Which paint for my plenum?
Discussion
Hello,
Whilst I’ve got the plenum off I thought I’d give it a paint. I’m having the rocker covers powdercoated, but thought I’d just paint the plenum by hand. Any recommendations on what paint I should use for it? I am going to go with silver, if that makes a difference.
I don’t want to paint it and have it flake off in a few weeks time!
Thanks,
Dan
Whilst I’ve got the plenum off I thought I’d give it a paint. I’m having the rocker covers powdercoated, but thought I’d just paint the plenum by hand. Any recommendations on what paint I should use for it? I am going to go with silver, if that makes a difference.
I don’t want to paint it and have it flake off in a few weeks time!
Thanks,
Dan
I'm thinking I might try this, heat resistant enamel radiator paint... http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servle...
The plenum is aluminum, a radiator is steel.
When painting aluminum it's essential to use an etch primer, or your top coat won't last 5 minutes especially in a hot TVR engine bay.
When painting anything, 90% of your time should be spent prepping the work prior to applying you chosen coating.
Prepping by hand is boring & time consuming, and you'll never get as good a finish as vapor/bead blasting.
When you look at how much it costs to have the plenum blasted, and compare it with how onerous the job is to do by hand and the mediocre results you'll achieve.
Having the plenum vapor blasted starts to look like a no brainer.
Once you come to that conclusion, you'll also soon realise you may as well have the thing powder coated too.
So, spend £20 on primer, paint & de-greasing products, then spend an hour or two cleaning, prepping & painting... only to end up with average results.
Or drop it off at your local powder coating firm, ask them to vapor blast & powder coat in silver, a day later pick up your plenum that looks better than the day it left the TVR factory.
And probably all for £55 ish.
It'll look twice as good, last twice as long yet only would have cost you £35 more than painting it yourself.
Let the experts take the pain out of the job, get a better result, and only pay a few quid more for the privilege.
Forget expensive etch primers, Rustolium & two hours of prepping the plenum by hand, I suggest you just open the Yellow Pages and find your local powder coater.
Job done
When painting aluminum it's essential to use an etch primer, or your top coat won't last 5 minutes especially in a hot TVR engine bay.
When painting anything, 90% of your time should be spent prepping the work prior to applying you chosen coating.
Prepping by hand is boring & time consuming, and you'll never get as good a finish as vapor/bead blasting.
When you look at how much it costs to have the plenum blasted, and compare it with how onerous the job is to do by hand and the mediocre results you'll achieve.
Having the plenum vapor blasted starts to look like a no brainer.
Once you come to that conclusion, you'll also soon realise you may as well have the thing powder coated too.
So, spend £20 on primer, paint & de-greasing products, then spend an hour or two cleaning, prepping & painting... only to end up with average results.
Or drop it off at your local powder coating firm, ask them to vapor blast & powder coat in silver, a day later pick up your plenum that looks better than the day it left the TVR factory.
And probably all for £55 ish.
It'll look twice as good, last twice as long yet only would have cost you £35 more than painting it yourself.
Let the experts take the pain out of the job, get a better result, and only pay a few quid more for the privilege.
Forget expensive etch primers, Rustolium & two hours of prepping the plenum by hand, I suggest you just open the Yellow Pages and find your local powder coater.
Job done
I agree that powder coating is probably the best but the prices in my area were very expensive.
I used spray Hammerite silver/aluminium and thought the result looked excellent. No sign of discolouration or peeling so far.
Main downside of spraying is that it will chip if not handled carefully, whereas powder coating would be more foregiving.
You pay your money and you take your choice.
I used spray Hammerite silver/aluminium and thought the result looked excellent. No sign of discolouration or peeling so far.
Main downside of spraying is that it will chip if not handled carefully, whereas powder coating would be more foregiving.
You pay your money and you take your choice.
I removed the plenum and rocker covers and then stripped off all detachable parts. It is easiest to remove the throttle linkage once the plenum is loosened and pushed to one side. I masked the seating area of the stepper motor and throttle pot etc before spraying.
By the way, once the plenum is off this is the ideal time to check/change your fuel hoses as access is now so much easier. Also you can remove the stepper motor housing and clean its seat as well as the motor itself easily. My car idled far better once the seat and housing was cleaned rather than just the motor.
By the way, once the plenum is off this is the ideal time to check/change your fuel hoses as access is now so much easier. Also you can remove the stepper motor housing and clean its seat as well as the motor itself easily. My car idled far better once the seat and housing was cleaned rather than just the motor.
I toyed with doing my rockers covers myself with spray hammerite. Like Chimpongas says price up your paint and time to do it and you are no cheaper than paying someone to do it for you.
i paid £20 to have my rockers covers powder coated. A couple of aerosols would have cost that. You should be able to get a plenum powdercoated for £20.
i paid £20 to have my rockers covers powder coated. A couple of aerosols would have cost that. You should be able to get a plenum powdercoated for £20.
zed4 said:
Hello,
Whilst I’ve got the plenum off I thought I’d give it a paint. I’m having the rocker covers powdercoated, but thought I’d just paint the plenum by hand. Any recommendations on what paint I should use for it? I am going to go with silver, if that makes a difference.
I don’t want to paint it and have it flake off in a few weeks time!
Thanks,
Dan
when you paint it does the plenum no longer keep as cool as it should do?Whilst I’ve got the plenum off I thought I’d give it a paint. I’m having the rocker covers powdercoated, but thought I’d just paint the plenum by hand. Any recommendations on what paint I should use for it? I am going to go with silver, if that makes a difference.
I don’t want to paint it and have it flake off in a few weeks time!
Thanks,
Dan
SILICONEKID343HP said:
Its not worth the hassle ,I got the plenum done for £20 and the rocker covers £30 for the two.
Then the bottles done for £10 each
Bargain, should have done that, but ran out of time on the plenum. The rocker covers are being powdercoated though. 
Then the bottles done for £10 each
If the paint falls off the plenum, I'll get it powdercoated next year. In the meantime, the paint will have to do.
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