m'kay.

Having said that it does seem to be very tough stuff. If i did it again i'd probably try marine expoxy instead tho'.

[hallsie]

Well, I would Por 15, but I forgot to mention, I want to drive the bloody thing this weekend, so between watching England play tonight whilst drinking a few beers, and getting 4 hours in the garage on thursday and friday night, I need a solution, so the Por is right out.

I think Ill go for the hammerite, nice smooth finish and protection enough for the time being.

Anyway, itll only be until this winter and then its change the engine for a 2.9 cosworth and change the brakes completely!

[SEvans]

I'd go down the powder coating route as well. Had all the back suspension coated a few years ago and it still looks as good today. Even had the brake calipers done and they still look good.
If you don't want to powder coat then I've had some good results with a spray on paint called 'Sperex'. Ideally for best results you spray it on and bake in the oven, but this isn't possible if you still have any bushes, ball joint's etc still attached. Still worth using even if you can't bake it. I've only seen it in gloss and matt black.
Cheers Steve.

[Big Daft Lad]

Powder coat every time.

I spent bloody hours with a wire brush, sand paper, undercoat and smoothrite. Now 6 month later it looks like I didn't bother. Grrr.

[K4TRV]

Powder coated a tow bar and needed to do it again 9-months later!!

Not all it's made out to be - later Chim/Griffs ???

Trying rubber gloves/mask & POR 15 on anothe tow bar/outriggers shortly!!

Hammerite takes too much prep and lots of throw-away brushes - probably same with POR15 - but I'll give it a go!!!!

HTH

Trev

[Wedg1e]

I tend to use black Smoothrite on anything I'm not powdercoating (and until I get a bit more organised I can only p/coat small items anyway). I find that the best way to use it is to get a thin coat on first, don't worry too much about it being a bit patchy. Once it's flashed-off, then give it a heavy coat. If you try to lay it on like tarmac in one go it's the claggiest thing known to man, drips and runs galore and it'll still be wet a day later.
It's also supposed to be recoated within a specific window (3-6 hours IIRC) otherwise you're meant to leave it for weeks to cure, but all that seems to happen if you don't is that the subsequent coats go wrinkly, rather like that 'crackle' finish that MG dashboards had... which to my mind isn't a problem on a chassis
You can also thin Smoothrite with Finegans' own thinners and spray it on; first time I did that was on a bicycle frame when my dad first let me loose with a spraygun back in my teens Beautiful gloss black finish... on a Falcon Black Diamond
Nowadays I tend to use the satin finish, suits most applications.
Tip: if you want to avoid binning lots of paintbrushes, simply dunk the used brush in a jam-jar full of water until you need it again. The water keeps the air off the brush so the paint can't flash-off. Flick the excess water off and carry on painting...

[wombat172a]

Hammerite isn't worth the time of day I'm afraid. It's hard compound comes from the fact it's fibrous (almost like a thin layer of glass fibre) and very brittle, what this means is that with any degree of flex or impact it shatters & cracks.

Good on house radiators & metal fences etc.

Not good on chassis / suspension parts

[SEvans]

K4TRV said:

Powder coated a tow bar and needed to do it again 9-months later!!

Not all it's made out to be - later Chim/Griffs ???

Trying rubber gloves/mask & POR 15 on anothe tow bar/outriggers shortly!!

Hammerite takes too much prep and lots of throw-away brushes - probably same with POR15 - but I'll give it a go!!!!

HTH

Trev

I suspect with powder coating it's much to do with the surface preperation. Some 25 year old chassis still have good powder coating. Some that are 10 years old don't.
Would recommend Andy at Triple S http://www.triple-s.co.uk/ if you do want anything powder coating. Maybe a bit of a treck but sometimes it's worth the extra travel to get a good job done. Cheers Steve

[barrington]

get it powder coated i had mine powder coated at cray metal finnishers at dartford the boss has a 420 se as you r in kent it may not be that far from you

[hallsie]

Thanks Barrington,
Im in Higham, gravesend, so thats pretty close, Ill give them a call.

[barrington]

im on canvey island restoring a 400se kettles always on

[barrington]

arsk for keith tell him dave from opus gave you the number