Respraying headlight stays - help required

[Dicky]

I am about to embark on tarting up my horribly rusty headlight stays and need some help.

 

Can anyone recommend a good paint that does not cost the earth, and is a good match for the black satin type finish on there at the moment ?

Also any recommendations on rust proofing undercoat ?

Any tips on setting the lights up again once they have been removed from the car. I know that I will need to get the lights re MOT'd but is it better to adjust the actual stay or the headlight itself ?

 

Any and all help gratefully received from people who might have done this before.

 

Regards

 

Dicky

[Big Brother]

Dicky,

I've tried many types of paint and came to the following conclsions:

 

Hammerite Smooth is OK providing you prepare the surface thouroughly, however its not resistant to stone chips and at the front of the car is a waste of time.

 

POR-15 is a lot more durable but does cost more - it lasts for ages so in the long run will work out cheaper.

 

As the headlight stays can be removed from the car - have you thought of getting them re-powdercoated?

Most finishing companies will do small items like your headlight stays for next to nothing.

If your not in too much of a rush this is the route I would recommend. The bonus is that part of the process used to powdercoat your wingstays will be "sand blasted" so you will get a really good finish.

 

FWIW I used POR-15 on my chassis and all the removeable parts were powdercoated locally.

 

Steve

 

 

SE7EN-UP!

Incorporating the Caterham Links Database

[Beelzebub]

I'd recommend having them powder coated. If you're going to do them yourself "3M" do a paint called "BODY GUARD" (08158) that's easy to put on, is chip resistant & comes up to a nice flat finish. Similar to the finish on Caterham "blackpack" 😬

[Dicky]

BTTT

 

Thanks guys. My car is 7 years old, were the stays powdercoated back then ? It looks more like paint to me....

 

If so, do you know anywhere in the Surrey area that will re powdercoat them for me ?

 

Any one else have any ideas ?

 

Cheers

 

Dicky

[Shaun_E]

I would recommend going the powder coat route but if you want to paint them yourself then Halfords sell everything you need. Clean the old paint off with a drill/wirebrush or sand to a good finish. If there is significant rust then you'll need to treat with Cure-rust or similar. You need to sand again to get a decent finish. Now spray with Halfords zinc primer - a couple of coats does the job. For a really good finish allow 24 hours and then lightly sand with fine (1200 grit) sandpaper. Finally a couple of coats of Halfords satin black paint - the satin black is a very good match to rest of the powder coated bits on a Seven.

 

Yellow SL #32