Hammerite on a rocker cover?

[MiniDave]

Any reason I shouldn't use spray-on hammerite to smarten up the rocker cover in the Mini? Heat resistance possibly an issue?

In an idle moment last weekend I gave the top radiator bracket a couple of coats and it's come up so well I'd like to have a matching rocker cover. Before and after:



Yeah I did the bolt heads too...

[omega]

hammerite good in the garden

bad on the car.

[omega]

hammerite good in the garden

bad on the car.

[Kieran]

No problem with temperature, you can use normal spray paint too.

Hammerite isn't rated because it takes ages to dry and is fairly brittle when cured.

[reliantreviver]

Use all the paints. Any paints. Technicolour paint by numbers.

Colour coding is for squares.

Here's a hammerite'd rocker cover for you...



I can confirm it has chipped, But not affected by the heat.

[MiniDave]

Thanks for the advice - not at all concerned about perfection - there's hammerite going spare so hammerite it is!

Feb 7, 2014 7:16:23 GMT reliantreviver said:

Use all the paints. Any paints. Technicolour paint by numbers.

Challenge accepted.

I can confirm it has chipped, But not affected by the heat.

This is what I really wanted to know. Thank you!

[MiniDave]

Feb 6, 2014 23:16:11 GMT Kieran said:

Hammerite isn't rated because it takes ages to dry and is fairly brittle when cured.

Thanks especially for this - been wondering why it gets so many people's backs up!

[retrowrongun]

It goes brittle cos people try and put it on thicker than thick stuff lol , I've found if you add a touch of thinners and thin it out a little it goes on a treat and doesn't take 4 months to dry .....
Although that being said I'm sure a rocker cover will dry it up quite quickly lol ,its enamel based so will be a little more brittle but never had any issues with it personally.

Like said elsewhere any paint will do as long as its not your nans living room magnolia haha

[Roy Royson]

I painted a brake drum with hammerite, waited a week and bolted the wheel to it and the paint cracked.
But for a rocker cover it'll be fine.

[composimmonite]

In late 70's when Hammerite first became popular I used it on all sorts of things with good results. Rocker cover, air filer housing and such were all done in nice bright red on my Triumph 1500 FWD. They lasted very well but I think the formula has changed over the years and I no longer rate it any better than other paints. The Triumph had a Thrust Sidewinder exhaust fitted with all the pipework and silencer under the chrome cover painted with the same red Hammerite. It actually only burnt off on the bends with straight sections just getting a darker "singed" colour that still held back rust.

Paul h

[darrenh]

i used hammerite smooth on 3 engine blocks so far, it did go soft the first time engine was ran up, but after a few heat cycles it was rock hard. its a synthetic enamel paint.

also used it for various ancillary parts on my land rover and deliberately baked them in spare oven at over engine block temps

[MrSpeedy]

I've painted engines with hammerite, engine laquer and basic white spirit thinable enamels.

No discernible difference between any of them ime

[cobblers]

Spray on hammerite is only good for painting over greasy rusty stuff you don't want to really clean up very well and aren't bothered if the finish is poor, and are happy to pile loads of coats on. Brush on stuff is better because it covers in less coats, if you are happy with it looking like a pensioners bathroom radiator.

Engine blocks and garden gates seem to keep them in business somehow, it's poor paint in every way apart from being OK about being lashed over any old greasy rusty mess. It will stand the heat fine, but so will celly or acrylic aerosols. They would give you a better finish, but you'd need to do much better prep.

[adam73bgt]

Back in the day, my mum painted her first car ( a mini) in silver hammerite with a brush as she didn't like it being yellow.. I can't imagine it looked too great rocker cover should be fine though

[oakesy]

My Scimitar Coupe was painted in hammerite by a PO in the 70s after they'd crashed it and badly repaired it. As I'm now tasked with the job of getting it all off, I would like to find whoever painted it and drown them in the gooey mess that heating it creates...

[rapidyellow]

never got on with hammerite and I think nowadays its far too expensive for what it is, it also has silicone in it meaning its usually tricky for other paints to stick to if ever you wanted to overpaint

[darrenh]

Any paint is only as good as the prep, so in that respect I totally dissagree with cobblers that you can't get a good finish.

Black hammerite smooth, straight from the gun...



However, I agree that hammerite has got the rep for being the paint you slop over any old curse word and it will durable, which is utter boll@x, because you can't and it won't.

[mdh]

Feb 7, 2014 7:16:23 GMT reliantreviver said:

Use all the paints. Any paints. Technicolour paint by numbers.

Colour coding is for squares.

Here's a hammerite'd rocker cover for you...



I can confirm it has chipped, But not affected by the heat.

Are those all your SS1s in your sig??

[shampooefficient]

Feb 7, 2014 21:57:05 GMT adam73bgt said:

Back in the day, my mum painted her first car ( a mini) in silver hammerite with a brush as she didn't like it being yellow.. I can't imagine it looked too great rocker cover should be fine though

I think it's things like this that make us evolve into petrolheads...

[reliantreviver]

Feb 9, 2014 15:41:19 GMT mdh said:

Are those all your SS1s in your sig??

That would be circa 2010, and shows a small selection of those which I've owned. Just 3 at the moment though, with a previous "peak" of 12 - a bit greedy you might say!