Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Rusty]

What type of paint do you blokes use on your chassis and suspension A arms ect ? I don't mean brand names but the actual type of paint.
I am intending to paint a chassis out of a 1960s Studebaker, but it should handle like any large English car.

[Ray White]

Can you still get "chassis black"? That used to be the "go to" paint but these days it seems powder coating is the way to go.

A visitor to my garage saw was a bit snooty when I said I had just sprayed my MG chassis with black Hammerite 'smooth' and not gone to the expense of powder coating.

I replied that the car had spent it's life in Australia and had not lost it's original paint so to remove it all for the sake of powder coating was an unnecessary expense. I was just adding a bit of 'shine'.

The guy persisted with his powder coating argument; clearly disapproving of what I had done and when I replied "it will see me out" went off in bit of a huff. !

It raises the question; are we restoring old cars for our benefit ...or is it for future owners as yet unknown.? Personally, I take the selfish view that I don't care what happens to my car when I am in Heaven maintaining God's car collection.!!

[alastairq]

I agree with Ray.
Just who do these people think we're mending our cars for?

I got my cars solely for me.

I really don't care whether anybody else actually likes them...or not.

I have an issue with powder coating stuff like chassis.

Aside from the expense involved, and the preparation, powder coating in the motorcycle world has what seems to me to be a mixed reputation.
The issue being, moisture/water getting underneath the coating!

If the coating gets chipped, or there is a tiny place where it hasn't adhered properly, once water gets underneath, how does one repair or prevent rot occurring under the powder coat?
Paint is easily repairable, in my view.
A bit messy perhaps, but mendable, should road grit blast its way past the barrier.

Just my view, but then I couldn't afford powder coating, or any such fancy dips, splashes, coats or whatever.
My Dellow, with its chrome moly steel rocket tube chassis, came to me blathered in all sorts of thick, messy underseal type stuff[like tar really]...under which the cream paint on the tubes is pretty much intact.

There seems to me to be little point in spending time & effort trying to strip all the thick gunk away, whenI could be out drivngthe thing?
_________________
Dellow Mk2, 1951 built, reg 1952.
Fiat 126 BIS
Cannon special [1996 registered. Built in 1950's]
----------------------------------------------
Ford Pop chassis, Ashley 1172 bodyshell, in pieces.

[MikeEdwards]

^ I'm with you on that, I'd never powder coat suspension components now. I had a subframe done, it looked really nice, but the new owner tells me that it's not lasted well. Paint's far easier to touch up when needed.
_________________
1976 Vauxhall HP Firenza, 1976 Vauxhall Sportshatch (x2), 1986 Audi coupe quattro, 2000 Audi TT

[badhuis]

Many classic car owners goes to great lengths when trying to preserve their cars from rust.
This is probably because they have experienced that cars can and will rust badly when not treated well. I have the same experiences, as do many people in my age group (50 - 75). Back then, when most cars lived on the streets, were not properly rust treated, used every day in all kind of weathers including the long periods when salt was sprayed on the roads. You saw rust boxes everywhere, in fact I knew where for many car types the car would begin to rust.

So owners of these kind of cars now, classics, shudder by the thought that this rust spreading can happen to their cars as easy as 30-50 years before and of course they want to prevent that.

But it is not like the old days anymore. Those classics are rarely used all year round, most will never see salted roads and maybe only a little rain now and then, but nothing like in the old days. Many have better rust protections added. Most are garaged off the road.

I do not get it why so much effort and money is spend to prevent any speck of rust. Why is it so bad to have a rust spot appear? It will not spread as it used to do those years ago. Fist sized holes will not appear. Wings will not fall off. Sills will not need to be repaired with chicken wire and old newspaper. Don't get nervous about it, live with it, treat it, make sure it does not get worse. Some rust will show that the car is still being used. They do not all to be like museum or showroom examples.

I love to see old cars being used, so much nicer than the next boring car museum or car show. Better to have some rust and not to worry too much about it.
_________________
a car stops being fun when it becomes an investment

[Bitumen Boy]

Another one here skeptical about powder coating... I too have seen how rust spreads widely under the coating from any minor little imperfection or damaged area, and I've also found what an absolute swine it is to get the rotten stuff off again to do a proper job of repairing and refinishing it! Paint is, I feel, the way to go - as others have said, it's much easier to repair when the time comes, and it seems to me that the protection is better than powder coat can offer anyway. As for what type of paint, I've tried various things but these days I tend to brush on two coats of zinc phosphate oil base primer followed by a few brushed coats of household gloss, again oil based. Yes it takes time waiting for those brush coats to dry, especially in the winter, but it's comparatively cheap and seems to last well, plus there's no hassles around overspray, gun cleaning or breathing in the paint or its solvent.

[Ray White]

I have heard good reports about brush enamel paint. If it is to go on a chassis, it ideally needs to be a tough, chip resistant finish.

Could this be the best solution?

[Rusty]

I am glad this simple question got you talented blokes talking, it's been quite informative !
My brother is into old motorbikes, and he won't use powdercoating on his frames for the same reasons you are talking about. He reckons its falling out of favour with those that actually "use" their bikes, but remains popular with those that only "show" their bikes.
The reason I was asking is, I was thinking of just doing the chassis and under guard areas of the car with "killrust" enamel. Now I understand that is a "brandname" that most of you would be unfamiliar with, but it's just a tough raw metal enamel that can be either brush or spray painted over pretty much any ferrous metal either raw or primed. Some of its principal uses are for iron and steel railings on walkways and industrial frames ect. It's cheap and has a good reputation for durability, but I don't know how it would handle road damage. The car body itself is just being done in acrylic lacquer, because the paint it will be going over is also acrylic lacquer and as its sound, I don't want to have to take it all off to use current base coat clear coat paints, and as I am not all that experienced as a painter, I think lacquer would be less challenging for my limited skillset! I don't know what the original chassis paint is, but being assembled in Australia in 1963 I recon its probably old nitro cellulose lacquer so I think some enamel ala MG might be just the way to go.
Ray, I think your "hammerite" would be a similar paint to killrust. I have used hammerite "hammer tone" and always found it a good paint and I think it would be very similar in a smooth finish to killrust.

Thanks for taking the time to reply,

Graham

[bjacko]

I used "Killsrust" in a spray pack for the chassis and areas with hard to get to corners. Easy to touch up if it gets damaged.
I would think it would be hard to powder coat a chassis with all it's nooks and crannies. The ideal would be to dip it and protect it in Phosphate solution, followed by dipping in paint, but that would be very expensive.
_________________
1938 Morris 8 Ser II Coupe Utility (Pickup)
1985 Rover SD1 VDP

[Rusty]

Bjacko,
are you happy with the durability of killrust on your chassis ? Have you had it on very long and is your car used much ?

Graham

[ukdave2002]

Back in the day I imagine that chassis paint was simply cheap low gloss cellulose, manufacturers weren?t so concerned about rust control 60 or 70 years ago!

The last 2 chassis that I painted, I used 2 pack with some matting agent to take the gloss down. I wouldn?t say 2k is the best chassis paint, whilst it?s resilient, it can chip.

Dave

PS no idea why apostrophes are appearing as question marks!

[Ray White]

Hi Rusty. Hammerite is O.K. but it is rather soft and can scratch quite easily. Like any paint, it can hide rust and slow it down but it won't stop it. Only acid can do that. Of the numerous options available I use phosphoric acid and when that has worked its wonders I clean off the surface and coat it with a protective primer (with a high zink content.). Ideally I would use an acrylic primer but it's quite expensive. Having said that, the first cost is seldom the last so my method is probably a false economy.

[Rich5ltr]

All my friends in the classic car community tend to prefer POR-15 over Hammerite but either way I agree both are preferable t powder coating.
https://www.holden.co.uk/p/por_15_top_coat_chassis_black_0_473_litre

[Ray White]

[MikeEdwards]

POR-15 works best on rough surfaces - if you apply it to smooth new metal it can peel off like a skin. I believe there's a surface prep for that situation.
_________________
1976 Vauxhall HP Firenza, 1976 Vauxhall Sportshatch (x2), 1986 Audi coupe quattro, 2000 Audi TT