The First Painting Steps...... of Many

Here we go - decide to start with a rear lower wishbone casting. Cleaning and remove all the accumulated c##p wasn't as difficult as I thought - it took about an hour to to get to this stage - Which I thought was pretty acceptable - I don't think you would have got much better with blasting? I did end up with a few nooks and crannies that were difficult to get into - but I found I had a small stainless steel wire brush for my Dremel - so that was them quickly sorted. It was surprising how well the parts came up - as the lower wishbones are cast they don't have a tendency to corrode to ant significant extent. The accumulation of filth mad them look in a much worse condition than they actually were.

Having cleaned and degreased the next stage was to use the POR "Metal Ready" solution. This essentially comprises a concoction of phosphoric acid and zinc salts. It will dissolve any small areas of rust you either missed or couldn't get to and then etches and coats the surface with zinc phosphate ready to receive the paint. The destructions indicated 15-30 minutes was required (all you do is keep the surfaces wet - hence the spray bottle). However this would appear to be at normal temperatures - i.e. not my garage at the end of December! Maybe if the final rinse was done with boiling water the piece would warm up? would also dry quicker.



Next it's time for the paint - this proved to be a bit of a commitment. Any over coating must be done before the previous coat has cured. If it has then you will need to abrade it or use a tie-coat primer. Essentially this means don't start painting unless you've got at least the next six hours spare - it takes 2 to 3 hours for a coat to become dry (slight finger drag) before you overcoat. The careful degreasing and treating with "Metal Ready" seemed to be worthwhile as the paint covered exceptionally well. The photo shows the wishbone after one coat. It will probably take a week for full cure but by then the paint should be rock hard. All in all - I felt quite satisfied with my first efforts - I tried not to think of how many pieces I had left to do!