Day 28 – 2/4/11 Painting at last.

I made the decision a few weeks ago to purchase some good quality chassis paint called POR 15.  It is a 3 part system consisting of de-greaser, metal preparation and paint. With the de-greaser it is advised to wear latex gloves (provided in the kit) and safety glasses.

The parts were already clean from the rust remover I had used on them a few weeks back but now some surface rust had begun to creep back.  I brushed over the degreaser (marine clean) and washed it off with the hose pipe and dried the parts off.  Then I brushed the metal ready on and kept going over the parts for about half an hour before washing it off with the hose pipe again and let the parts dry in the sun.  As the parts dried where there was shiny metal a white coating of zinc phosphate now covered the bare metal which is a good key to paint on.  Once they had dried fully I opened the paint.  Two to three coats are recommended.  The paint is water thin.  It is not like Hammerite paint. I set about applying the first coat to the parts.  The paint went on a treat and it was no trouble to keep the coat thin and maintain good coverage.  I hung each part up to dry.  Drying time is 3-5 hours. So I hope to apply the second coat tomorrow.

Now there is a down side to the paint I discovered to my cost.  Having finished the painting I wanted to clean the brush and my hands.  I had some xylene (Hammerite thinners) which I used the clean the brush and then with a rag used it to clean my hands. 45 minutes later and numerous washing and scrubbing with xylene soaked rag, nailbrush and swarfega and I’m still failing to scrub the paint off my hands. This stuff sticks better than the proverbial to a blanket and the xylene just seems to move it round my hands not on the rag.  I think gloves are definitely necessary and a different solvent.  I have also been checking on the Holden website and there is a 4^th stage to the process in order to seal the paintwork for “life”.  I have used all the metal ready supplied with the kit and will need some more to finish off the diff and other parts I haven’t got round to yet.