Chassis Preparation and Painting

[JamieA]

After a long hiatus, I have managed to get back to rebuilding my Austin Seven. I am currently starting on the chassis which needs a couple of minor repairs, but otherwise just needs cleaning and painting.

Due to cost, sending it off to be blasted is not an option. Instead, I anticipate cleaning the chassis up with wire brushes on the angle grinder, along with scrapers and anything else that I can get into the nooks and crannies. Most of the chassis is made from open section top-hat-shaped sections, but I am conscious, though, that there are some sections that will be difficult to clean as thoroughly as I would like. I do have a small sand-blasting gun that I picked up. I had wondered about using that, with the right type of grit, for the inaccessible spots. The mess puts me off, though.

I was wondering what other people do about these areas and what sort of treatment they use to prevent rusting, prior to painting. I intend to use some sort of chassis black paint, but I am not sure which one yet.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

James.

 

[ajlelectronics]

After a long hiatus, I have managed to get back to rebuilding my Austin Seven. I am currently starting on the chassis which needs a couple of minor repairs, but otherwise just needs cleaning and painting.

Due to cost, sending it off to be blasted is not an option. Instead, I anticipate cleaning the chassis up with wire brushes on the angle grinder, along with scrapers and anything else that I can get into the nooks and crannies. Most of the chassis is made from open section top-hat-shaped sections, but I am conscious, though, that there are some sections that will be difficult to clean as thoroughly as I would like. I do have a small sand-blasting gun that I picked up. I had wondered about using that, with the right type of grit, for the inaccessible spots. The mess puts me off, though.

I was wondering what other people do about these areas and what sort of treatment they use to prevent rusting, prior to painting. I intend to use some sort of chassis black paint, but I am not sure which one yet.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

James.

Use the wire brush to remove as much as possible, but then abrade at the final stages if not earlier, to 120-180 grit to prepare for epoxy primer.

 

[8ob]

A needle gun is a bit of a gem when it comes to chassis cleaning.

Bob

 

[MetalMonkey]

A needle scaller is a useful but noisy tool to get the worst of the flaky rust out of odd corners. An old screwdriver you can scrape and chip with comes in handy too.
Blasting is really the best approach, but you will find it very slow going with a hand held gun.

Jotun 87 is a good epoxy for coating underbody - then go over it with an underseal or topcoat depending on the finish you want.

 

[Roger440]

Id be using a needle scaler rather than a wirewheel. Wirewheels just polish the rust rather than remove it. Just looks like you have.

Seriously, blasting a seven chassis is not going to be remotely expensive Theres not exactly a lot of it!

Ive just taken my Atlas chassis(s) for blasting. Probably about twice as much to blast as yours. I can post up how much it was in three weeks when i collect it?

 

[RWD3M]

Id be using a needle scaler rather than a wirewheel. Wirewheels just polish the rust rather than remove it. Just looks like you have.

Seriously, blasting a seven chassis is not going to be remotely expensive Theres not exactly a lot of it!

Ive just taken my Atlas chassis(s) for blasting. Probably about twice as much to blast as yours. I can post up how much it was in three weeks when i collect it?

View attachment 485900

I have to agree. If you can afford to restore an Austin 7, you can afford to have the chassis blasted.

Where in the country are you Jamie? maybe someone here can suggest somewhere local to you.

 

[bricol]

Br careful with wire brushes in angle grinders (not only from the flying bits of wires as they come loose - they will punch through layers of thick clothing with ease - proper eye and face protection is essential) - you end up with a clean looking, shiny, apparently clean metal . . . but often if you dray something sharp across it, like the corner of a flat bladed screwdriver, you will leave an orange line.

You have cleaned a lot of rubbish away, but polished the surface left, hiding the fact it's still rusty.

I found a local blasting guy by talking to a local one man band paint shop - I had him blast a few things for me. He was worried he had over-charged me for blasting my Alfa sub-frame as it took him a couple of minutes to do. I pointed out I had had him do it as the price he asked for, and regardless how long it took him, it had saved me hours of scraping, wire brushing, spot-blasting etc and done a better job than I could do, so it was money well spent.

 

[marlinspike]

@KimB bought a needle gun, which if you have a decent compressor might be the thing.

Needle gun

I have the needle gun bellow which is okay but it’s quite heavy handed. Like fettling a watch with a club hammer. I’m after something more refined and controlled. We have a blue point one at work which is much smaller and seems so much more user friendly. Obviously they don’t make them but are...

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