Mitsubishi Delica Owners Club UK™

[beck]

has anyone any idea's on changing the colour of my bars.trying to keep
cost down .what type of paint would i use?my Delica is green and gun metal grey.has anyone painted theres black if so do they look okay?i have thought of colour codeing them.chrome would be a little expensive i think.any idea's would be helpful.

[Google]

[IanFJ]

Hi,

You may find it's not as exspensive as you might think to get em chromed, there's a local small plating comapny near here that does stuff at quite reasonable prices, e.g. zinc plating a LARGE towbar £40. Alternatively powder coating is the easiest finish to get done and look good and lasts well.

Cheers

IanJ
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He who dies with the most toys, wins

[petemillis]

Beck, I've just gone for semi-gloss black powder coating. Cost was £40 for the sand-blasting and then £50 for the powder coating (didn't have rear bar done as I have lobbed it away).
I looked into Hammerite but it's a pin in the butt. Hammerite reacts badly with the existing paint. And if you remove the paint first you'll find the bars are galvanised which means you'd first have to prime them before putting Hammerite on. Plastikote paint works good though if all you want to do is smarten them up, but powdercoating is the most hardwearing.
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Pete
1995 Delica Space Gear Exceed (PE8W) in LaGuardia silver with chrome tints and BIG round things.

[pyrogaz]

I used black Smoothrite, but had to use Hammerite primer first to prevent cissing. Looks better than the white.

[Mystery Machine]

Beck,

As Ian says, chrome plating probably won't be as much as you think! 8)

The company he is talking about is Avon Electro Plating in Weston-S-Mare (Number: 01934 631277) The owner, Martin, is VERY helpful and is willing to do small & one-off jobs. He did all the zinc coating for the clubs EGR plates if that's anysort of recommendation?

You don't mention in your heading/title where you are based? (always helpful so that people NEAR your location can recommend places nearby! )

As a guide of how much chrome bars would cost, to have my L300 bullbar re-chromed would cost £100 (cash) and these are about 3 times the size (quantity of metal) than the L400 ones.....

As Pete says, Plasticote are also VERY good if you are looking to cover the existing paint. Hard wearing with a good finish and easy to apply. I've done some brackets in my front arches with Plasticote and the results are SUPERB! Very pleased! :D

Also, as Pete says, powder coating is the ultimate finish if you aren't going for Chrome. Much harder wearing than painting yourself, but the cost obviously reflects that! By the time you take the sand/bead blasting into account, you're probably not far off the price of having them chromed! :?

Hammerite/Smoothrite I can't really comment on - I've only ever used it once on freshly blasted steel, but it bubbled like CRAZY because there was a lot of moisture in the air Not the fault of the paint, but never really had the need to use it since.....

Best of luck,

Bruce.

P.S. Remember to ammend your profile to include your location - it makes helping you a LOT easier! :D
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'93 L300 Mystery Machine (Now in the hands of a new owner)
'94 L300 Mud Monkey (Post Apolcalyptic Edition )