Painting Alloy Parts

[svenedin]

First let me start out by saying that my car is never going to be a concours car (far from it) as long as it's in my possession.

I do try to restore things as well as I can and to keep things as original as possible unless I feel there is a compelling reason not to. What is a compelling reason to me may of course not be a good reason for others.

There is a quite a lot of aluminium alloy. Examples include: thermostat housing, oil filter head, starter motor and dynamo end brackets, and some solid replacement pulleys are alloy too as well as big items like the gearbox casing. Obviously, parts such as SU carburettors and distributors are not painted but often the alloy parts are painted in BMC/MOWOG green like the rest of the engine. I usually see these painted alloy parts with the paint falling off and looking worse than if they had not been painted at all.

My personal leaning is not to bother painting alloy parts. What do other people think?

Stephen

[philthehill]

You never see self etch primer under the paint flaking from alloy parts especially BMC alloy parts.
Use a self etch primer and the top coat paint will not flake off.
There are various self etch primers for alloy on 'e' bay and at various prices too.
For example:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/123348775903 ... R8bf_Za8Yw
or
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/123348775903 ... R8bf_Za8Yw
as sold by ESM (out of stock with ESM).
I tend to not paint alloy as I like the look of bare alloy.

[svenedin]

Thanks Phil. Indeed, I have never seen primer under any engine parts.

I also prefer the look of unpainted alloy but I don't like the white "bloom' that quite quickly covers the parts. For metal parts of the cases of my antique clocks I tend to use Renaissance Wax. This was developed by the British Museum in the 1950's to preserve metal objects. It is very expensive but perhaps something similar would keep the finish of alloy car parts looking good.

Stephen