Engine paint question.
 

I want to paint my Mercury/B&M 420 Blowers. They are currently black. Want to change that. I wont be rattle canning them, they will be painted in a spray booth.

I plan to paint them White. I would like to know what paint/clear will work best, not turn yellow, and be resistant to gas, and clean up well. What would you guys recommend?

the toughest would be awlgrip.

Hey Kris, anyone ever use Imron for engine paint?

I use automotive paint all the time, PPG, Dupont, just use a good primer, self etching for alum. The paint will not burn until over 300 degrees. I would be worried about white paint, discoloring with any heat source. But; I don't know that for 100%..

See ya, Merry Christmas!

That's my worry is the yellowing. Especially with gasoline if I spill some while changing carb jets or whatever. I figure though, with white cars, parked in the sun out in las vegas, must see some intense surface temps. I never felt my blowers being really hot, as in couldn't touch them. Merry Christmas to you Mark

Here in AZ they have several testing facilities for the OEM's(I regularly visit them for code inspections). They test plastics, a Miriad of paints and coatings. All of the test panels articulate with the sun in order to ensure a full day of Arizona sun exposure. My thoughts are as follows, the new automotive paints seem to do just fine with gasoline exposure(constant spilling from filling your tank at the gas station) and like mark mentioned above, if it's not over 300 degrees, it shouldn't be a problem. Granted it will have more exposure to fuel in your application, but these new base/clear paints seem to be hardly phased by gasoline in general.

Nason single stage enamel is very strong and CHEAP :)

joe,,shame on you for not calling me,:party-smiley-004:,i paint ALL the engines i do with Imron..bring them over and we can hose them down with the white color you want..you don't need clear for a solid color but if you want that deep look then we can clear them as well..

I have used Imron. The problem that I found is that it's a little too hard and some want to crack eventually. The other issue is that you don't have the benefit of clear. You can use it if you want. but it doesn't require it. The newer high solid clears will give you a ton more protection than a single stage Imron.

The key is using good products. If you use an acid etch primer, be sure to remove ALL paint first. If not, you will be sorry. The acid will eat into the remaining paint and lift it. Once it lifts, it all comes off. Acid etch primer is awesome....you just have to use it correctly. You can also use an epoxy primer is you aren't going to strip them. You don't have to strip them if they are in good shape. You can just scuff them and shoot. Blend in any chips so they don't show though, if it has any.

I put on a bunch of material. I'll shoot 2-3 coats of primer, 3 coats of color, and 3 coats of clear. Good materials are expensive though. On average, I'll spend at least 200-300 per engine in materials only. I shoot a lot of House of Kolor, which runs about $120 a quart. I recently shot some Sikkens that was over $200/quart, along with a pearl base maker that was almost $300/quart. I had over $1000 in materials alone. I was matching a color from TAOD and wanted to stick with the same stuff.

Give me a shout I can help. I'm certainly no paint expert, but I've painted a few engines. Most body shop supply stores are more than willing to help. That's where I learned a lot of what I know about paints.
Eddie

Call Arnies paint supply in joliet. These guys have built there business from the ground over the last 20 years... And they know the chit when it comes to paint.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Arnie...48733968505094

IMRON is the only way to go but I would use ppg epoxy wet on wet. Done it for years. Problem is imron cost has gone through the roof. Just finished recertification with DuPont last year and love the product I use it on boats we do and spies hecker. But no one can come close to dp series epoxy from ppg. Pm me and I can walk you thru it if you need help.

I would go imron elite series.

yes.

The white base doesn't matter to much. Put a good clear over it - the clear is what yellows.

After all my stuff gets polished I`m hitting it with this: http://www.durafortress.com/



Dura Fortress™ is not a just another clear coat, promising years of protection and not delivering. Dura Fortress™ is nano-scale, water clear, indelible, protection for your parts. With a thickness of only a few mils, you avoid layers and layers of build up like a traditional clear.here is no yellowing, T no cracking, no break in the protection barrier. This barrier prevents brake dust, dirt, grime, and anything else you can throw at it from sticking to the base material, which means effortless clean up, and beautifully protected parts!

what do you recommend for a fresh water drive that doesnt stay in the water?

Well their you go the man has spoken lol..

How about some pearl on top so they shimmer when you are parked at the dock?

Stimleck I would still use imron or sand it down and polishing them looks good. Another one we used a long time ago was jetglo. It was good stuff we used on planes but very expensive.

then he would have to go with house of color paint..base white,,then 2 coats of clear then the pearl or flip flop then clear again,,that is about 5-6 hundred in materials...

You can get pearl for all clears.... Just a powder ya toss i your gun. HOK is over rated. Jon Komsomol is just a good sales man. When I was younger I sat and listened to that guy talk smack and be down right disrespectful to the guys that would be using has products. I truly believe there many better paint lines out there...... HOK is %90 hype

I use HOK for their "different" color selections.

I think I am leaning towards the epoxy primer, and scuffing the current finish. They are in really nice shape as is . I think I am just going to go with a quality automotive paint/clear combo. Don't need it to be a show piece, lets face it, its a vintage B&M blower.

Lots of good info on this thread, thanks guys! BTW, this is the engine that got me horny about doing this

That white combo is kick a$$.

I figured that when you said that you wanted to go white on the blower. I assumed that is where you got the idea.
Good luck with it.
Eddie

Do those have a matte finish to them.... If not I think that would look great too. If ya loom at the blowers then the valve covers... The covers have a different look.

Would powder coat be an option?

Thunder always used BC/CC on all the motors I painted, restored classic cars, custom cars, boats...used HOC, DuPont, PPG, even Nason, never had a problem....here's a few I painted [ATTACH=CONFIG]515300[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]515301[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]515302[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]515303[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]515304[/ATTACH]

Looks great man. Whats your preferred choice of the ones you mentioned here?

PPG base coat, they also have a custom color line called Vibrance, the clear is PPG 2021 or 4000

That's pretty impressive Joe . Beautiful work . Did you used to come to Raystown with a boat named " Shake-N-Bake " ?

Lots of great info here! Anybody use POR15? I used it on my small block in a street truck and on machines at work with great success. And it held up well to even in a trough full of cutting fluid. (Crankshaft grinding)

Thanks Deep, that's Boomer35 Cig " Shake-N-Bake " , it's the sistership to mine he lives in Jax. Florida. I think one of the previous owner to him lived in the NE... The last time I was at Raystown was in 1988, probably changed a lot since then. I had a 24' Checkmate Enforcer, with TRS drive 468 chevy bigblock and NOS injection:evilb: hope to have mine finished this year, I have been working on it for, well it will be 3 year's in May, it time to see if she's going to float... I would like to come to that poker run up there this year...Joe

What's the paint used to paint Cummins for marine apps? That seems to hold up well w/O yellowing.

I always like the HOK because of the airbrushing I did. But I would only use the colors, and KK concentrates, always used PPG primers and clears. Like someone said, you can add pearl powered to any clear, or even the base for a less dramatic effect.

I assume most know that Valspar has owned HOK for a while now.

If you guy's are looking to add a little zing to your paint, like I did. check out, http://www.paintwithpearl.com/ they have all the flake, candy pearl's, ghost pearl's and so on, that you add to your own paint, and its cheap. A package of pearl is like $10. I myself used their deep purple micro flake. I first primed the motor with PPG Epoxy primer (2-3 coats) then PPG Glossy Black Base (2-3 coats) then hung the deep purple micro flake in 2-3 coats of PPG Clear Mid coat and finally Cleared it with PPG. The Micro flake is NOT old school flake like on a bass boat, its only .004 and it looks the best shot over black base.
you can go their facebook and check out some pic's my purple motor is there. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater that picture is when it was done all in the boat, but you can't really see the effect, here is when I first painted it and not really put together but you can see more effect.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theater
Happy Painting

Thanks for that captain.

Sooooooooo anyone else besides me still have a "flake" gun?:lolhit:

Oh I forgot to mention, no special tips or guns required to spray any of the additives. I shot some of it out of a small touch up gun.

I did not know that... What year did they buy them out? I was in a custom paint class out in Laramie WY at wyo-tech in 2001 when Jon was putting on a show. Like I said he came off like a real jack ass. I don't know if he noticed the mixing room the size of most body shops on the back of the building.... But they had almost every brand of paint available. They did huge spray outs of all the brands so students could see the difference and from what I have seen if you can get the color you want out of a different brand than HOC your gonna save a lot of $$ and get the same quality. A good painter or paint shop can get you almost any color you need from any brand. A Good painter can spray any brand and make it look great with a little time behind the brand you choose but most have one they use most often and prefer. I would tell the guy shooting your parts what you want and let him pick the brand he wants.

A engine builder told me not to use POR15 on a motor.

1997.

I agree everyone gets used to a brand, my reason for using them had more to do with the ability to get small (8-12oz) of there KK's and some other colors for use in airbrushing. If I can find a small place to rent I plan on doing some work again, and at that point will look into what's out there. I do see a lot of guys using water base,,,,,, don't know if I care for that.

HoK primers and clears suck.