I've painted some bits for me towbar with spray-on Hammerite and it's well touch-dry, having had about 8 hours drying now (good things night shifts ). Does anyone know how long I'm supposed to leave it before trying to bolt it onto the car i.e. when does it go fully hard please? I've used Hammerite in the past, left it a couple of days after application but it still seems to get dinged awfully easily when being assembled with other bits.

About 2 months i think to fully cure. Weird stuff is hammerite. Shove the bits in the oven on a low temp for an hour, that will cure it...

David

Edited to say: chassis black is the way forward. Relatively cheap (mine was £6/litre) and dries quickly to leave a hard and tough finish. Was recommended by several on here and I am about to repaint my wishbones with it after using it for my de dion.

[Edited on 7/6/06 by flak monkey]

When fully cured Hammerite chips very easily as it is very hard and brittle, which is why it's not generaly recommended for painting chassis and wishbones etc.

Wish I'd known that before I painted my frame

If you use the aerosol spray hammerite, it tends not to chip as much.

I agree with the above comments I hand painted some parts and the stuff just flakes off

even after perefectly cleaning items

hammerite out the spray is a lot better

I found that one coat by brush, then a second by aerosol works well - good thick coverage and no brush marks.

Hammerite is designed to be painted over scaled (wire brushed rusty steel), it has virtually no self etching properties, it is total useless on anything else.

It cures by absorbing moisture from the atmosphere and does this very slowly (it dries by the solvent flashing off in about 3 hours, but this must not be confused with curing which is a permanent chemical change). the cure takes place from the outside in, and if you overcoat it while this process is taking place, the inner part of the coat will never cure and you will end up with a sandwich effect of cured and uncured paint, which is a bit of a bugger!

A good product for what it was designed for, but no use for anything else