Things are moving on....
Please ignore the bubble wrap and swarf!


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Steering not connected before anyone asks!



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it's getting there! well done

what happened with the finish on the chassis tubes though? are they brush painted?

makes a homebuilt atom look very...homebuilt imho
tom

Have to agree with him above..... The quality of the work is amazing, but the chassis...which lets face it is a work of art... is ruined by the poor paint finish...

Not what you want to hear... but there we have it

Looks like you will have to brace yourself for another round of complaints about the chassis finish, again!

I'll say what I said last time, it looks fine to me

John

Yeah, I quite like it.

It sort of looks like someone knicked a load of 1950's school fence rails to make the chassis.

Some of you sure have a paint finish hang up!
I am not explaining my choice of paint anymore.
I think that I will keep future pictures to myself..............you can see it at the shows or passing you on the road...........your loss.

While powder coating has a superior finish in terms of look and feel, there are certain practicalities with NOT using it - such as you can easily touch upo paint and also remove small areas, weld and touch up again without much problem and no-one would ever know you did it.

Plus, the stuff Nitram has used it bloody hard wearing too, and with exposed chassis rails they'll probably get a lot more grit blasted by road dirt than most cars.

Nitram - if you stop posting photo's, feel free to email them to me as I always like to have a look at how you're progressing - part of m own idea forming process!

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Originally posted by nitram38
Some of you sure have a paint finish hang up!
I am not explaining my choice of paint anymore.
I think that I will keep future pictures to myself..............you can see it at the shows or passing you on the road...........your loss.

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looks like your doin a top job mate
always liked the atom
keep on posting piccies though ay

Your car, your choice of paint. I would like to be kept updated with pictures too though.

make that three,

ive been following this project for a while and think its great to see the progress.

Kit cars and especially scratch builds are quite a personal thing (why else would you make one) and i think everybody has a different perspective on what they should be.

Martin hasn't chosen this paint as a spontanious decision, its bl**dy expensive stuff. hes probably chosen it because he knows too well that cars get knocked about a bit and although the aesthetics may never be initially great...they sure as hell wont deteriate with years of salt water and road grit abuse.

ATB will

They also haven't realised that he hasn't give it a final rub down, polish and laquer top coats.
Keep the piccies coming man. A truly inspirational job.

No worries, I'll keep posting
I just thought I would add to the negative!

If you go over to the atom forums, you will see people going to great lengths to repairing their powdercoat, some even stripping the car back to bare chassis.
I want to spend my time driving this car, not keep telling people how to get in and out without damaging the paint.
Paint touch ups will be easier.

The car is now going back together and it is also going back faster without the worry of the odd scuff.
The engine goes back next followed by the rear suspension. I am also waiting on some purple silicon hoses from rallydesign so that I can finish the plumbing and mount the rad.
I have bought Photon lights from Russ Bost and I just need to make some brackets to mount them (same as cloudy's).

Adding to the please keep posting list.....looking good Martin,

Alan

Definitely keep the photos coming....

On the subject of the paint - I need to choose some chassis paint soon... does it need to go to bare metal, or can it go over etch primer? Really want to have a hard wearing finish on it - but its coming back from being repaired with etch primer already on....

By the way - great work as always!

Chris

Chris, I think you can paint over etch, but it will just go straight over bare steel. It is a two part paint with hardner. It stays like a rubber finish which is flexible but does not come off in big bits if you scrape it.
They say you can spray it, but because of my limited space I brushed on. Link to website

I used that stuff on my wishbones and rear swinging arms. I applied it with one of those disposable foam rollers used for applying gloss paint.

Didn't look too bad in the end, but I did give it a top coat of satin black to give a nice finish.

It's certainly tough - took a wire brush in angry grinder to remove it when I had to fix something.

Loving the ally electric box, given me some idea's for mine!

As an aside why can't we have a more standard new posts view on the homepage, which also shows old threads with new posts as opposed to just new threads. I like to keep my diary in one long thread, but it means nobody see's the updates. People end up having to make multiple topics every time they have a new update!

[Edited on 9/11/08 by cloudy]

Not tried the roller method Chris. I don't have much left to experiment with. When the car is finished, I need the last of it to go around any damage.

I bought the 5 ltr pack and I have about 1/2 ltr left after two coats with a brush.

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Originally posted by chrsgrain
On the subject of the paint - I need to choose some chassis paint soon... does it need to go to bare metal, or can it go over etch primer?
By the way - great work as always!
Chris

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Got to admit if i did it again i deffinatly would not have a powdercoated chassis, every time i have upgrdeitus i spend more time reparing or tidying up the powdercoated areas.

I would deffinatly advise people to go with a painted chassis as far easier to maintain.

IMO there's little difference between grinding off powdercoat or regular paint. Both need a grinder of some sort, flapper wheel or otherwise. Assuming there's a matching color for the powdercoat, there's no difference when touching up the job.

I had my first chassis powdercoated and I'll definitely do it again for the next car.

They key to ANY quality finish is to shot/sand blast the chassis before applying any coating.

This is where the manufacturers are going wrong. and its only down to cost.

Powder coating will chip and flake, if the steel has NOT been properly prepared.
Same goes for paint.
Providing a good keyed surface will sort it every time. Same goes for painting the house!

If you want a good job... do it properly.

Engine back in today:

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