Dob Repaint pt2

By Antony McEwan

Send For The Stripper

I was lucky enough to be allowed to do all the stripping and paint work at a large isolated work-shed in the country. Before starting anything I masked off the interior ends of the tube to prevent the paint stripper removing the interior paint. Then it was a case of ‘painting’ the Nitromors onto the tube, using rough broad strokes, and watching the paint crackle and bubble up, before it simply fell away from the tube! Impressive stuff, this Nitromors. A quick spray down with the hose was needed to remove all the remains of the paint and stripper, and then the bare metal tube was revealed in all its glory. Or misery.

With no paint concealing it, the rust was plainly visible in many places, in large concentrated areas, and in thin spider-web like lines over the surface of the metal. Seeing it like this was quite daunting: what had I let myself in for? Maybe I should order that replacement tube after all!

Next step was to reach for the Ku-Rust and paint the mixture onto the rust using a small paintbrush. It was important to cover every single strand of rust, as Ku-Rust kills the existing rust, and helps to prevent new rust forming. Having painted it on, the mixture turns black as it ‘kills’ the oxide, and it hardens. Then when it’s fully dry, it is sanded off to leave as smooth and rust-free a surface as possible. This is what I did, applying the Ku-Rust several times to the worst areas, and sanding it away as it hardened and dried. I finished my work on day one by applying Ku-Rust to the very last rust remnants, and left it to do its work overnight.

The next day I sanded those parts down, and eventually was left with a much smoother and rust-free tube. It looked unquestionably better than it had when the paint came off, and was now begging to be primed, to cover up its shiny bare nakedness. Telescopes have dignity too, you know.

The primer needed to be shaken and shaken and shaken until it was all mixed up completely (I know that feeling), and then it was time to apply it in long gentle sweeps. I was told the trick was to build up lots of very thin coats, rather than aiming the can at a particular point and trying to apply a solid coat all at once. It was a matter of moving around the tube, which was now supported on a raised block for painting, and moving the can in long sweeping motions so that it was always parallel to the tube, and just letting the fine paint particles alight gently on the tube. After each covering, it was left to dry for twenty minutes or so, before starting over again. The can of primer ran out before we had an even covering, so a second can was bought – this time I could only get red oxide primer, but that really didn’t matter as it was only to provide a base for the paint to stick to.

First coats of paint carefully applied to provide light, even coverage.

Once the primer had dried for an hour or so, the colour paint could go on. This also had to be shaken thoroughly. It was applied in exactly the same way as the primer – slowly and carefully, leaving intervals between very thin coats. It took two or three coats before the paint coverage began to appear even, and a further one or two before it began to look like something that had been properly painted! This is how it was supposed to be – many thin coats with a gradual build up of paint. With the tube now looking well and truly ‘painted’ it was time to call it a day, and we packed the tube away for storage overnight.

Day three And Beyond

The paint I had chosen, Halfords Peugeot Blaze Yellow, was a metallic paint. Now, it may sound terrible, but apparently when applying metallic paint, the final coat should be very lightly sanded down with very fine sandpaper before applying the lacquer! This brings out the metallic part of the paint and creates the shine when the lacquer is applied. But before applying the lacquer, it makes the paint look absolutely flat and awful! It was a worrying time… But after only one or two passes with the lacquer spray (after it had been shaken of course) the difference was amazing! The paint shone and glinted, looking nothing like it had just moments before!

The lacquer makes all the difference...

The lacquer serves a very important purpose too, it protects the paint, and therefore the metal tube. Each layer of lacquer applied slightly increases the protection, so I went for as many coats as I could get out of the can, which happened to be about four. The telescope does get used a fair bit, and is often put into and carried out of my car, so I thought I’d try for as much protection as possible to protect against the inevitable bangs and dings.

Having done that, it was left to dry for a few hours, then brought home and stored in a warm room for a week. During that time I didn’t touch it, I just left it to harden, dry and cure. After that time I began to inspect it, and found that I was really very pleased with the result, especially considering it was my first telescope repaint! It wasn’t perfect obviously, but I’m not telling where the ‘dodgy bits’ are! I felt that the paint coverage was at least as good as before, if not better, and the colour a lot more fun.

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