Scottish Elises

Anyone know of a good anti-rust primer or sumething similar?

Fed up with the rear grilles turing orange with rust every 6 months. Last time I painted on 2 very thick coats of hammerite thinking that'd last a bit longer... wrong!
Don't want to powder coat because the cost doesn't justify the extra few month you get with it.

Was thinking of trying plasti-coat / enamel this time, but maybe with an rust proof primer or summin???? :-\

stainless steel

you could get it galvanised or something if your going to paint get all the old paint/rust off first

no idea on a paint mate, but have you thought about getting some stainless grilles? Whether or not the cost is justified depends on how much you're p!ssed off at having to remove, paint and refit the grilles every 2 months I geuss

I got mine grit blasted and then I painted them with hammerite smooth, worked a treat.

stainless grilles would be great but not £120+ IIRC great
I was thinkin, my dads got a decent compressor + reservoir etc, is there a way to turn that into a sand blaster? Might be a bit more efficient for properly cleaning them than the dremmel with a steel brush attachment!

sit them in a tub of paint stripper first overnight to make sure the paint is all off then get them grit blasted you can get an attachment for a compressor but unless you have a cabinate it's messy and the grit isn't that good a stuff to be breathing in. someone local will grit blast them for peanuts

At least your car is dark green. Mine is silver, and now has orange rusty run lines coming from the rear grills. Strange that the front grill doesn't seem to rust anywhere near as much as the rear?!

What's the disadvantage of running the car with no grills?
and how the heck to you get em off?

The bolts are in rawl nuts, cut them off and push the rawl nut into the clam and retrieve them in the boot.

BiggestNizzy wrote:sit them in a tub of paint stripper first overnight to make sure the paint is all off then get them grit blasted you can get an attachment for a compressor but unless you have a cabinate it's messy and the grit isn't that good a stuff to be breathing in. someone local will grit blast them for peanuts

Sounds like a plan!

Corranga wrote:At least your car is dark green. Mine is silver, and now has orange rusty run lines coming from the rear grills. Strange that the front grill doesn't seem to rust anywhere near as much as the rear?!

I remember Dave Guthries Silver S1 went it's whole life without having the grilles painted, not a good look
Is odd those two grilles seem to get hit with the water and salt the most, must be those excellent S1 aerodynamics heh

Corranga wrote: What's the disadvantage of running the car with no grills?

None, besides making it difficult for someone to steal your 'caravan parts bin' fog and reversing lights! The car doesn't look bad without them either.

Corranga wrote: and how the heck to you get em off?

Two screws at the top of each grille, screwed into rawl nuts. Which may be rusted solid if you haven't taken them off recently... and replaced the screws with stainless ones, which I recommend you do. You can just push the old rawl nut up into the car body and push the new one in. The old one will work its way out the car over time

we pulled the rawl nuts out, they came out no problem, but need to buy new ones as they are rusted.

dip your grilles in nitromors paint remover then use a metal etch primer that likes rust then paitn with hammerite or similar, halfords or B&Q sell everything you need.

It cost me £10 a grill to have them blasted and powder coated. That was in the summer - not sure how long they will last as my car doesn't see too much action in the winter.
I felt a little aggrieved to be charged "so much" but in hindsight a damn sight easier than mucking about myself at probably a similar cost and only half the quality of the powder coating.

Scottd wrote:I remember Dave Guthries Silver S1 went it's whole life without having the grilles painted, not a good look

As in 'DaveG' ? Now has a red s2?

That would be my car

Will have a look this weekend maybe. My list of things to do is growing pretty quickly.

So far I have:
Clutch pipe
Paint grills
Clean gear linkage
and my boot cable is looking in a pretty bad state...

Gonna be a busy weekend

Stop being such a tight arse and get them powder coated at Coatech, they'll blast them first...you can even get them done in gold like you've wanted for ages

SteveBanks wrote:...you can even get them done in gold like you've wanted for ages

Style tips from the guy who bought a matching YELLOW Ferrari Seicento, just stick a rainbow flag on top of ur house and be done with it

Debating weather I want to spunk some of my overdue pay on a compressor and a grit blasting booth, should be able to do it for £300-£400 and I'll then have a compressor...

Would mean I could do small items without too much trouble, hopefully up to wheel size. I assume its just a matter of choosing an appropriate grit for alloy parts? would be very useful to have handy and it would mean air tools aswell :D:D