Hey everyone. Today i was coating some parts for the DA and decided that it would be a good idea to wirte up a small tutorial forthose who may be clueless when it comes to this.
First of all i want to say POR-15 is no ordinary paint. It cures quicker in humidity, moisture is the catalyst that cures POR-15 to its nearly inpenetrable state. IF you get it on your hands/clothes/property it WILL NOT COME OFF. Make sure you have everything ready and have enough time to do it all in one run, because topcoating cured POR-15 is a bitch.
Materials
POR-15 system including Marine Clean, Metal Ready, your POR-15 and one of their topcoats. I use Chassiscoat Black.
Newspaper, Paper plates, Paper towels and plastic wrap.
Dowels or skewers to make part stands
Cheap metal baking tins
Cheap plastic bristle brushes
Nitrile gloves
First you want to gather all the parts you want to coat. Do small batches at a time. Here im doing both shock forks, the shock fork bolts, brakeline brackets and bolts, the metal heater valve parts and misc. hose clamps.
You want as little factory coating on the parts as possible. You can use a brass wheel brush like i have in the pic to get the loose scale off the parts, but i also used a wire wheel on a benchtop grinder to get the stubborn stuff. you can clean out any threaded bolt holes with a firearm bore cleaning brush.
Next you want to degrease your parts. Use gloves because MarineClean leaves a nasty feeling film on your hands. You can use a bucket and hose but i just used the sink. Have your brush handy and start rinsing/scrubbing the parts. Then take one of your spray bottles (they come with every bottle of MarineClean/MetalReady) and put about 3/4 hot water in it and fill the rest with MarineClean. Spray the parts with the mixture and scrub them clean, then rinse them off and set them aside to dry.
Now your ready to use Metal Ready to prep your parts to be coated. Metal Ready will dissolve some ofthe loose rust and etch the metal of the parts, leaving a zinc oxide residue behind thats perfect for painting over. Place your dried parts in the metal tins andfill a spray bottle with full strength (non diluted) MetalReady.
Then spray them with the MetalReady, keeping them wet for about 30 minutes.
After the 30 minutes is up you want to rinse all the parts off again and let them dry. As they dry youll notice theyll have a light gray powdery residue on them. You want this on the parts, it is good to see that residue.
After the parts are dry youre ready to coat them. Put your gloves on and mask your work area. VERY carefully open a can of POR-15. The lids tend to be on very tight and they will pop open if youre not careful, spilling some paint. Now pour some out onto a paper plate or into a mason jar whatever you prefer. Immediately cover the can with plastic wrap and put the lid back on. If you just dip into the can your paint shelf life dramatically drops and the plastic wrap prevents the can from sealing itself.
Rig up some part stands, be creative. Brush on light coats, Once the first is “tacky” brush on another. POR recommends 2 coats for general use, 3 for industrial or marine applications.
This is where im at with my project. Ill complete the tutorial tomorow after the rest of the steps are done. Thanks for reading!
