Scope respray

[Andrew*]

I'm giving my 8" a new face, so in the process of sanding off the old paint. The paint comes off easy enough, but the white primer underneath is tuff stuff and a lot of work to get off.

Do I need to strip it to the bare metal or can I leave some of the old primer on?

Cheers

Andrew

[johninderby]

Hi

If the primer is not loose and you can sand it down to a smooth finish then it should be OK to paint over it. However there is a chance that whatever you paint it with could react with the primer or just not adhere properly.

You can get a barrier paint that will seal the primer and and any traces of old paint, and then you can paint it with whatever you want. A car paint supplier will be able to supply you with the barrier paint. Just explain what you are trying to do.

The other option is to take the tube to someone who strips car paint and have them clean it off.

John

[Kai]

Andrew , I resprayed my Ed80 last week.I just took the surface paint down to the primer and then cleaned the surface with thinners.The new paint went on with no problems at all.

[barkis]

If the OTA has a finder, and it has the same paint+primer. Do that first to see if there is an adverse reaction.

Ron.

[Andrew*]

I'm anyway applying a fresh primer so hopefully the two primers won't react. I'm using Halfords car spray paint for the new colour.

The rough sanding is done now and there's not a spec of Skywatcher blue left on the tube - time for fine sanding

Cheers for the advice

Andrew

[Andrew*]

If the OTA has a finder, and it has the same paint+primer. Do that first to see if there is an adverse reaction.

Ron.

Good plan - I'll do the finder first.

Andrew

[Kai]

Andrew the Halfords Paint that you get off the shelf is Acrylic so it shouldnt give you too many problems.

[tinvek]

more importantly, WHATS THE COLOUR GOING TO BE ?

[Jeff RV]

You shouldn't have to many problems, you may only have problems if you use old cans of spray you have knocking around such as cellulose or 2 pack, which is now illegal to sell as of Jan 2008 as far as i'm aware in the UK,

So it's as Ron suggest caution is the best policy, otherwise you'll have a nice crazy paving effect.

Jeff.

[Psychobilly]

There's nothing quite like a nice brush applied hammerite finish ..... complete with snot drips....

Billy....

[calibos]

Had thought about doing a full respray on my brand new scope. White Lightbridge, honestly Meade, what were you thinking??!!

My thought process was thus:

I'll do a lousy Job, best to pay a pro to do it.

Hmm, a pro will charge X hundred.

Actually wouldn't it be cool to have the base the same colour?

Hmm, even a pro will have a hard time getting the super smooth gloss black finish on the base with all the nooks and crannies I have added to the base.....

....and it'll cost even more!

Enter car decal company with rolls of super smooth gloss black adhesive vinyl that can be cut to shape around the difficult parts.

Half the price of a paint job and actually scratch resistant.

Course it'll only work for a truss or a split tube as the rolls are only 24" wide.

Heres a post from a guy in the US who used this on a DIY split tube:

http://tinyurl.com/d5zbo3

[Andrew*]

more importantly, WHATS THE COLOUR GOING TO BE ?

Ahah! Wouldn't you like to know! Can you wait another week?

Vinyl's quite a good idea actually. My brother has a vinyl cutter - I'm sure I can find some way to take advantage of that... How does the vinyl stick to the dob base?

Andrew

[calibos]

website says, "Permanent Acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive". Dob base is laminated so the vinyl will not be sticking to wood.

[StarMan1701]

Hi Guys,

Just for information...

Self-adhesive vinyl is available in rolls which are 48 inches wide, (actually 1370mm). However, it can be 'interesting' to apply at this width.

It is not totally scratch resistant - it will mark if you abuse it.

It will not stick permanently to porous materials. It will not, therefore, remain stuck to wood or particle board unless the surface has been sealed first with either paint or varnish of some kind.

Hope this helps.

Lee.

[A McEwan]

For what it's worth, I used Nitromors paint stripper on my 8" Dob, and it took it right back to bare metal. Stripped everything off in seconds. Then used Ku-rust to destroy any rust on the tube, and a light sanding of any rough areas. Then used Halfords primer and spray paint. Full story is at my society's website.