When to paint?

[jps]

I'm trying to figure out what order to do stuff in. As my chassis is currently mostly constructed, but sitting in a damp garage, i thought that getting some paint on it would be a priority. But it seems like I need to do all the welding necessary before I can paint - so I need to have at least trial fitted the engine and gearbox in order to know where to attach engine and gearbox mounts. Which seems like a big leap forward from where I am now.

Is painting the chassis actually a job for much later in the build? If so - how do I best protect the bare steel tube/box section until then?

[Talonmotorsport]

The sooner you put some work in to cleaning and covering the bare steel the less of a mission you will have later when it comes to painting it, once the light surface rust patches start to show it's time to get started before it gets any worse. Clean the tubing with some thing like acetone and scotch bright to degrease and key the surface,then give the whole thing a light dusting/covering of single pack etch primer. Remember to wear a good mask while painting espesh if spraying and that it does travel! Once the surface has started to rust it will be a mission to remove it so even if the first layer of primer gets grubby it will be a lot easier to just touch up that area rather than clean the whole chassis. When you come to weld more parts to it you'll only need to remove the primer around that area then touch up after welding. If you use a light colour primer to do the first coat then the second coat use a darker colour then you can see the parts you have missed.

[jps]

OK - another novice question - where do I go to buy etch primer in tins (going to apply by brush rather than spray given the chassis is more thin air than big panels!)...

I'm in Colchester, Essex - so we have all the standard DIY places - but I'm not sure whether I need a motor supply place (Halfords?) or somewhere more specialist...

I know it's a basic kind of question - but i'm coming to this completely anew!!!

[Talonmotorsport]

I would look on ebay or google body shop supplies.

etch primer in hairy arse hole cans , I would use these for a better finish

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/x-6-AUTOTE..._Body_Shop_Sup

etch primer that you could brush on

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1L-Chromat...d#ht_899wt_937

and I would invest in one of these unless you enjoy monster head aches

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3M-4251-Re...#ht_733wt_1139

[Oscar]

Slight thread hijac and sideways steerage as I'm at a similair stage.

My plan is to use Red-Oxide primer and clean/paint in stages (my rails have quite a bit of surface rust). Once all of the welding/fitting/bumping has been done I plan to but on a second coat in one go and lead on from there.

Sound reasonable?

[Talonmotorsport]

Red oxide is for use on black steel such as RSJ's and hot rolled steel with black scale, it does not work too well on bright steel it will just lay top of the material the same as hammerite. You need to use some thing that has some kind of etching quality to bite in to the surface.