Chassis Paint?

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Leaping Deer

Leaping Deer

Joined
Dec 15, 2005
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Location
Whitinsville, MA
Does anyone have any suggestions for a good chassis paint.

I'm going to be sand blasting my frame, then prime it then paint it. I have a gallon of the professional rustolum but didn't know if anyone else had other suggestions.
 
POR 15 seems to be the drug of choice these days
 
Rust bullet, Zero Rust, POR-15 or just a good epoxy primer(PPG, Sikens, Shrewin Williams, etc.) works well, especially over freshly blasted steel.
 
I plan on using blasting the frame, etching it with a product with Phosphoric acid and then priming with zero rust. You then need to top coat but I was concerned that the rustolium might be a little soft.
 
On the cheap end, you can use Rustoleum's chassis paint...was $54 a gallon last time I looked at Walmart.

I have used the SEM Rust sealer in black. It is twice as expensive per gallon but hard as crap after 3 weeks of curing.
 
vtcruiser60 said:
I have used the SEM Rust sealer in black. It is twice as expensive per gallon but hard as crap after 3 weeks of curing.
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Did you brush it on or spray it on? Did you thin it? Did you prime it first or just go directly over metal?
 
POR 15 has chassis-coat black which is a gloss topcoat that won't fade
 
Leaping Deer said:
Did you brush it on or spray it on? Did you thin it? Did you prime it first or just go directly over metal?
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The pigment or other paint material is dense, so stirring is needed. I took my can to Ace hardware on two occasions and had them shake it for me. By the time I had a third of a can remaining (after 1 year of occasional use), I had to top it up with a Lacquer thinner. I painted with a brush, but it can be sprayed apparently. It wets down easily and looks great.

Oh...it is an etching paint, meant to cover directly over rust and bond nicely. No primer is needed with this SEM product.
 
Leaping Deer said:
I plan on using blasting the frame, etching it with a product with Phosphoric acid and then priming with zero rust. You then need to top coat but I was concerned that the rustolium might be a little soft.
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I'm not sure you need to etch it with acid after blasting. The blasting alone will etch the metal. I've never used zero rust but similar products require etching and bonding primer coats before topcoating. Make sure you use the correct products in-between or you will be doing it twice!

I would stay clear of Rust-O-Leum products. It's been my experience that they don't have the chemical resistance needed for a chassis application. I would also stay clear of POR-15 chassis black top coat. It sprays like garbage, stays kinda soft, and doesn't look great.

I used POR-15 followed by etching primer, followed by POR-15 tie-coat primer, followed by Eastwood Extreme chassis black. The Eastwood product is extremely durable and sprays like a dream. It even comes in spray cans if you're sprayer-impaired.

I've also had great luck with the SEM rust shield mentioned above. It's pretty much the same thing as POR-15.

Something else to keep in mind: I only used POR-15 because there was no way I was going to get ALL the rust off the frame with my sandblaster. There was a little left over (but significantly reduced) in those tough-to-access areas. I simply would have used a good quality primer & paint combo if I was confident I could get all of the rust off.
 
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I only have experience with Eastwood's Chassis Black. Its a little too glossy for my tast, I'm more of a satin black guy myself. The paint itself needed a lot of thinning to spray it well even though its supposed to be ready to spray out of the gallon can.

DSC00010_sm.jpg


I am a big fan of PPG DP90T epoxy primer. Great stuff and sprays well.
 
foxfab said:
I only have experience with Eastwood's Chassis Black. Its a little too glossy for my tast, I'm more of a satin black guy myself. The paint itself needed a lot of thinning to spray it well even though its supposed to be ready to spray out of the gallon can.

I am a big fan of PPG DP90T epoxy primer. Great stuff and sprays well.
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The chassis black also comes in satin. I also noticed that it didn't seem thin enough. I had to bump the pressure up a bit to spray it.
 
I went to the paint parts store (when I redid a chassis for a friend) and asked them what they would recommend. The paint was an SEM chassis black, and was around $40 a gallon. It was the industrial single stage, and needed a little hardener and thinner. All total was around $75, and I shot the chassis, some other parts, and two PTO winches-including vtcruiser60's. Shot great, and all in all was darn cheap.
 
rabid said:
I went to the paint parts store (when I redid a chassis for a friend) and asked them what they would recommend. The paint was an SEM chassis black, and was around $40 a gallon. It was the industrial single stage, and needed a little hardener and thinner. All total was around $75, and I shot the chassis, some other parts, and two PTO winches-including vtcruiser60's. Shot great, and all in all was darn cheap.
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A minor point....but it is my understanding that hardener simply accelerates the cure time for paints, it does not actually produce a final product that is "harder" in any way. If you have a need to speed up the cure time, a hardener makes sense.
 
the bastard upsold me....dammit!

:)
 
found a few pics of the winches...no pics of the chassis I can find.
keiran winch.jpg
keiran winch 2.jpg
 
Just one other note. I saw your mention of a phosphoric acid treatment. I went the cheap route and used a concrete etcher. It needs to be washed off...like with a hose. If you don't get the chassis dry soon (in the sun or a heated garage) soon thereafter, you will get flash rust again. The phosphoric acid is a major degreaser (and grass killer). If I had to do it again, I wouldn't let the etcher sit on the frame as long and probably would just spring for the proper solvant (like Evaporust).

Good luck...
 
no need to etch the frame after blasting. The local blasting guy does frames all the time and he says that a good quality paint after blasting is all that you need.

BTW, POR-15 isn't UV safe and a top coat should be sprayed on if any part of it sees the sun.
 
Pulled the trigger and ordered a gallon of the SEM Rust Shield and hardner.
 
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