Singer Paint Colour Match

[dikman]

My Singer is UK made, and is a silvery-blue (?) finish (I can't quite figure out exactly what it is). I'm guessing it's pretty much a standard colour that Singer used, so has anyone matched it to a commonly available paint?

[Constabulary]

Kwokhing has sewing machine spray paints but sending them by Airmail is not allowed afaik (HAZMAT).

http://www.kwokhing.com/sakura/paint_e.html

The Janome paint looks close

ATM I'm refurbishing a 212G141 and I have painted the top lid and face cover with silver hammerite - looks not too bad. Will post a picture later.

Edited February 7, 2016 by Constabulary

[Constabulary]

You can see the difference but looks not too bad I´d s ay

[Evo160K]

@Constabulary

Looks very good to me. Where did you get the gold decal?

[Constabulary]

that's still the original - I only have painted the lid, face plate and flat bed. I just wanted to show the difference between original paint and Hammerite silver.

[dikman]

My replacement shuttle came in so I decided to find some paint at the same time, to save me making another trip. I ended up with a silver hammertone, not as close as I would have liked but I figured the hammertone texture should look better than a smooth finish. Anyhow, it's got to look better than the wrinkly green finish on there now!

Constabulary, I know it's hard to get good photos when talking about colour matching, but that one looks pretty good to me.

[Constabulary]

This is what I have used:

http://www.hammerite.co.uk/products/direct_to_rust_metal_paint_aerosol_hammered_finish.jsp

But it is by far not quick drying - it always takes at 2 days before you can touch the surface (my experience)

Edited February 8, 2016 by Constabulary

[dikman]

Interestingly, it is available nearby - but only in black and white, no silver!!

Where do you get Singer decals from? I'll only consider repainting the body if I can replace the lettering too. This machine might be a good one for me to try as a first attempt.

[Constabulary]

See above answer #2, #5 - the body still has the original paint + decals - I though it would be obvious.

[dikman]

Sorry, I thought you had sourced the decals in the past.

This is the final result of repainting the bed. The first coat gave a nice hammered finish, the second coat smoothed it out!! The difference in colours is more noticeable in the photo, but I'm still happy with it as it looks infinitely better than the previous paint job. Whoever did the last one didn't make much attempt, if any, to mask off the main body - the overspray you can see is from the previous job.

[Uwe]

I'd love to find an on-this-continent source for properly tinted hammertone spray paints.

Alternatively perhaps a silver hammertone base coat and tinted clearcoat airbrushed topcoat may be a good approach. I've not seen hammertone paint you can mix yourself for airbrush use.

I think I will also try one of these silicone rubber plug kits for my next sewing machine paint project to plug holes. They're made for high-temp power coating applications but they might work nicely for spray painting, too. About $0.10 a piece in bulk quantities on Amazon. They might even be reusable if you can just peel the paint off them after it dries, or perhaps just pull them out while the paint is still wet.

Edited February 10, 2016 by Uwe

[dikman]

A lightly tinted clearcoat over a silver base is an interesting idea.

[Constabulary]

but when the tinted clear coat is rubbing off (maybe one day) it looks even uglier. Since the entire machine is not the nicest paint wise (no offense) I´d rather paint the entire machine in silver and put a new black decal on it. In my opinion the best compromise and it looks even better. I once did that when I restored my 29K71.

[Colt W Knight]

I'd love to find an on-this-continent source for properly tinted hammertone spray paints.

Alternatively perhaps a silver hammertone base coat and tinted clearcoat airbrushed topcoat may be a good approach. I've not seen hammertone paint you can mix yourself for airbrush use.

I think I will also try one of these silicone rubber plug kits for my next sewing machine paint project to plug holes. They're made for high-temp power coating applications but they might work nicely for spray painting, too. About $0.10 a piece in bulk quantities on Amazon. They might even be reusable if you can just peel the paint off them after it dries, or perhaps just pull them out while the paint is still wet.

I would think hammertone paint would be too thick to spray in an airbrush. I have sprayed it through a regular hvlp gun, but I had to use a big tip. Thinning it really kills the hammered look.

I do a lot of custom paint on firearms and guitars, and the trick to removing plugs and masking is to let it dry enough that you can remove the plug/tape and the paint will heal itself, but not so dry that pulling the masking off with chip the hard paint. When you let it set just right, you can peel that stuff like a banana. Still soft, but dry enough not to hurt anything

Edited February 10, 2016 by Colt W Knight

[dikman]

Good point, Constabulary. I suppose as long as I didn't use it..........nah, very unlikely.

Black decals? All I've found do far have been gold ones.