Directions for repainting FW from bare metal
 

My FW smoke damaged in a house fire has no internal damage everything works fine. I want to take it down to bare metal and re-paint it it's original black. I am looking for articles, directions, etc. as to how to do it. Do I sand blast the head down to bare metal, will enamel paint work or does it need powder coating? I hope those questions give you an idea of what I am looking for. Or, am I getting in over my head? Thanks, Libby

It's a really big job. I had read about soaking the entire head in kerosene, so I wanted to try that on a frozen Singer 99. My DH told me there was a big vat of kerosene at his job, so we took the machine there and left it overnight. The vat of kerosene had some other solvent in it also, and my Singer 99 came out completely bare, inside and out. That was the easy part.

Next comes finding the paint and primer. I had read about using automotive paint, so that is what we used. I found instructions on the internet about the process to use; painting, sanding, and clear coating. I even made decals on my inkjet printer, although they in no way resembled Singer decals, and were not gold. It came out to be a rather personalized machine, but it did work like it should.

Thank you for your experience, knowledge and insight. Did you remove all the gears, wiring, basically take it down to the bare head?

If I am not mistaken, paining aluminum is much different than painting cast. Aluminum requires the proper pretreatment or the paint simply won't stay.

My husband is considering using DuraCoat on my 301 for me. It is developed for guns and I believe it is an epoxy type coating but I could be wrong.

Go to this website and purchase the book by David McCallum. I believe this is what you need. I refinished a featherweight using his book and video. I didn't strip completely, but he tells you how. I stripped mine down to the decals. Replaced decals. Excellent. www.featherweight221.com.

Dave McCallum has directions, in his book, "Featherweight 221 and I" for repainting a "dog" of a machine (his words)..woof woof. His book is very funny but also informative for anyone who owns a FW or a 301.

Thanks, I have Dave's book and DVD's, I just forgot to think about them I guess. I also have to restore the case.

I believe he has suggestions for that, too...lol!

Good luck on that, I sure would enjoy seeing pictures. Definitely I've seen the automotive paints and they come out pristine. You can get new decals on Ebay for a reasonable price. I am going to recover and re hardware my case too. Do you know what glue is used? I have a call in to a friend that works for a guitar mfg. I'm waiting for him to reply to see what they put fabric on amplifiers with. I think it should work the same... Let me know please if you find out something about the adhesive and I will do the same.
Gayle