The shell and panels have been dropped off for sandblasting last weekend and coincidently my mate who was sandblasting my rear subframe and all the brake parts rang the next day so I picked up everything and started painting.
Before the brake backing plates were painted, I drilled a hole in each plate so that the new 5/8" brake cylinders would fit. The original backing plates were fitted with 3/4" cylinders but compared to the those, the locating pin on the 5/8" cylinders in on the other side of the bleed screw. A new 4.5mm hole must be drilled on the other side of the bleed screw to allow the locating pin to fit.
Before & After :
All the parts were hand/brush painted with two thin coats of KBS Coatings RustSeal (2 hours between coats to become touch dry and can handle the subframe) and then a few hours later, 2 coats of black enamel sprayed on (RustSeal is not UV stable so requires any opaque coloured topcoat.
Even though the paint coverage on rear subframe was good, I was still concerned about the hollow sections (eg. The box section at the front of the subframe) so I liberally sprayed in any hollow section with Valvoline Tectyl 506, an excellent rust preventative wax coating. I'm pretty sure it's what Tint-A-Car uses when they do rust proofing - it looks the same goldy colour and smells the same as Tectyl 506...
Just waiting on some parts now to rebuild the rear brakes and fit the rebuild kits for the radius arms. Until then, the front subframe work begins
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-Alan
I blame my dad for my love of minis. I think I was conceived in the back seat of one
I also blame my Dad for me being 6' 1" - not really the optimum height for driving a Mini.