Rotten Hammerite

[Cursitor Doom]

It's crap compared to what it once was. Are there any alternative brands in the hammered finish market?

[Cash]

+1

I did a couple of drive gates 18 months ago, some 7 years after last rpainting them - and rust is already starting to show through.

Cash

[Brian Gaff]

Yes, what have they done to it? Why make it worse? Brian

[Tim Watts]

It was only every any good if baked on IME (small part, oven at about

150C for a couple of hours) - even 30 years ago.

Or for some sheet steel that was so rusty that it soaked into the rust and made it "structural".

[Andrew Mawson]

I found an unbranded equivalent a couple of years ago when I was re-spraying a woodworking machine originally thus coated by the manufacturers in the

1970's. So far it has proved durable, and uses the dodgy thinners that Hammerite used to use.

It was listed on ebay as 'industrial hammer finish paint'

Andrew

[John Williamson]

I seem to remember someone mentioning here that the solvent (Xylene?) they used to use was either banned or deprecated for some reason.

[Vir Campestris]

At a guess, like other paints, it now has lower levels of Volatile Organic Compounds.

Andy

[Brian Gaff]

Is it a CFC? Interesting that from what I read someone is till releasing these into the atmosphere in large quantities and they are trying to find out where its coming from using satellites at the moment.

Brian

[Tim Watts]

I don't think any xylenes contain fluorine.

[Stephen]

CFC stands for Chloro Fluoro Carbons so it will by definition contain chlorine, fluorine and carbon. There are also HCFCs which also contain Hydrogen.

[Andrew]

No, it's all down to VOC 2010. Getting decent paint is now difficult (or maybe even impossible). So much of the decent stuff has been reformulated to be water based. Kurust used to be solvent=based and even if the metal had traces of rust and or oil, it still soaked in and created an effective base coat for enamel paints. Now that too is water-based, bloody useless stuff. Thanks a lot Akzo-Nobel (not).

I suspect the reason why Wickes now sell Dulux paint and not their own is because of the costs of testing and compliance.

Andrew

[Adrian]

Jesus. It must be incredibly bad now, because it was shit as far back as the '80s.

Try this stuff instead.

[Cursitor Doom]

I see. So the EU is to blame. Doesn't surprise me at all....

[Cursitor Doom]

Thanks for the steer. I have now ascertained that runs and sags are

*inevitable* with Hammerite, no matter how careful you are in following their instructions, when attempting to coat vertical surfaces. Even if you apply it too lightly to achieve the advertised hammered finish, it STILL sags! I've tried to build up a finish from several light coats, each flattened with wet wetordry between applications, and it STILL sags. Hopeless stuff! Much effort avails nought. Hopeless!

[F Murtz]

It is an aromatic hydrocarbon.

[Tim Watts]

Always did that - the only solution was to spray it on...