Saturday, June 16, 2007

Tube Preparation




Well Here are some of the pics I took of the tube surface preparation. I used some heavy duty 15 minute paint remover from Home Depot along with some old rags, paint brushes and alot of patience. The first picture was taken about 20 minutes into the initial removal process. With the fast acting paint remover it literally bubbled in front of my eyes. Using an old rag to pull the old paint really sped up the process without putting nics in the tube surface.
The next picture is about 2 hours later after 3 treatments with the paint remover and lots of washing and sanding with 200 grit paper. The last picture is of the final priming on the tube using 3 coats of Rustoleum grey primer. In between each coat I wet sanded the tube again using 320 grit paper to remove all the little imperfections.
All told it took around 5 hours from initial paint striping to final coat of primer on the tube. Its so nice and smooth I can't wait to pick out some paint and clear coat to finish off the outside of the tube.

1 comment:

digitalbeachbum said...

I just got one of these for free. It was collecting dust and the kids stopped using it. It was a complete mess. The viewfinder was backwards, screws and bolts loose and the main tube was out of alignment. I'd love to hear from you and how your project is progressing.