New, red-tank Tilley x246b needs de-rusting and I am thinking on changing the color too. Recommendations for long lasting paints that help with the chrome surfaces as well?
@Oaktree83 The tank is made of brass, so the corrosion will not be rust. Soaking the tank in citric acid solution will assist in treating the corrosion, but be careful not to leave the tank in long (ie don’t let the brass turn deep pink). If you want to repaint it, remove all the paint, then use an etch primer before painting. A light sanding with very fine steel wool or wet and dry paper will assist. You can paint an automotive clear coat over plated tanks, but I find it more useful to polish the plating with Autosol and then use beeswax furniture polish — it’s easily removable, and won’t discolour like clear coat may over time. Tony
Recently I've restored a motorbike headlight switch panel (mounts on top of the H/L shell and holds the main lighting switch and an ammeter). It's steel, and I wanted it chromed, but plating is so expensive nowadays isn't it. So I polished the steel through the wet 'n dry grades to 1200, then buffed it 'on the wheel' with jeweller's rouge. For all the world it looks nicely chromed. I'll keep any potential rust at bay with regular wax polishing. Easy. The more finely polished metal is, the LESS likely it is that it'll corrode. I've tried 2K clearcoating over polished steel in the past, but it always seems to look very slightly yellowish and not as 'crisp'.
Thank you Tony&Julian, indeed, chrome plating is an ill-fated idea from the manufacturer in the first place.
I would re-paint the tank, and remove the rust from the chromed frame using citric acid solution. Depending on where it will live you can just seal the bits where the chrome has gone with oil/wax etc but if it will live in a damp shed that won't last long. You can find these frames easily (new even) so maybe keep an eye out for one in the future..
An obvious point but one worth making is that the enamel on the hood isn't paint, its effectively a coloured glass finish. Vitreous enamel as it's called is one of the only surface finishes that can survive the huge temperatures generated buy the burners. Metal plating such as chrome or nickel can also survive but there is NO paint that will survive... none at all. Not engine paint, not stove paint... nothing! The temperature can reach well over 1000 deg C around the mantle and burner, hot enough to degrade pretty much anything!
That is a very useful info, thanks! The hood on both of my lamps is still ~OK, but a tiny rust bit on one shows they'll need doing soon.
Most enamel hoods start flaking in the end due to the heat/cool cycle which cracks the enamel from the steel base metal. Most of the hoods in my collection show some signs of degradation but I put up with it because re-enamelling is just too expensive for my budget.
