Painting hardware

[mjahn]

Quick question on painting frames. Is there a consensus on painting hardware that bolts into the frame? Painting all the nuts and bolts definitely looks more prototypical and appeals to my rivet counting tendencies (I promise I only count my own!) but chipped paint on hardware looks pretty bad, especially if it's shiny stainless underneath and I know of one staunch rivet counter who chose the non-painted option. Any opinions guys?

Thanks!

[SteveM]

Maybe a black oxide finish? Covers the shiny stuff, but won't chip. You can get chemicals to do that at most firearms products distributors.

On some parts, powder coating may be an option, although it tends to cover details, as it is pretty thick.

Steve

[Dan Rowe]

Paint is used full scale to prevent corrosion making something look pretty is not the main reason for paint.

I chipped a whole lot of paint maintaining machinery on merchant ships deck machinery was the worst as it had lots of paint and most of the time required a flame wrench.

On the model engines I have built I painted before assembly and left the bolts bright, but for a frame I would consider the maintenance path before I choose to paint or not. If the accessory will have to be removed to make routine maintenance simple then I would not paint the bolts after assembly.

Dan

[Bruce_Mowbray]

I have done some work for Symbol Technologies (R) in the past. All stainless steel hardware and machined parts and it had to be black. I purchased a kit from Caswell Plating 370 Blackener for making stainless black. Worked great and was easy to use.

[kenrinc]

For me, I just paint it all. I plate parts for my other hobby, auto restoration, and it's just such a pain and often the parts can be "not quite black" so for me personally, I don't bother. Assuming the frame and chassis are together, you may need to at least remove the spring rigging and paint it individually to get coverage. For my A3 I hung the completed frame and shot epoxy. The spring rigging I did separately also with epoxy. Since the epoxy I use is black, I then put everything together spray them all with topcoat at once. In some instances, I had painted the bolt heads separately. I don't really care about the "chipped paint" problem as that can be touched up in the field. Most full size on display locomotives are liberaly coated with paint which probably isn't prototypical but helps it stand the elements but having said that it does help to take a look at the prototype, especially the frames. Crawl underneath and look around, it's pretty primitive. The vast majority that I've seen, every little nut and bolt is covered in paint.

Ken-

[Bill Shields]

if you cook your hardware good and hot in a pan over an open flame, then dump it into some dirty old oil, it all turns black and doesn't need to be painted - nor does it chip off easily.

If you wife has a sensitive nose - suggest you do this OUTSIDE...

[Postwarbob]

Bill What burner on the wifes stove do u use ? LOL

[Bill Shields]

back on the right

you should hear her scream when I put a bmw motorcycle transmission in the oven to get it to 300 degrees to fit bearings.

says it makes dinner taste like 90 w grear oil for a month.

SOUNDS GOOD TO ME...

[Greg_Lewis]

Not quite on topic, but Reno area live steamer Cal Tinkham worked in the Sparks shops during the end of the steam era. He once told me that they had one guy whose job it was to paint the outshopped engines. He used a Hudson sprayer and just walked around and sprayed the engine with it. Seems one of the other workers was bending over working on something and was in the way. The spray guy just walked on by and the other guy's overalls ended up with a black behind.

[mjahn]

I know these machines were for utility, throwing paint over the hardware made sense... Keep it from rusting. But with us, if you ever have to take anything off you've got tooling marks and your starting to rust tiny hardware. Conversely, if you use ss, then it's like the scratched hardware says "hi I'm here!" except it's only half way so it looks crummy. I've tried field reprinting on rail cars but it's like the touch up paint just fades away with time. That makes sense since its not applied properly like the original coat was.

[Mark in Modesto]

I know a lot of people who swear by this stuff, and none who swear AT it:

http://www.por15.com/


Their products aren't cheap, but I've used several with excellent results.



Hope that helps,

Mark in Modesto

[Bill Shields]

agreed - it is good stuff for locos and the insides of motorcycle tanks.

they have a self-etching primer if I remember correctly.

Don't forget about the alternative of powder coating larger surfaces.

did my tender that way and it's really great.