Search This Blog

Friday, November 12, 2010

Chassis: Painted the Undersurfaces

Undersurfaces of the chassis have been painted. This should make painting the rest a little easier once it's off the wooden frame and lying horizontal. Couldn't open the garage door, as it's too cold outside for the paint requirements, so basically covered up everything except the chassis and used large sheets of cardboard to make an improvised painting area. Proper breathing mask is essential equipment here.

Process used for the Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black was as Eastwood recommends for a galvanized chassis, which is pretty simple. First, scuff the surfaces well. I used a sanding sponge with rough and fine grit, about equivalent to 100 and 400 grit paper, as the sponge worked better over the blobs and sharper spots produced by the galvanizing. Then, wash the surfaces with household vinegar. (This also gives the impression that you are making a weird sort of salad.) After this, paint a small area, wait 24 hours, and then do an adhesion test using scoring of the surface and then pulling with strong tape, just to make sure all is well (Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black does not require a primer on galvanizing, but worth testing on galvanized surfaces anyway just to make sure). If all is well (nothing came off, and it would barely even scratch), then two coats of the Extreme Chassis Black, which leaves a really nice semi-gloss finish. Given the pretty rough surface anyway of the galvanizing even before scuffing (perhaps helped by a couple of weeks of salty sea air in a container?), I'm pretty sure the surface was quite good for adhesion. Time will tell! The chassis will be left for a week or more to cure, and then I'll do another pull test on the paint. Easier to fix at this stage if anything doesn't work out.

2 comments:

  1. How has the Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black held up over the years??

    ReplyDelete
  2. No problems at all. Has completely adhered to the galvanizing, and no chips that I can see.

    ReplyDelete