Painting radiator outter housing

Pugsport

Member
im not sure if anyone has done this or has anythought about it but i want to paint the outter housing part of my radiators white to match my black and white theme. i dont see the outter housing dose much apart from hold the fins in place (but i could be wrong) and just after advice as to weather or not this may lose me some or alot of performance
 
Hi Mate

I spoke to Tom about this quite recently, as part of his timetolive work he has painted radiator chassis's before I believe. As long as you leave the fins alone and mask off the inlet/outlet ports you won't have any problems.

Cheers

Lee
 
thats cool and as i thought thanks for the info people

i thought the core/fins were already painted in a black powder coat?
 
Its not powdercoat its just sprayed. Leave the fins plain, if you paint over them you are just insulating them and making it harder to remove the heat which is kinda the point...
 
i agree but on that note then i see no reason why if you can not get the old paint off you could not repaint if you wanted to do so. i have no reason to paint the core/fins as i want a white black theme anyway. i just need to find some good fans now with the same theme.

thanks for the info Tom
 
Because by repainting them you would put more paint on that before. Rad fins have a mega thin coating on them, its more to stop them tarnishing / discolouring from the bare metal look than anything else.
 
It is the case
tongue.gif
 
i could think of ways of doing it but it would not be easy. i would still say there was a good few layers of paint on them fins
 
Never doubt what Tom tells you. If he says it's a bad idea, then it most definitely is a bad idea.

im just trying to say that it could be done altho it may take some time to do and that there must be at least two or three layers of paint on the stock fins. im in no way trying to under mind what Tom is saying i just wanted to share my imo about the fact that you could do it at a push with some really thinned down paint and low flow along with a paint depth gauge to messure the depth of paint before hand.

i have no plan to paint anymore of my rad than the housing

well i apologise if i got any ones back up that was not plan
 
im just trying to say that it could be done altho it may take some time to do and that there must be at least two or three layers of paint on the stock fins. im in no way trying to under mind what Tom is saying i just wanted to share my imo about the fact that you could do it at a push with some really thinned down paint and low flow along with a paint depth gauge to messure the depth of paint before hand.

i have no plan to paint anymore of my rad than the housing

well i apologise if i got any ones back up that was not plan

No worries mate. I didn't say you were undermining tom, don't worry. It's just that painting by hand is not a precise art and you would be doing more harm no matter how careful you go about the job.
 
The black on the fins is piss thin, Ive been and seen rads being made and finished. Its really not a job for home imho. If you thin it down too much youll have no colour, also to paint it properly youd need to primer it first anyways. I also dont think anyone would be able to remove the old plaint completely either.

Like I said before, I cant really be done.
 
The black on the fins is piss thin, Ive been and seen rads being made and finished. Its really not a job for home imho. If you thin it down too much youll have no colour, also to paint it properly youd need to primer it first anyways. I also dont think anyone would be able to remove the old plaint completely either.

Like I said before, I cant really be done.

ill take your word for it as ive not had the chance to see the process myself. are they paint by man or machine? yes if you go to to heavy with the thinners you would lose colour. you could get the rad dipped which would remove the paint and leave it clean and ready for an etch primer base.

by the way how dose the multi quote work? as it would not let me do it
 
With a paint brush
tongue.gif
. J/K

you can get awesome results from a rattle can. people always say that you can not get anywhere near as good results when compared to a spray but thats not really true. painting is all down to the prep work and if thats good your well on your way to a good job.
 
you can get awesome results from a rattle can. people always say that you can not get anywhere near as good results when compared to a spray but thats not really true. painting is all down to the prep work and if thats good your well on your way to a good job.

I'm assuming that machines are used to spray the rads, ensuring an even layer all around. With rattle cans or any other method by hand you will most likely get an uneven finish.

EDIT: If you want to use multiquote, just press the button on each post you want to reply to and then use the "Add Reply" button at the bottom of the page to reply to multiple posts.
 
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