Painting Covers a Multitude of Sins

by John

After my crap riveting of the carriage, I could have ripped them all out and started again. Or, I could slap on a coat of paint, and take another look.

Well, that’s what I did.

Well, actually, before that I telephoned my riveting expert about my rivet problems, and he gave me some further advice……

  1. Put a G cramp on the compressor hose to restrict the air flow
  2. Polish the ends of the snaps, and round the edges slightly
  3. Check that the shape of the snaps mirrors the shape of the rivet heads. It didn’t. I had thought that the dome rivets had hemispherical heads, but on closer inspection, they were flatter than a hemisphere. So I made some new snaps, and took great care to make sure that the rivet heads fitted more precisely into them.
  4. Be more careful to keep the snaps perpendicular to the surface.

I did replace the worst rivets, and I was much happier with the results.

Then some paint. But first I gave the carriage a thorough wash in detergent to remove any trace of machining oil.

Then, using a pressurised can of etch primer, used my spray booth (a cardboard carton open at one side) to give it a coat.

I quite like that colour. The blue splog is some marking paint. The etch primer refused to stick to the marking paint. Next time I will give the parts a wipe with acetone before painting.

And, with a bit of paint, the carriage doesn’t look half bad?

Even the crappy rivets do not stand out too badly.

Of course, some areas showed up as needing some filler…..

Some time and effort required in some areas to fill defects and divots before the next coat of paint.

I quite like that colour. Maybe with just a touch more blue in it.

And note: NO RUNS, NO BRUSH HAIRS.