Painting over original trailing arm rubber coating

[mrscalex]

I have a pair of trailing arms I want to clean up and paint by hand rather than get blasted and coated. They still have much of their rubber paint coating and I don't want to remove it. Has anyone found a paint that successfully bonds to this rubber coating?

 

[Pingu]

I'd want to remove as much of it as possible. Once the coating has been breeched, the corrosion underneath it is rapid. Better off without it.

 

[the Nefyn cat]

You may be surprised at the state of the arms under the cr4p, I sure was with mine. A bunch of holes, didn't expect the O/S to be way worse than the N/S, but that's the way it was.

 

[Woodsta888]

Mastic paint by Rustbuster.

EM121 Epoxy Rust Proofing Paint Archives - Rustbuster

‘Rustbuster EM121 Epoxy Mastic, what a fantastic finish, what a fantastic product! Automotive paint suppliers typically sell products for accident repair, these products are porous absorbing moisture from the atmosphere causing rust under the primed surface during long term restoration...

www.rust.co.uk

 

[Lee]

I share the same view as Pingu, we've had arms that look ok till you get them blasted holes show up. It's not a huge issue now as we have a good way to repair arms with zinc plating followed by powder coating.

 

[mrscalex]

Thanks for responses.

I'm a try and do it right merchant as I hope people will know. But on this occasion it was appropriate to look at doing an interim job on the trailing arms in situ to get the car through the MOT with no advisories. Then tackling things properly later. Normally I get everything blasted and coated. However as is usually the case with me I ended up saying in for a penny and dropped the whole lot in the end. So off to the blasters they go.

Can you tell me more about the zinc plating @Lee? Obviously an extra anti-corrosion step. But presumably this is done with immersion/electrolysis rather than a specialised preliminary powder coating? Thanks.

 

[Lee]

Thanks for responses.

I'm a try and do it right merchant as I hope people will know. But on this occasion it was appropriate to look at doing an interim job on the trailing arms in situ to get the car through the MOT with no advisories. Then tackling things properly later. Normally I get everything blasted and coated. However as is usually the case with me I ended up saying in for a penny and dropped the whole lot in the end. So off to the blasters they go.

Can you tell me more about the zinc plating @Lee? Obviously an extra anti-corrosion step. But presumably this is done with immersion/electrolysis rather than a specialised preliminary powder coating? Thanks.

I don't actually know much more, when we collected the last pair of arms from the coaters (which had holes in) they said we don't have to bin them and they can fix them for us with a zinc plating process. I've not explored this option yet. I have two sets of arms waiting to be repaired. Happy to extend this service to the forum.

 

[mrscalex]

I don't actually know much more, when we collected the last pair of arms from the coaters (which had holes in) they said we don't have to bin them and they can fix them for us with a zinc plating process. I've not explored this option yet. I have two sets of arms waiting to be repaired. Happy to extend this service to the forum.

I'm curious as much that I like the idea of anything that improves corrosion resistance, I wouldn't have though zinc plating on its own would repair any holes unless they were pin p*****s? That's based on my understanding of zinc plating which is immerse and connect to electrodes.

 

[Jimbob_OD]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I have the same question as the OP.

My OSR trailing arm has a few patches of corrosion where the original coating has perished (and an MOT advisory as a result). The metal appears solid underneath.

I don’t have the skills/time/money to remove the trailing arms completely and have them blasted and coated.

Is it feasible to wire brush/grind back the rust patches in situ, treat with Kurust and then overpaint with hammerite or similar? I’m assuming most paints won’t bond to the original rubberised coating?

 

[Althulas]

To be honest Jimbob it can look a daunting task to tackle but can be done. Have you considered contacting the Zedshed and see what wonders they can offer if you don’t fancy doing yourself.

but to do it yourself in situ is never going to give a nice finished result. Saying that if you can live with the job being functional you can but you can buy a cheap wired angle grinder from b&q, Amazon etc and some wire attachments most likely will need a dremel for tighter areas. If you read through my thread in my sig you can see my approach but others have used other systems to protect from rust. You probably find I wished I removed the bleeding things due to working in a tight area. As for paint reaction to the rubberised coating on over painting the edges I’m sure hammerite paint would be ok but it’s one of those trial and error what works I can’t think of anyone of hand doing it in situ. I still advocate giving Zedshed a shout though.

 

[Jimbob_OD]

Thanks mate. I’ve already got a decent angle grinder, wire brush attachments for my drill and a dremel too.

To be honest, I’m not overly bothered by how it looks, I just want to stop the MOT advisory becoming a fail.

It’s my first project so I’m very much learning as I go along with lots of reading, YouTube and the advice of this forum!

 

[Althulas]

If you look at my thread it’s all open air garage so anything is achievable. It’s made a village taking point, moans and landmark though

 

[Jimbob_OD]

How do I find your thread mate?

 

[Althulas]

Time I pulled my finger out

Started the overhaul on mine and quite a daunting task it’s going to be looking at all the work that is needed and was quite disheartening to be honest but other builds on here are inspiring. I’ve made a start on the rear. Rear boxes off, the dreaded 8mm cap heads loosened off with no drama...

zroadster.org

There’s lots of builds in that section or the Zedshed section with lots of pics for inspiration. Don’t take mine as bible way to go about it.

 

[Rudyrov]

Time I pulled my finger out

Started the overhaul on mine and quite a daunting task it’s going to be looking at all the work that is needed and was quite disheartening to be honest but other builds on here are inspiring. I’ve made a start on the rear. Rear boxes off, the dreaded 8mm cap heads loosened off with no drama...

zroadster.org

There’s lots of builds in that section or the Zedshed section with lots of pics for inspiration. Don’t take mine as bible way to go about it.

The Zedshed looks and sounds like a great idea to me, wish we had a group of guys such as yourselves here in my area (Phoenix, AZ, USA).

 

[t-tony]

Only way to get something like this off the ground is to start it yourself, like I did. ZedShed (Midlands).

Tony.

 

[Rudyrov]

Only way to get something like this off the ground is to start it yourself, like I did. ZedShed (Midlands).

Tony.

Point taken Tony! Thanks.