Product recommendations (or not)

[Parazine]

Hi all,

It struck me that this might be a good place to review products of all types that work (or do not). I know everyone has their favourites so maybe an idea to share good and bad experiences.

No fighting though!

To kick off, a couple of paint primers that I have experience of, one bad, one good:

1. Blackfriars Red Oxide Metal Primer


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Thick, gloopy consistency. Very little odour, even though it's a "wash brush in white spirit" paint. Very poor coverage, brush strokes just show base metal through the furrows. Altogether a poor product that I won't use again.

2 Halfords spray acrylic etch primer


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Good paint, self etches to steel and Aluminium. Excellent coverage, one coat is usually enough. Readily overcoats with spray acrylic. Don't use it where E10 (or E5 come to that) petrol may spill onto it, like all acrylics, it will dissolve with the ethanol!

[Mike Costigan]

I think you must have had a bad tin of Blackfriars Red Oxide; I've used it and had very good smooth coverage with no brush strokes when dry.

[Denis Sweeney]

The brushes you use can have a significant impact on the finish you achieve.
The original paint I used painting Ruby was Tekaloid Coaching Enamel which I applied using Hamilton’s Pure Bristle Pefection brushes, the finish I achieved was very good.
However the original paint had chemicals that were subsequently banned. With the later Tekaloid Coaching Enamel with the amended formula the Hamilton brushes no longer achieved anywhere near the same quality of finish, it left quite heavy brush marks.
After a lot of trial and error, including the use of rollers, I found the finish greatly improved using relatively cheap synthetic brushes.
So finding the right brush will impact the way the paint lays down.

[Malcolm Parker]

I've also had good results with Blackfriars paints, especially the heat resistant black used for wood burning stoves, ideal for exhaust systems!
I still have some Tekaloid coach paint that I used on my first special over 40 years ago, it still appears to be perfectly usable if ever I want to paint something 'Coach Green'.