Garden Railway Forum

I am looking to paint the white metal buffers on my Roundhouse Katie. My question is, can I use a standard grey primer (something from Halfords for use on a car) or should it be an etch primer ?

I ve used 'special metals primer' on alloys and its very good but a small tin is very large for a pair of buffers this size! It s Hammerite

Bearing in mind that the faces are going to get bashed anyway, I'd use car spray primer, following up with gloss black spray paint.

TBH I don't bother painting the buffer faces any more, all of mine are left unpainted but given a once over with some sandpaper.

I only plan to paint the back section of the casting and leave the flat plate as bare metal. I’ve done a few other searches and several people say that Halfords grey primer should be fine. I already have a tin and also some etch primer but I wasn’t sure which would be better. I believe the etch primer penetrates the oxidisation found on brass and copper but I don’t think these white metal castings oxidise in the same way. I’ll try the Halfords primer and let you know if it falls off within a short period of time.

YOu know, on white metal I have never found primer to be particularly necessary. The metal is already a greyish colour in the first place and the metal is quite porous so I find regular paint sticks to it quite well without bothering to use primer.

Keith S:72613 wrote:YOu know, on white metal I have never found primer to be particularly necessary. The metal is already a greyish colour in the first place and the metal is quite porous so I find regular paint sticks to it quite well without bothering to use primer.

I had the same experiance, i went to the effort of spraying a load of castings in red oxide primer, then painting them in topcoat

I then painted some wagon axleboxes that get knocked and banged loads, paint has stuck fine with no prep work.

Thanks for the advice. I now need to visit Halfords to find some red paint to paint the buffers and buffer beam.

I usually clean up the casting with a swiss file and wire wool. Then I polish up the face, paint the coupling with 2 or 3 coats of humbrol satin black, wiping the polished face with a rag and White spirit each time. I've never had paint come off any of my White metal couplings. Hope this helps.