My first POR-15 project

iTurbo · May 8, 2005

Since I'm upgrading *everything* concerning the chassis/suspension/steering/brakes on my Omni GLH Turbo, I decided to paint the chassis parts and a few brackets. Namely:

Rear axle and bushing brackets
K-frame
control arms
anti-sway bar and brackets
rack & pinion hold-down bracket

I started by removing all the aforementioned parts from the car. The bushing brackets for the rear axle were especially difficult because the OEM bushing sleeve had seized inside the bracket, which required a cut-off wheel or sawzall to be removed. I gathered up all the parts and headed to the car wash to power wash everything. I had to use paint stripper to strip what was left of the original black paint off the rear axle. I then brought all the parts to a machine shop to be bead blasted. After that, I scrubbed the parts thoroughly many times in the bath tub with Castrol Super Clean (the purple stuff). Once again, I went back to the car wash to power wash everything to remove any residual dirt, grease, cleaning agents, and blasting media. After everything was cleaned and dry, it was time for the Metal Ready.

Metal Ready is a pre-primer, which conditions the metal for proper adhesion of the POR-15. It etches the metal and leaves a zinc-phosphate film which promotes the adhesion of paint and metal. The parts have to be wetted with MR for 20 minutes, which requires the parts to be sprayed down a few times within the 20 minutes so that the MR doesn't dry. The parts must then be rinsed off thoroughly. I used my shower/bathtub because I couldn't find a garden hose spigot on our apartment building.

After the parts are completely dry (very important), they can finally be painted with the POR-15. Thin coats are best, waiting 3-5 hours between coats or until there is only slight finger drag. I painted all my parts with three coats which seemed to be more than enough. Next time I'll probably just do two coats. Thin coats are best to keep runs/drips to a minimum. Be sure not to get in inside any bolt holes, which shouldn't be any problem as long as the POR-15 isn't applied too heavily. Cheapo throw-away horsehair paintbrushes are best. You may want to order them from POR-15 because the bristles on the cheapo brushes I bought from a local hardware store were falling out and getting encapsulated in the POR-15. No big deal but annoying still.

Here are some pics of just before applying the POR-15. I took A LOT of work to get this far. 90% of the work involved with POR-15 is the cleaning and preparation.

K-frame:
http://www.turbosedan.com/omni/DSC02044.JPG
Control arms:
http://www.turbosedan.com/omni/DSC02063.JPG
http://www.turbosedan.com/omni/DSC02064.JPG
Rear axle bushing brackets:
http://www.turbosedan.com/omni/DSC02069.JPG
Rear axle:
http://www.turbosedan.com/omni/DSC02072.JPG
http://www.turbosedan.com/omni/DSC02074.JPG
http://www.turbosedan.com/omni/DSC02075.JPG

With POR-15 applied:

beefalobilly · May 8, 2005

i just got done painting my block and brackets for that...I just can't wait to get started on my suspension

I'm sick of painting... Oh, and I'm running caravan arms too

iTurbo · May 8, 2005

I plan on doing my Shelby Lancer next. I bought a gallon of POR-15 so I have more than enough to do all three of my cars. I may even do the entire underside of my Lancer. A little POR-15 goes a long way. It only took about 2 cups to put the first coat on all the parts.

I was considering doing the entire underside of my Omni, but I'd like to drive it again sometime this year. So far I'm very impressed with this stuff!

capev86 · May 8, 2005

only prob is that its uv sensitive! luckily you could get the parts good and clean. it doesnt work so good on a rusty car that was wire brushed!

im probably gonna coat all my suspension parts in black caliper paint (with zinc primer) and do the underside of the car in urethane truck bed liner!

iTurbo · May 8, 2005

POR-15 is UV sensitive, but considering these parts will never be exposed to direct sunlight, I think they'll be just fine without any top coat.

capev86 · May 9, 2005

i think the company makes a black chassis paint that is compatable w/ their por-15 products!

My first POR-15 project

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