I have a few control grips that I would like to tidy up and wonder if someone can give me some advice on painting them. They’re 1950’s RAfF types… Hunter, Vulcan etc. What paint should I use? Are Should they be matt finish or are they more satin? Any help would be gratefully received.
Regards
927
By: Rocketeer - 7th November 2009 at 15:26
I have a few control grips that I would like to tidy up and wonder if someone can give me some advice on painting them. They’re 1950’s RAfF types… Hunter, Vulcan etc. What paint should I use? Are Should they be matt finish or are they more satin? Any help would be gratefully received.
Regards
927
Mark is right, satin for most Dunlop grips (i.e. the ones you have quoted). I tend to try to leave my grips as original as possible if I can, however, they can corrode (mag alloy). In which case, I remove all corrosion very carefully with fine wet and dry. A heavyily corroded example would benefit from bead blasting but care is required again (low pressure/bead type – def not sand!!) to avoid eroding good metal. I use a dremel (other tools are available!!:)) with an engraving bit to clean out deeper pitting. The best primer is etch….you can by it in spray cans now from Light Aero Spares and it is cheap. I often use a fine brush to ensure it goes deep into pits. Any car spray satin would do for the top coat (most collectors have preferences, I use Halfords). The bakelite/thermoset covering used by Dunlops can be replicated (it has been in use on aircraft types from the Hawker Fury/Hind/etc up to Tornado F3!) if you wish to stop a crack in the covering rub in 5min Araldite into the crack (I rub it in hard with my finger though H&S blah may suggest that not good :D)….
hope this helps.
By: VX927 - 7th November 2009 at 09:50
Great…. Thank you very much for your reply.
By: Arabella-Cox - 6th November 2009 at 21:55
They should be Satin Black – certainly my NoS ones are, and I have a few that have been refurbished by Dunlop and these too are Satin.
One of my Vulcan B.2 grips had been painted all over in flat matt black (including the ripple grip material), but I managed to get that back to pretty much the original finish. Don’t know why it had been done, but I assumed it had probably been done in-service :confused:
Some of the non-Dunlop grips though are quite gloss, and I think my original Harrier grip is like this. The ones by Page (like on the Hawk and Harrier FRS)have a kind of fine ‘crackle’ paint finish.
Tony Dyer is your man when it comes to grips though…. 😉
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November 6, 2009 at 9:22 pm