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I have archival photos of the St. Louis Corvette assembly plant, circa 1962. New Corvette bodies being spray painted with Lacquer.........and not a mask or respirator in sight.

Ahhhhhhhhhh, what a high !!!!!!

I use Mar-Hyde single stage self etching primer on all my bare aluminum after a glass bead and thorough cleaning with a lab glassware cleaner called Alconox and have had super results when top coated with Rustoleum enamel. Sometime I bake after top coating, sometimes I don't but it does take a long time to completely dry if not baked.

I have also used a product called Alumaprep which is an etch/cleaner for aluminum. Alodine also works well on billet and rolled aluminum but not so well on cast. I like the self etching primer the best and it is very light gray, almost white so it is a good base coat for the Rustoleum top coat.

I have had very good results with this process.
My 2 cents,
Scott

I was asking similar questions on a saw forum for the restoation of a couple of my saws. Aluminum needs extra prep before painting, and my saw has a little rash on the bottum side of the Fan Housing, I was asking how to fix this for a perfect finish. This is what one guy said.

"Now then if you want a show room finish on that shroud first clean the aluminum with "tripple etch " .to chemically treat the metal then give it a couple coats of zinc oxide primer .After which built the low spots up with multiple coats of red oxide primer sanding every several coats to bring the built up down to the original base metal finish .---or use finish body filler which in essence is just primer in a thicker form . A lot of trouble for a saw but if that's what is desired ,go for it .

You could make that old saw shine like a new penny but then you wouldn't want to use it . "

Hope that helps

Justin

Either JB Weld or Hi Temp Lab Metal will fill that rash very well. Either sands fine, and either can be painted and baked or powdercoated. They come out as well as Bondo for painting, but are a lot more durable. Lab Metal needs to be baked before paint/powdercoat. I just finished a first gen Mc5 flywheel shroud that way, and it looks great, and I will be able to run it like it was new. Bead blast before putting on the filler. TJ

Prime well as it does paint a little different.

Guys,

Here is what I used for paint. I think it's about as close as you can get. You will be able to see the color at TBO.

The kart was sprayed first with a sealer (approx. 2 coats to make sure it was covered) and then primed 2 coats with a white primer. Then it was painted yellow with 3 coats and then clear coated with 2 coats.

The finish was applied over a sand blasted kart. We blasted the frame after welding without the floor pans to keep them from warping. Then the floor pans were welded in place and a light pressure sand blast was used to give the complete frame the same texture.

I decided to make the finish bright because our show karts have chrome and other stuff to make them look better than the original kart was produced.

The paint brand was R-M and the web site is basfrefinish.com. R-M is one of the brands they sell. You can enter your area code and the site will give you local body shops that have the R-M brand. I would think that you could buy the mix from your shop and paint it at home if that's what you want to do.

We tested many different mixes and finally decided on 10 parts of #655 yellow and 1 part of #670 yellow. The body shops will have the paint in their rack because they are standard and used frequently.

BASF is one of the major chemical companies and the R-M brand is used by most body shops in our area.

See you at TBO and the kart will also be at Quincy.

Dick Teal