Does Hammerite Need Primer?
Hammerite metal paint is a really popular paint, particularly as a protective, anti-rust paint. If you are using it for the first time you may well be wondering does Hammerite need primer? Well, there is one way to know for sure. I got some really rusty metal and some Hammerite and got to painting, with and without primer and tried to see if it made any difference.
Does Hammerite Need Primer?
No, it does not. Hammerite metal paint is direct to rust paint and does not need a primer. There are some surfaces where a special metals primer is advised.
Direct to rust
Hammerite paints are designed to be painted direct onto rust without a primer. Before painting you need to remove any loose rust, a wire brush is brilliant for this, and maybe give it a clean. But you do not need to prime the surface.
This holds true for most non-galvanised metals, if the metal you want to paint is galvanised then Hammerite sell special paint for galvanised surfaces. They also offer a special metals primer which you can use then paint on top with any Hammerite paint.
Just to show how direct to rust Hammerite can be I decided to paint the sample above.
The Section on the right had been sanded to remove the really big chunks of rust whereas the section on the right has not been touched at all.
Now I have painted that same sample with Hammerite Direct to rust paint, the paint is the smooth finish version.
Then I allowed this sample plenty of time to fully cure before moving it outside to my sample are where it will live for the next few years.
Special Metals Primer
Hammerite Special Metals Primer is a water-based primer to promote adhesion to stainless steel and non-ferrous metals including galvanised, aluminium, chrome, brass and copper.
Rust Beater Primer
Hammerite No.1 Rust Beater provides a high build finish to heavily pitted areas of rust and prevents new rust from forming. This rust proofing product kills rust, primes and undercoats all in one.
This primer is really useful for really bad areas and areas where you don’t want rust to have any chance of coming back.
Here you can see a tin of the rust beater primer, this is nice, thick stuff that has great coverage.
And above you can see the primer once dried. it covers the rust really well and provides a much better surface to then paint on top of.
This is the same primed sample now painted over with Hammerite smooth.
Related Posts
We have a ton of posts on Hammerite here at The Bloke Cave. Check out some of these related articles.
