If i paint ali panels with gloss paint, will it stay on or will it flake off? Just thinking about painting the footwell ends in the engine bay, and the battery tray that i am currently making, as these will get covered in road crap.

Cheers

Graham, u will need to etch prime it with a suitable coating before u paint as normal or it will flake off, there are single and two pack systems that do the job, talk to a local automotive or industrial paint supplier to find the cheapest deal for what u need.
Shug.

Looking at my recent bill tells me that I paid £9.20 for a litre of super etch primer and £7.43 for a litre of the activator for it, dunno whether that's a good price, gives you somewhere to start though.

Kingr

The price sounds about right, we get it cheaper, but we buy several litres per week, and hundreds of litres of wets per month.

To save spray painting it, you can use one of those little rollers used for gloss. remember, you need very little etch, you are not trying to colour with it, just chemically changing the surface of the aluminium.

Cheers for the replies guys.

Has anyone used that rubber paint? does that need a primer?

Cheers

Do you mean spray PU, the underbody coating that car manufacturers use, if so , yes, it needs a primer. In fack anything on ally will need an etch

I mean the stuf that you paint on like glue, and dries as rubber. I've seen it at kit car shows. They had a tennis ball painted in it, and you could squash it without it cracking. It was just coated in rubber!

Was thinking of painting the underside of the floor with it, and in the arches.

Cheers

It's called Carlife Rubbercoat - good stuff, you can buy it at the shows, excellent for preventing star cracking on Glassfibre wings.

Cheers

Chris