outrigger painting

[Meatball]

How did you paint the tops of your outriggers?
Any ideas on making a hooky device for reaching the tops?

Just a thought anyone used expanding foam on them to keep the crap out?

[slideways]

i wouldnt the stuffs like super glue, if you ever have to take the body off you will have a lot of grief (they fit double glazing with the stuff)

[changingman]

That expanding foam is the same stuff as Gorilla Glue which we use on furniture and it sticks like the proverbial, you have to saw it off.

[Red Cabbage]

Hammer an 8" piece of 15mm copper pipe flat for about 3". Curve it to the same radius as the outrigger tube. Then attach a strip of velcro (the velvety part not the hook side) use this as a paint pad.

[K4TRV]

Red Cabbage said:

Hammer an 8" piece of 15mm copper pipe flat for about 3". Curve it to the same radius as the outrigger tube. Then attach a strip of velcro (the velvety part not the hook side) use this as a paint pad.

.....and the 2008 Blue Peter Badge for Innovation to TVRs goes to..............

[winters]

I fired loads of paint up there on a brush - both sides of the tube. Then I used paint-soaked shoelaces and wiggled/dragged about cable ties to make sure I had good paint coverage around the whole diameter - this was very effective at getting access to the top sides pinned close up to the body and also the sections by the mounting plates where you cant get a hooked tool over the top. Then I used a bent bit of aluminium with some self adhesive foam (superglued on as you don't want to lose it up there) to properly paint everything I could get at with it. Also get some long artists-style paint brushes (foot-long jobbies), you can shove these in the voids created by between the body, mounting plates and outriggers and you can reach a suprising amount of the surface in there, and the side/tops of the opposing outrigger tubes. This all worked very well with epoxy mastic which was quite thick. Got about as much paint on me as the car though.

[Meatball]

Thanks for the ideas, the chassis is in pretty good nick (as far as i can see without taking the body off) most of the powder coating ive removed had fresh metal under it. I know i cant see the tops but i can get a fairly good idea from this. Surprisingly the worst areas are under the manifolds and rear wishbones.

[HRG]

Meatball said:

Thanks for the ideas, the chassis is in pretty good nick (as far as i can see without taking the body off) most of the powder coating ive removed had fresh metal under it. I know i cant see the tops but i can get a fairly good idea from this. Surprisingly the worst areas are under the manifolds and rear wishbones.

Only because you can't see the bits above the body mounting plates

[Meatball]

HRG said:

Meatball said:

Thanks for the ideas, the chassis is in pretty good nick (as far as i can see without taking the body off) most of the powder coating ive removed had fresh metal under it. I know i cant see the tops but i can get a fairly good idea from this. Surprisingly the worst areas are under the manifolds and rear wishbones.

Only because you can't see the bits above the body mounting plates

I thought i said that?

[HRG]

Meatball said:

HRG said:

Meatball said:

Thanks for the ideas, the chassis is in pretty good nick (as far as i can see without taking the body off) most of the powder coating ive removed had fresh metal under it. I know i cant see the tops but i can get a fairly good idea from this. Surprisingly the worst areas are under the manifolds and rear wishbones.

Only because you can't see the bits above the body mounting plates

I thought i said that?

You probably did... But that's where the rot really starts. A dentists mirror and a halogen light helps.

[wheels1]

Try using Kurust first. It is made by hammerite.
It converts the rust into a black blue finish that you can leave as is or paint over.
I have used it before and it really works and is good for the hard to reach bits as it is much runnier than paint.
You can buy it from Halfords in 250mm size. Buy some plastic gloves while you are in there, so you don't get any on you fingers, as it makes them black and takes weeks to come off.

[andy-w]

If you were feeling brave why not undo all the body bolts and just lift it a couple of inches to paint...?
it would probably be quicker than jacking up the car and crawling around with bent peices of metal and using mirrors, guessing that you have covered all the parts that need paint...the hardest part would be removing the petrol tank to get at the 4 bolts behind there but the rest are easy and i cant think of anything else you would need to undo for a couple of inch lift...?

Plus you will get to have a really good loook at the outriggers and their condition...

[MoreSteam]

wheels1 said:

Try using Kurust first. It is made by hammerite.
It converts the rust into a black blue finish that you can leave as is or paint over.
I have used it before and it really works and is good for the hard to reach bits as it is much runnier than paint.
You can buy it from Halfords in 250mm size. Buy some plastic gloves while you are in there, so you don't get any on you fingers, as it makes them black and takes weeks to come off.

I got a similar product to this from Frost's. It worked out much cheaper. 1 litre, so should last a while.

[Red Cabbage]

andy-w said:

If you were feeling brave why not undo all the body bolts and just lift it a couple of inches to paint...?
it would probably be quicker than jacking up the car and crawling around with bent peices of metal and using mirrors, guessing that you have covered all the parts that need paint...the hardest part would be removing the petrol tank to get at the 4 bolts behind there but the rest are easy and i cant think of anything else you would need to undo for a couple of inch lift...?

Seat belt anchorages?

Radiator bracket?

HRG, you should be able to answer this.

[andy-w]

Red Cabbage said:

andy-w said:

If you were feeling brave why not undo all the body bolts and just lift it a couple of inches to paint...?
it would probably be quicker than jacking up the car and crawling around with bent peices of metal and using mirrors, guessing that you have covered all the parts that need paint...the hardest part would be removing the petrol tank to get at the 4 bolts behind there but the rest are easy and i cant think of anything else you would need to undo for a couple of inch lift...?

Seat belt anchorages?

Radiator bracket?

HRG, you should be able to answer this.

I just assumed people would know that the seatbelt bolts would need to come out as it is part of the body lift...having just finished doing a complete body of chassis restoration i just didnt think it relevant to list all the bolts individually, especially as the seat belt bolts are not easy to miss and are very easy to get to unlike the ones behind the petrol tank or the two just in front of the centre console...if you see what i mean.

As for radiator brackets? not sure what you mean by that but my radiator can be lifted out with the body, its not attached to the chassis at all.

[schmokin1]

local pound store sold me a pack of artists brushes that were about 14 inches long. The metal fitting that held the bristles was pretty long and could be bent into an arc. That was ideal for loading with POR15 and poking right around the body mounting areas. Used a curved bit of steel with a sponge bit glued on as a paint pad for the main sections of tube.

Only took 2 weeks for the silver stains to come off my arms

[HRG]

Red Cabbage said:

andy-w said:

If you were feeling brave why not undo all the body bolts and just lift it a couple of inches to paint...?
it would probably be quicker than jacking up the car and crawling around with bent peices of metal and using mirrors, guessing that you have covered all the parts that need paint...the hardest part would be removing the petrol tank to get at the 4 bolts behind there but the rest are easy and i cant think of anything else you would need to undo for a couple of inch lift...?

Seat belt anchorages?

Radiator bracket?

HRG, you should be able to answer this.

Yeah, just pop the body bolts out and raise it 2"

The body bolts are tts, most have seized or almost seized so you'll need a Dremmel or similar to grind the captive nuts off. You can put the body back on in a weekend, but taking it off takes [/i]much[/i] longer if it hasn't been off since it left the factory. A 2" raise is a bit of a pain, but a lot less of a pain than a full body removal, however I still wouldn't undertake it lightly.

[andy-w]

HRG said:

The body bolts are tts, most have seized or almost seized so you'll need a Dremmel or similar to grind the captive nuts off. You can put the body back on in a weekend, but taking it off takes [/i]much[/i] longer if it hasn't been off since it left the factory. A 2" raise is a bit of a pain, but a lot less of a pain than a full body removal, however I still wouldn't undertake it lightly.

I think it would be much easier than crawling around under the car hoping that you have covered the tops of the tubes...plus it means you can have a really good look at what is going on under there.

[HRG]

andy-w said:

HRG said:

The body bolts are tts, most have seized or almost seized so you'll need a Dremmel or similar to grind the captive nuts off. You can put the body back on in a weekend, but taking it off takes [/i]much[/i] longer if it hasn't been off since it left the factory. A 2" raise is a bit of a pain, but a lot less of a pain than a full body removal, however I still wouldn't undertake it lightly.

I think it would be much easier than crawling around under the car hoping that you have covered the tops of the tubes...plus it means you can have a really good look at what is going on under there.

Do you know who wrote the 2" body raise article on The Griff Pages?

[andy-w]

HRG said:

andy-w said:

HRG said:

The body bolts are tts, most have seized or almost seized so you'll need a Dremmel or similar to grind the captive nuts off. You can put the body back on in a weekend, but taking it off takes [/i]much[/i] longer if it hasn't been off since it left the factory. A 2" raise is a bit of a pain, but a lot less of a pain than a full body removal, however I still wouldn't undertake it lightly.

I think it would be much easier than crawling around under the car hoping that you have covered the tops of the tubes...plus it means you can have a really good look at what is going on under there.

Do you know who wrote the 2" body raise article on The Griff Pages?

I am not knocking what you are saying ...i am just saying that if i was to do it i would go for the body lift instead of struggling to paint it from underneath...i have done a complete body lift off and know how relatively easy it is...having read posts where people have said they have painted the car from underneath over a number of weekends i would have thought lifting the body up a few inches and taking a couple of days would have been easier plus you get a good look which i would have thought was very important...painting from the underside makes it impossible to see if you have any small holes...like i say, just my opinion...