Painting donor parts?

[Andy302]

Has anyone got any good tips/ideas/what not to do's when it comes to painting up the running gear? Mines all dissasembled and will be blasted pretty soon, then its on with the POR15.

Ive read all through how to use the POR15 and I was wondering if anyone had any great pearls of wisdom on how to paint stuff well, what bits not to paint and answer the age old question of how the hell do you get a good even finish when you cant grab hold of anything when its all painted!!

many thanks

[kevchard]

I used por 15 and was well impressed. I tend to 'hang' the parts up on screws after painting most of the component, then paint around the area that i was holding the part by.
Silver por 15 can look rusty if you have a dirty surface. Best put the paint on thin, as thickly laid up paint looks grooved when finished.
Good luck

[Andy302]

Hi Kevin,


Ive gone for the silver POR15, Ive also got the marine clean and metal ready (not cheap when you buy all the bits including the thinners as well!) so hopefully my parts "ahem" will be sparkly clean before painting. Im going to take it slowly and follow the instructions carefully so the finish will be as good as I can get it. For some of the bits, driveshafts etc, Ive left the old UJ shells in pleac so I could drill holes in those to put wore through. Thinking about it most of the parts will have areas I dont want to paint that I can put wire through to hang them up.

Only time will tell, thanks for the input! :thumb:

Cheers

[andywsussex]

Andy,

I used Black POR-15 and was extremely happy with the results. Like Kev, I hung the bits up and did them that way - if you're careful and use stiff wire you can by and large leave only tiny bits to touch up after the rest is dry.

Tips - lots of thin coats! I did 2 coats undercoat, 2 topcoat on chassis and running gear. Took about two weeks (inc. drying time) but turned out great.
- its hard to see where you've been with the undercoat (at least it was with the black) because the wet paint looks the same as the dry glossy finish of the undercoat! Use a powerful spot lamp at an angle - it shows up the wet paint.
- avoid painting any mating surfaces - calipers to diff., to uprights, etc... - these should be left bare metal.

Attached pic. is my production line of painting.

Andy

[Chimeara]

This looks a very long winded and as stated expensive procedure. I opted for powder coating. This turned out very well and cost very little. The only down side is the heat when baking destroys the rubber universal joint seals. However these were to be replaced anyway.

Another tip is to make sure all the bearings etc are well sealed. A breather hole was left un plugged in my diff when shot blast and was all but filled up with the stuff. Full rebuild was done anyway but if not planned for it could of been a nasty surprise.

Anthony

[Andy302]

Thanks for all the replies.


Im still happy to go through with the long winded approach as Ive heard that the results are harder wearing than powder coat, I know not how true that is but Ive got the paint now so thats that!!

Cheers

[neil still building it]

hi everyone

i've had ismilarly good results brush painting 2 pack ! any colour you like and no problems with fumes as your not spraying it! also any brush marks flow out as it sets, do as many coats as you like ....excellent coverage as well an opacity (hides any marks etc)
try it !
NEIL

[Clarkson]

Yeah done all my parts in 2 pack and looks great.:thumb:

[dave.n]

Dave

I'm sure your parts look luverly but just don't get them out in the Grasshopper car park.
HaHa!!!

[madjohnny]

I used POR15 both black & silver. The black is excellent and is so thin you don't get any brush marks in it. I painted two coats.
The silver I wasn't quite as impressed with, even after thorough stirring it just doesn't cover any were near as well as the black (besides the obvious colour difference!!!!)

That apart, great results. I also then sprayed all my suspension parts satin black for that NEW look, as I feel shiny black bits look like you've just rubbed them down and painted them, which we have!!.