How to paint OEM strut braces, E86

T

tee.gilding

Active member
 Hampshire
Hey all, looking for a little advice on how to paint the OEM strut braces on my E86.

I purchased a pair of OEM braces off another member and attempted to give them a spray with some brake caliper paint on the weekend. They arrived last week so set aside some time over the bank holiday weekend to prepare and paint them.

I rubbed them down with some 800-grit paper to key the surface without scratching the paintwork up too much, gave them a wipe with some white spirit, then gave them a light spray. I've done a small amount of spraying metal parts in the past and never really had any troubles. I'm happy with my technique that it doesn't cause runs, and I always do my best to eradicate any dust from the surface.

Within seconds the surface had gone really splotchy in numerous places where the sanding had not taken out imperfections in the surface. It looked crap, to put it bluntly. So I quickly wiped it off before it had a chance to dry and now I'm looking for advice as to how best to approach the re-attempt.

I'm thinking, either:
- applying an etch primer first, then re-spraying, or,
- sending them off to get powder coated.

Any other recommendations or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thoughts??
 
Sounds like 'fisheyes' caused by silicone contamination. I wash/wipe parts down with petrol and clean rags. Make sure your 800 grit is also clean and uncontaminated :thumbsup:
 
It’ll be the white spirit causing the problem no? It’s a paint cleaner so any residue will affect the paint adhering. Alcohol then a tack rag or panel wipe would be better AFAIK.
 
Agree with the above, you have some form of contamination from somewhere. I've used white spirit as a panel wipe multiple times before and had no issues (although its not the most ideal of decon wipes as it needs to completely evaporate which can take a while).

I don't like caliper paint as from my experience its always crap. Powder coated would be my vote, should only cost around 40 quid for a good job.
 
john-e89 said:
It’ll be the white spirit causing the problem no? It’s a paint cleaner so any residue will affect the paint adhering. Alcohol then a tack rag or panel wipe would be better AFAIK.
Click to expand...

I would agree with john-e89: the white spirit is not an ideal cleaning agent if you then want to spray paint
 
Thanks for the feedback guys. I'll get hold of some isopropyl alcohol this weekend and give it another go. If the paint is genuinely crap it'll show up, but where it wasn't reacting it looked good decent, so I think the paint itself should be okay. If all else fails, I'll sand them back again and get them powder coated.
 
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