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Chassis paint?

Evening all,

Can anyone recommend a tough chassis paint that has a good original appearance? I`ve just started rebuilding a Mk3 Commando that I have sprayed with enamel paint which gives a very nice finish but chips all too easily. I don`t want to put it all together then find the first time it encounters gravel all the paint comes off so I am now considering redoing it all again if I can find something suitable, any experience/recommendations? I have just had another frame powder coated but really it looks naff, I much prefer the look of a paint finish as per the original.

Regards, Al.

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Hi Al,

Available from Frost Restoration. Highly recommend chassis black on POR - 15, can be brushed or sprayed. Sets like flint but POR-15 is not UV stable and needs a top coat of chassis black.

https://www.frost.co.uk/

Rgds Steve..

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It is a good product, if you can get the lid off the tin. The one I have has refused to come off, after many attempts to do so. Frost can also supply a chassie black paint.

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I recently read a very good article on how to apply a good quality coach paint by brush and considering applying to me 1957 Enfield as the frame is a bit rough. Not sure if CP appropriate for your MK3  and sure others will comment. There were all sorts of tips re warming paint before use and so on. Maybe worth considering. I simply did a google search on coach paint classic bikes and up it came. Good luck.and hope above helps.

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Thanks everyone for your inputs.

Steve, I take it you have found the POR 15 & chassis black combination durable in use, do you have to touch up the chassis black at all & is it a nice gloss finish?

I have a few NOS parts and so i`m aware that the original finish wasn`t always as good as they seemed to be in the brochuers but "brochuer finish" would be nice.

Anthony, stab it with a screwdriver and have a jar ready!

Hugh, Coach paint is enamel as far as I am aware so same problem I think.

John, I took my other frame to what everyone considers to be the best powder coaters in our area but it rather looks like it depends who`s on shift at the time.....

Thanks again everyone for your comments. Anymore glowing recommendations greatfully received.

Regards, Al.

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I have tried other powder coaters using test pieces where the finish is not important eg seat bases, but never found one to beat the one I have been using for 15 years. If he does not meet my requirements he does it again no questions asked. Before that when I lived in Birmingham I had another good powder coater there too. Like alloy welders once found you keep using them.

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Here's something new to me.  A DiY system - https://www.electrostaticmagic.co.uk/  Amazingly it can also be used on non-metallic bases too.  A bit pricey starting at £179.

Personally I'm not a fan of Powder Coating as it doesn't seem to have a base primer to protect the metal.  It  often seems to  be very  "plasticky" to the touch - which I definitely don't like.  Enamel may be a touch brittle but it is the original method used and I've had my frame and most cycle parts stove enamelled.  Good for cylinder barrels too, but not had mine done yet.  (Norman White has barrels stoved) When enamel chips it is easy to touch up and can also be applied quite thinly compared with P-C.  Powder coating can have the insidious "rust-worm" creeping along unnoticed until it's too late!

In the olden days we had Belco brushing enamel as well as primer, but then we used spray cellulose paint which is so easy and forgiving a 5 year-old could do it!  I was a very mature 15 before I resprayed my first (Dad's!) car!

Still - "chacun à son goût"  as they  say up north! LOL!

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Hi Al,

IF you get any chips I will be surprised; but use usual prep &  POR / PPP 'Metal Ready' and touch away! I have brushed this stuff successfully on smaller items: oil tanks, engine plates etc.,but not a frame yet, All parts look sprayed; remember 'Brushing Belco' but much harder, powder coating is OK BUT it chips. Thick too; mind your isolastics !

Rgds Steve.

 


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