Hammerite on Metal

[Civet]

I've used two coats of Hammerite Smooth on steel car wheels, without any undercoat, as instructed on the tin. Okay for a year or so, then the rust comes through. More recently I've used Hammerite Kurust (from Halfords), then Red Oxide, then a single coat of Hammerite Smooth (ensuring that any missed areas are touched up within 8 hours) on iron railings with excellent results. All the old paint must be chipped off with a hammer beforehand to bare metal. Possibly two coats of Hammerite over the Kurust would be as good but Red Oxide is a darn site cheaper! Alternatively ordinary gloss could be used over the red oxide although it may need two coats. Hammerite's "Direct to Rust Metal Paint - 5 Year Protection" claim is fantasy - I'm surprised that they don't advise using their own Kurust product first.

[Andy Dingley]

I'm not a fan of this stuff, but that's a real worst-case use of it.

Hammerite (and Smoothrite) is tough, but it's also stiff, brittle and not especially adhesive. It likes to fail by flaking off, especially if the surface beneath isn't perfect or you're flexing it. Wheels are likely to be both.

I would suggest:

• Good cleaning / electrolytic / shotblast / degreasing / whatever

• Good primer. You won't go wrong with a nice heavy zinc-based primer (Davids 182) but red oxides are admittedly cheaper. Number One isn't bad.

• A surface coating that's tough against bending. Glyptal would be great (costly) and anything black and bituminous is likely to be excellent, so long as you don't mind black and non-glossy.

Your best bet is somewhere that sells truck stuff, not car stuff. I've cans of Leyland Chassis Black that date from the last century and are still the best stuff I've got for trailer refurb.

[damduck-egg]

Just curious, is that Leyland the paint manufacturer who has made some Black paint for Chassis or Leyland the lorry maker who supplied some Black chassis paint in their name. Could be both I suppose.

G.Harman

[Andy Dingley]

Leyland paints. They do (or did, anyway) some automotive stuff too.

[Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics)]

For that application, Hammerite is the wrong paint. It is fine on toolboxes or fixed metal objects, but not something that flexes. Hammerite sets to a hard and brittle film.

For car wheels, prepare and paint as for car bodywork. Either that, or chassis paint, but I'm not personally a fan of black wheels :-)

(Yes I know you can get other colours of chassis paint, I use POR15 myself)

[PeterC]

Hadn't realised that - might explain why some falls off my bike's frame, especially the rear triangle which I do bend a bit on hills. I'll look for something else, perhaps like that on my Sunbeam motorbike - could cuts slices off the undercoat on that!

[Osprey]

Unfortyunatly Harreite is pretty but I find not that good externally. The issue seem to be that Hammerite is lumps & thin bits ... to produce the hammer effect. Indoors it's great (used a lot in workshops) ... nut outdoors the thin bit very quickly lets water through .. and rust.

I have had boat trailers that have had a full prep .. 2 full hand brushed coats, and looks ace .... but after a dip in the ocean to launch rust is seen next day on the thin parts .... I would never use Hammerite again on any external project that can get wet.

[Huge]

I'm a big fan of POR15. Although you do have to handle it carefully, unless you want to end up looking like a dalmation for a few days.