Painting chassis
 

Has anyone repainted their chassis? Semi gloss or full gloss? I don't want to strip and repaint the whole thing, just respray the areas that are all scratched up. I can do compressor / spray gun work, but a spray can would certainly be easier. Anyone have decent results with any perticular type of paint? How about inside the wheelwells? Mine are painted, but you can see the fiberglass pattern through the paint. Is undercoating an option to get a nice uniform appearance under there without the fiberglass look? Any ideas?

I use a heavy duty semi gloss black out of a rattle can on my frame. It is easy to touch up scrapes and rock picks and no one but me ever sees it unless it is on the rack. Then they don't even notice. As for the wheel wells I have mine coated with a rubber type coating that stops rock picks and such. It is black and all you can see on it is some over spray from where I was doing some spray can painting with red once. I could just spray on a little more of the rubberized undercoating in a minute or so and that would be gone but since mine is not show quality anyway I don't even bother.

Ron

It's impossible to control the spray pattern of a rattle can. A lot of masking will be required if you use one. Preferrably use a touch up gun where you can use low pressure and direct a narrow stream of paint. Gravity feed type would work the best.
For the wheel wells, 3M makes a product called Chip Guard. It comes out of the can looking like snot. Practice on some card board to get the hand of it. The warmer the can the thinner the spray.
John

:)

John,

You are correct about the over spray from a rattle can. But the way my frame is set under the body, any over spray goes on other stuff that is black. And I mostly use a small artists brush anyway to touch up rock picks and such. I will have to look at the Chip Guard you listed. I think what I used came from 3M but it was along time ago and I just don't remember.

Ron :)

The business I had dealt a lot with the touch up of auto and aircraft interiors. We used the gravity feed guns and could spot touch up and area the size of a quarter. We used the 3M product to re-grain areas that were sanded smooth. It may not be the best product for wheel wells though. There are commercial products that are thicker like bedliner spray.
John

I decided I didn't like the traditional black frame so I decided to repaint my frame. My car isn't finished so it was easier for me to take down to bare frame. I also had some welding mods to do. I went with a base clear polyurathane I put a flex additive in to help the paint to be flexible for rock chips. Bermblaster

anyone know of a polyurethane that comes in a spray can?

I used POR in semi gloss black. Brushed on and it came out great! Jim

POR15 and a small brush. Cannot be any easier.

I third the vote for POR 15. great stuff. prep is a pain...but the final results are cherry.

POR 15, winter 2006 , heater blowing, lying on my back, assorted brush sizes , rag for when I got a bit sloppy...CD's blaring away !!

OK - I plead ignorance - what's POR 15? No brush marks with this stuff when you brush it on?

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...http://www.por15.com/


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no, it looks thin when you brush it on, but flows like crazy so it looks like it was sprayed when it dries. but do not put too many coats, it does build up quick and gets brush marks after the second coat. if you are using it in areas that get sun, an additional covering is needed to protect against UV.

Do places sell this locally, or you have to do mail order? Should I use POR-15 or the Chassis Black stuff? Is the POR-15 good for suspension pieces as well?

Touching up what ever the color of your chassis is with POR 15 may look like touching up your Guards Red Porche with red fingernailpolish. :JEKYLHYDE
John

John,
I'm guessing you don't care for the stuff?

I don't know anything about the stuff. I've heard it is very good, but are you going to repaint the entire frame? If you are going to just touchup the nicks and scrapes finding a "sheen" that will match the existing black is more important. Just my opinion.
John

some places do carry it, but I found it just as easy to order and it is about the same price either way...get a mix pack if you want to try a little of each....and a little goes a LONG way. only 2 days and it was at my door. I bought one of their mix packs. I did the por-15 for 2 coats on the frame in my engine bay and then did the chassis coat for the UV protection..and honestly, I should have done 2 coats of POR and quit. the last chassis coat did not look as nice...maybe because it was from build up with 2 coats under it. I figured that maybe I needed the UV protection from the chassis coat with car shows in parking lots, so I put it on. did not totally screw it up, but looked better with just the POR 15 on it. I would try a small segement of each on an undersided surface and see what you think. by a bunch of cheap hair brushes....don't use synthetic....made that mistake as well. and then toss them, do not even try to clean them. buy rubber or plastic gloves to keep this off your hands,, hell to clean off. I suggest getting more smaller containers and not the larger ones....and poor some into a container to paint from....immediately put the rest in a baby food jar or similar and make sure you put a piece or wax paper or similar between the lid and the jar. you will never get the lid off once it seal on if you don't have some type of barrier. I think I used a side of a zip lock bag. I also used the zip lock bag on one of the small cans and just put it between the lid and the can and hammered it back on tight...that worked. Also, do not do the prep solvents in the garage, cause they have to be hosed off and that is a pain. I did all the prep steps and caused a huge mess in the garage. when you start, have the car on the wheels so when it is time, you can roll it outside to hose the chemicals off and let it dry...then roll it back into the garage and paint. So, small cans, not the large....rubber gloves....disposable brushes (get a few different sizes) and know that the prep has to be thouroghly rinsed off. Good luck

Buzz