VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Red Paint Type

My Canadian 38 Master has a brass insert on both sides of the hood. Each has the lettering Master Special.The letters are supposed to be painted red. What type of paint sticks to brass?

Pinstripers use One Shot. It's like any paint in that you'll need to prep the surface by etching or sanding it. The pinstriper who did mine didn't do that and some of the paint is gone. Another section of moldings that was done by the body shop that did the restoration did etch the surface and the paint is still alive and well.

A local bodyshop supply should be able to set you up. The prep is vital and more important than the paint if you want it to last like Tiny says.

I'd be tempted to mask everything and spot blast the area lightly with a fine glass grit with a $35 handheld blaster from Princess Auto. Won't need a big compressor and will give a good texture for paint to stick to. This is what I will do with all my red paint on my Pontiac, including hubcaps. Just basically remove the shine without sand scratch marks.

You know I wondered how to get paint to stick to brass. It just dawned on me that most of the radiators have brass painted black!

Thanks for all the suggestions and help.

Guys, I keep reading this. You DO NOT need to ”˜etch’ or ”˜sand’ the chrome for the lettering or striping with the One Shot. I’ve done many many grilles and emblems for my dad who restores grilles emblems and moldings. When you pick up your can of One Shot, also pick up a can of the low temp reducer. Use the reducer to thoroughly clean the detail area to be painted with a lint free cloth. This removes all contaminants. I’ve tried this with other thinners and wax-n-grease remover and it does not work as well as the One Shot Low Temp Reducer. Once it’s cleaned, then you can stripe away!

The only time you should be ”˜sanding’ a chrome surface you need to be careful not to bust through any layers. It’s best to use a red scuff pad. Let me use a 47-48 grille bar as an example. The bars on the grille are chrome, except the back half was originally painted silver. You’ll notice a lot of restored grilles are no longer painted silver as original. To successfully achieve this, mask off the portion to remain chrome. Use only tape, no paper. Then use a fine line tape for the painted edge (the edge where it transitions from paint to chrome). After it’s masked, LIGHTLY scuff the surface to be painted with a red scuff pad. By hand. No machine. And no sandpaper. Way too aggressive!!! After scuffed, clean surface with pre-paint cleaner to remove contaminants then clean with tack cloth. I use DuPont Chroma products. Spray with epoxy primer/sealer mixed to sealer consistency. A light coat with complete coverage is all that you need. After it flashes off, spray the color (in the case of the 48 it should be silver, and I use GM code 6248 Bright Argent Silver). Once the color flashes off, then spray your clear. Heavy enough for a good shiny coat, light enough to not run. Let the clear dry for about 10-15 minutes and then remove only the fine line tape so the soft edge of the clear will fall and dry as a soft edge.

Sorry, that turned into a painting class!

My question was about painting brass, not chrome.

So you did. Oops. I've not painted brass but a little quick research says it's pretty much like most metals. Clean/abrade/prime/paint. Any paint made for metal should be fine.

Agreed, it should be the same or real similar to chrome or any other metal. If you do feel the need to prime though, use a DTM epoxy (direct to metal). It has self-etching properties.