Spray Painting Begins

31 May 2013

I had a day off work to get on with the painting.

The last thing I want is to let any oxidation get established on this bare metal.

So it was off to Orinos in Pafos for primer / filler and top coat paints both are acrylic two pack.

I already had the etch primer.

€70 lighter it was back home to get cracking.

From the left it is etch primer, middle is primer / filler and right is the white top coat.

The little tin with the red top is acrylic thinner, the big white plastic container is a US gallon of cellulose thinner.

Whilst cleaning up, I noticed that cellulose thinner burns the back of my hands but not the front. At this point I put on some latex gloves which promptly melted. Then I found and used my "everything proof" rubber gloves. Better late than never.

The mask I'm using is not that good, I'll have to find something better. Mind you, I shouldn't have any trouble with rusty lungs!

Although all the grey stuff looks like it is painted, this is actually the bare metal, the green being the etch primer.

It is amazing how time consuming painting fiddly little parts is compared to flat panels. As 95% of the job is small parts, frame etc. this is going to take a lot longer than I thought.

At 3.30pm Sheena suggests I knock it on the head for today. Excellent idea, down to the Giraffe Bar for a few pints of Beacon bitter. I needed to wash the overspray down with something.

Everblast Yiannis Returns The Scooter Parts

Thursday 30 May 2013

Here are before and after pictures of the engine. I should be able to cut down my Swarfega use now!

You can see a bit of the nice clean blasted frame with the engine, here's a better photo below

 

 

All this new metal gagging for a coat of etch primer

Thanks Yiannis for doing a blasted good job.

It's off to Pafos tomorrow to get some good thinners and possibly some top coat as well

It has been a while since the last post but here we go again

Hello again blogees, it has been about 5 weeks since I had chance to devote time to blogging and work on the scooter generally. (Busy damp proofing our house, helped by Queen of the Kangos, my one and only wife, Sheena).

Enough of all that, here are the side panels ready to go to Yiannis the blaster with whom I have managed to make contact again. It turns out my house is a black spot for mobile reception so when he calls me it goes to "phone not available"

He sat in the village for 15 minutes trying to contact me and collect the bits last week.

The blue panels came with the scooter, I added the scratches, see earlier post.

As far as I know, they are the LI style as opposed to the SX, but I read somewhere that the Innocenti factory would sometimes release new scooters with whatever panels they had enough of at the time. As Wikipedia would say, some validation needed on that.

The new SX style panels are in grey primer, although I will have them blasted anyway as they are a bit scruffy. These I bought from a guy called Roger in Hitchin.

His name is Roger, not Roger in Hitchin, that sounded a bit medieval when I read it over.

Moving on, he tells me he made his own stamping mould and presses them himself. Not cheap at 100 quid each but what can you do. I couldn't find them anywhere else.

It was pure luck that I found Roger while I was on holiday in Stevenage, as Hitchin is only about six miles away.

The new panels fit extremely well with only minimal adjustment needed so there you go, it was worth it.

 

These are the parts going off to Yiannis (spare wheel rims missing from photo but they're going as well)

 

38 pieces altogether. I hope to get 38 back :-)

 

The plan is to soda blast the engine (baking soda that is) as this is the most gentle form, suitable for delicate old bits particularly aluminium.

 

The rest will be plastic bead blasted.

 

At long last, the car is loaded with the Lammy and off to Yiannis (Friday 24 May)

All being well I should get it back this week and crack on with the etch priming.