Thursday, July 10, 2014

Come and see my disastrous etchings

Sorry the old blog has been a bit moribund lately.  I have been busy with the general “stuff” of life.  However I have been doing a little bit to make Herbie more presentable.  Our old “Buckby” cans ( I know, I know, probably not Buckby) are suffering the ravages of the weather and big flakes of paint are falling off here and there.  In an effort to preserve the goodish bits I brought one home and am restoring it by rubbing down and repainting just the bottom half of it. Being galvanised it needed an etching primer, but the old thin of that in my shed rattled rather than sloshed when I shook it so I went in search of more.  I came across a spray can version in Halfords so I thought I’d give that a go.  Less paint for the same money, but I don’t need much anyway.  You don’t want to breath in this stuff when you are spraying.  My lungs are not in need of acid etching.

 

image of U-POL Acid #8 Etch Primer

For the fun of it I also painted the bare metal with vinegar first which is an old trick.  It did put a dull finish on the zinc so I guess it did something.  Then of course I masked off the bits I wanted to preserve, and unknown to me that was where my real problems began.  Here is the can still masked up after being sprayed with primer.

can1

The I took the masking tape off to reveal this.

can2

Oh well, I’ve learned two things

a) the paint was a lot flakier than I thought so it wouldn’t have lasted long anyway so I’m better off repainting the whole can, and

b) now I know a good way to remover the old paint without rubbing and sanding.  I’ll just use masking tape and it’ll leave a better, unscratched finish .

Hey ho.  I guess the can was never properly primed in the first place.

3 comments:

Vallypee said...

I need to re-paint my one and only attempt at canal art. Perhaps I can pick up some tips from you, Neil!

Herbie Neil said...

Hmm, not sure I'd be worth following. Never done this before except a poor attempt on an old saucepan. I'll be brave though and show pics even if I make a mess of it.

Mrs. Jaqueline Biggs said...

I thought it looked quite good!
JaqX