suffolk engine block light grey paint colour
Is VHT paint necessary for this application. Every thing I found so far is far too dark such as Ford VHT or brake caliper paint - what do people here use? I read somewhere that Hammerite smooth can be used, but would that eventually bubble and blister with the heat from the fins.
The colour a very light grey with a hint of blue green !
Forums
Perfect examples! what is
Perfect examples!
The disc shaped grass shield? modification below the air filter intake looks unconventional
Have you used some sort of fabric vibration barrier on the engine plate?
(Not sure if you can get that "wild thyme" colour anymore)
The drip shield under the air
The drip shield under the air cleaner was specific to the 17" Punch Professional , the wicket and bowling green machine with a ten bladed cylinder, steel front roller and provision on the chassis for precise alignment of the cylinder and bottom blade with the front and rear rollers.
This machine was a £10 auction site purchase, advertised as just a 17" Punch, and by the looks of it had spent s long time dumped in the open with the grass box part filled with rainwater. One end of the box had rotted away from the curved front Repairs involved welding in new metal and a fair bit of filler - not one of my favourite jobs.
The Wild Thyme came from the local B&Q within the last six months and I have seen it on that auction site. Going into town on Friday so will grab another tin - if it's still there!
Yes, the shims under the engine do need trimming up and the edges painting! They are there for two reasons. The engine retaining bolts engage " grip nuts" that hook into square holes in the engine platform . The engine, not being the smoothest of runners tends to vibrate and shuffle about a bit and damage the grip nuts, and in this case propagate a couple of hair line cracks in the platform ; so having dealt with the cracks I decided to add the shims, chopped up plastic milk carton . Then after assembly it was necessary to pack the drive side a bit more to achieve " perfect" horizontal alignment of the centrifugal clutch - no dragging at tick over etc.
Edit
Lots of Wild Thyme on fleabay and also shown as being available at B&Q
Smooth Hammerite can
Smooth Hammerite can withstand 80 degrees centigrade at a constant temperature but colour will fade above 50 degrees - that seems a lot lower than the operating temperature of a lawnmower cylinder head
Interesting to know but I
Interesting to know but I don't paint cylinder heads , just bead blast and leave them unpainted .
Are the colours on these
Are the colours on these mowers BS381C type eg: signal red, brunswick green, 626 camouflage grey for engine, don't know just guessing because i haven't got a colour chart - does it matter ?
Would cellulose paint do - even on the engine block - is it what they originally used, its very thin and strips easily, seems to be no primer?
In short, no idea!
In short, no idea!
May be heresy but I just work on a good visual match using readily available commercial colours.
Rightly or wrongly I found that the Wild Thyme was a reasonable match for the block, John Deere green from Central Spares for the chassis and Westwood Orange , again from CS for the cutting cylinder, engine cowl and handle bars.
That said, I've been putting together a small representative collection of the Punches of the 1950s, Series 1, 1a, 11 , etc and MK VII. One of the Series Punches had a black cylinder block with no sign of it ever having been another colour , so that had stayed black. Another had a silver block , again with no sign of a different previous colour. Then one had an engine cowling in a deeper red including the unfaded interior which was a reasonable match for CS Wheelhorse red , so that's how it's stayed. A final conundrum is that some of the machines appear to have had green painted handle bars from new.
It would me nice if someone would come forward with a definitive time line on what colours have been used and when, but until they do I'm sticking with what appeared to be original on a machine by machine basis. I have yet to acquire a machine with enough original paint on it to leave it as is!
Do you brush or spray?
Do you brush or spray?
Brush the blocks and spray
Brush the blocks and spray the rest. The advantage ( to me) of using the off the shelf Central Spares colours is that they are available in both " bulk" and aerosols which for small areas can save on waste and spray gun washing etc.
"Interesting to know but I
"Interesting to know but I don't paint cylinder heads , just bead blast and leave them unpainted ."
Do they not look corroded and bad after a short time?
There is an initial "micron"
There is an initial "micron" layer of oxidation and that seems to halt further corrosion so long as the machine is kept dry. Damp storage will give rise to the white powdery florescence. I like my restorations to be working machines and not museum exhibits and they all get occasional mowing outings in the garden and I'm quite happy that it takes some of the just painted gloss off them.
Back in the day the standard of finish was adequate for their intended purpose and I'm not a fan of restoration to better than new standards involving multiple coats of two-pack paint etc.
Back in the day the standard
Back in the day the standard of finish was adequate for their intended purpose and I'm not a fan of restoration to better than new standards involving multiple coats of two-pack paint etc.
Re the above quote - well said that man.
I use Hammerite smooth Wild
I use Hammerite smooth Wild Thyme for the block and have never seen any sign of heat discolouration or bubbling but none of my machines so treated have run for more than ten or fifteen minutes.. I bead blast the exhaust mufflers, warm them in the oven and then spray with Plastikote barbecue black and then bake them in the oven before fitting.