After having treated and painted one frame I decided to do all of my steel framed Tilleys at once. Step 1 - Treating in citric acid. Ten frames, 40 Litres of water, 1 kg of citric acid powder. Three day soak with a couple of scrubbings. Looks like relics from the Titanic! The floaters are bits of the original silver paint. Step 2 (today) - Rinse in soapy water to neutralise the acid. No pics sorry. Quick sand with 360 grade wet/dry sandpaper. Step 3 - Rinse in plain water. Again no pics. Step 4 - Rapid dry off with heat gun, and then sit in the sun for a few minutes. Step 5 - VHT Flameproof white Primer - three coats as per instructions Step 6 - Three coats topcoat VHT Flameproof - five on the right in "flat aluminium" and five on the left in "flat silver". I think they are actually the same colour! Step 7 - Three coats clear satin - no pics. Step 8 - To be continued - oven bake.
Looking great . The frames are a pain to clean because of their shape ,I use a little abrasive blaster cabinet for cleaning up small bits, the process provides an excellent surface for the new paint to adhere to.
One of my daughters had to stay home from school today so I had to stay home. Bugger. So I arranged outdoor relaxation for her while I took over the oven for baking the Tilley frames. Here is the finished product after baking. I didn't have any issues with air bubbles like I did in another thread. Might have been one of three reasons I can think of: 1. I got 99.9% of the original tilley paint off this time, whereas last time I was just looking to get the rust off and a smooth surface for painting 2. After rinsing the cages and before and during painting I handled the cages only with gloves on, so no oil residue from my fingers 3. I gave the frames a little longer for any trace moisture to dry before painting. Note it it was still only a few minutes after the heat gun, as I didn't want to be painting over flash rust. Hopefully I go the balance right. Very happy with the outcome overall. A few tips for anyone doing this though, as I know someone might find this post weeks, months or years from now. The picture doesn't show some of the tiny imperfections. Particularly in a bulk amount this becomes more challenging: 1. It was very valuable doing one frame first (covered in a different post where I got the air bubbles), as you will see an outcome and learn from any problems in your process without wasting too much time and money - time is expensive and the paint is too. 2. In handling the frames in and out of the oven you don't want to have any part of your process involving physically grabbing or touching the frames with ANYTHING. I tried tongs first... very gently - bad idea - one of these frames bears the scars. So put them on a tray before they go in, don't let any frames touch other frames as they will rub and jostle as you get them in and out. The paint is very soft before and during baking. They need to go in on a tray, come out on a tray, and only get handled once cool. 3. Be conscious of when you load them in and out of the oven, you don't want the frames bumping against any part of the oven - the opening, the ceiling, the rear wall. I pushed the tray in for the first couple and then realised due to the way I was orienting them I had part of the handle touching the back wall of the oven, resulting in a small line of black oven goodies baked into the paint. Again, minor scars remain on a couple. 4. Go the grey primer, not the white. That way if you have issues with little scrapes they won't stand out as much - I am generally slow and careful with things, and found this quite a challenge. When you are putting two frames on one tray and orienting them it is easy to bump them together. The topcoats are much more delicate than the primer, so a soft bump before curing can mean a small scrape of exposed primer. 5. If you do a bulk load look at how long you will need the oven for to cover the whole process, looking at how many frames you can fit in at once, and the instructions and timings for the three stage curing. Note that the last stage asks for 300 degrees C or over - I just put my oven on its highest setting... Depending on who else uses that oven it could become problematic if you don't finish up, including airing the oven and house before they get home :-) My wife just bought a new sewing related thing on the weekend for a load of money so I didn't get in too much strife this time.
How long has the zinc silver paint held up @Handi-man and how much lantern use? Up at the enamel hood there is extreme heat. All of the Tilleys I have had some or all of the paint burnt off around the top ring of the cage long ago. The mid and lower parts of the frame won't be a problem with a non high temp paint but I cannot imagine standard paint holding up around the top parts of the cage with prolonged use. Could be wrong though. To get a good long-term outcome without the oven baking steps would definitely be better.
Yes I must confess that I havent been using the repainted Tilley lantern that much. Time will tell I guess .
Thanks @Handi-man . I'm wondering if heat proof paint is really necessary for the Tilley cages for longevity of the paint finish with regular use. The baking process adds a fair bit of time to the process so if a great long term finish is possible for a user lantern whilst short-cutting this I really want to know about it as I have some other bits coming up that I'll be doing (some fairly nasty condition Austramax, Handi, and Colemans) but the same principles will loosely apply. I have a hunch that while I used the "flameproof" variety the "engine enamel" would be fine, and would probably cut the baking process a little. As a side note, after doing this in bulk I'm left with my big black dish of 40 litres of citric acid solution so am having a bit of fun dropping random little rusted relics I have into there. Not sure how long it will keep working but I have some old horseshoes and butchers hooks that came out of my yard in some excavations a few years ago, and a couple of old non-pressure "hot blast" lanterns in there coming clean :-)
