Optimus 8r and 22 Makeover - Watch this space, more photos

Some of you may have read in my earlier posts about my plans to restore my old 8r and my recently acquried 22.

So here are the photos at long last, Keep watching this space, there are plenty more photos to come!

Here is a photo of my Optimus 22, it looks ok here, but it had quite a bit of rust, so this will be all stripped, and then zinc plated.



Here is my 8r, which i had painted with hammerite, the same will be done to this stove.


Here is the paint being stripped off the Optimus 22.





here is my 8r being stripped:
This paint had baked on well, and took alot of work to clean it all off.


even though the paint looked quite good on the stove, it turned out there was quite a bit of rust underneath, so i put them both in a bath of rust killer before getting zinc plated.

here is the stoves after coming back from the zinc platers, they look nice and clean now.



at last my 8r hunter is repainted with the ford cosmos blue, it does look the right color, although only the earlier stoves were painted in this color, but i think it looks better than the lighter blue that they went to on the later stoves.
I put it back together after a little polish and elbow grease.



here are some photos of it running:






It boils 1 litre of water in just under 10 mins, not bad for a 40 year old 8r!

unfortunatley, it cant have baked hard enough in the oven, although it seemed alright after being used, part of it had stuck onto the bench, so i will have to touch it up and bake it again.

its also putting flames out the filler cap valve, which it never did before, i will have to see if it can be repaired, i saw some article about this, but cant find it anymore.

anyway, keep watching this, hopefully i will get my optimus 22 finished too, it is still half painted.

Cheers
Shaun

 

Excellent work from start to finish. What is zinc plating and what does zinc plating do for the stoves?

 

Bloody amazing ! W O W !

The bar has been raised yet again.

 

Wonderful work, very nice. On the Zinc plating, how well does the paint stick to the Zinc. I seem to remember you need a special primer with Zinc.

Regards, Ed

 

zinc plating is a way of putting on a protective zinc coating to prevent rust, by means of using electricty, in a special acid solution, a wire is attached to the cathode, which in this case is my stove, and then the anode is a block of zinc, when electricty is passed, the electrons grab charged particles of zinc, and deposit them onto the tin.

Im not sure what primer you would use, but i put on a special metal etching primer, that i use on cars, and it is designed for bare metal especially aluminium, it in this case should be quite suitable for zinc.

ive had trouble with the paint bubbling on my other stove, i think it got a bit of dampness last night, so i will have to redo part of it

 

Outstanding job, Zoom, you can be well pleased with yourself. The zinc plating was a nice touch, I may have to look into that. Is the coat thick enough to fill minor pits in the metal, or only a few microns thick?

 

no it does not fill the pits, i never worried, but if you want to get rid of them, fill them with primer, then rub it down before painting.

hang on there, i am uploading my latest photos of my optimus 22
cheers
Shaun

 

here are the photos







im in a hurry and have to go so caome back soon and i will have more comments
Cheers
Shaun

 

WOW!!!

Simply beautiful! Wonderful! Amazing! Nice work!

 

Two wonderful restorations.

Very interesting having them zinc plated. Did the plating company blast (clean) the metal first or did you have to do that yourself?
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i had to clean it myself, got the whole job done for $40NZ plus other bits and pieces i needed plating too.

Those cans of touch up paint were both different colors, even though they were the same cosmos blue on the labe, the batches must be differentl, my optimus 22 looks slightly different than the 8r, but in the photo you cant really tell.

the stoves i have seen repainted here on this site, look more like the lighter blue they originally came out in but im not worried.

something interesting about my 22 stove is that it had a 22 sticker placed over a 22b sticker, they must have done it in the factory.

if anyone can post the link about reparing the filler cap valves for the 8r that would be great, my 8r is starting to blow out flames from the valve, which it did not do before.

Thanks
Shaun

 

Very, very nice. Where does one get zinc plating performed? I'd have no idea where to start to look for that service. Mind you, I have no stoves stripped down and ready to go, but one never knows.

 

Several years ago on a commercial job, specs called for painting of galvanized metal parts, which we did, not knowing that there were specialized paints for galvanized metal. Long story short, the paint turned loose in sheets after a relatively short period of time. Seems some sort of gas forms between the galvanizing and the regular types of paint. Repainted a bunch of parts with the special paints and as far as I know they're still there. Did I say several years.......try 25.

That said, I have no idea if zinc plating would require special paints, but the plater ought to know.
Best,
Bob

 

Should also have added that a simple perusal of the "yeller pages" here in the USA for electro-plating or plating (in any major city) will locate several platers willing to do that type of job.
Best,
Bob

 

From way back in the Mists of time, I recall that applying vinegar to the zinc coating for 15 minutes would etch it enough for the paint to stick. Rinse well, of course!

 

Is this the thread you have in mind? it shows the interior parts of a mini/midi-pump cap.
Repairs has to be done with care and on your own risk (as all stove repairs ...)

 

it is similar, but not the same, i dont have a midi pump, so my cap is the standard one, i know that it is the same cap as the optimus 22 and 111, and it must be able to take a certian amount of pressure, i would imagine that i would get a better flame with a good sealing cap, there was a thread here on making a pentagonal tool to unscrew the valve.

i probably can do it without problems, i dont think there is any danger involved, as with the midi pump the pressure is greater in the tank anyway.

 

Hi Texas, you are quite right about the need for special primers etc, when painting zinc coatings.

The underlying reason that incompatible paints quickly detach and lift off in sheets is because of a property of Zinc, called amphoterism. Put simply, zinc , depending on conditions, can produce compounds which are either acidic or basic ( alkaline).

This has a profound effect on the choice of paint system, if it is to be effective.

The problem with painting zinc is that the zinc itself always has a surface film of oxy-hydroxides and carbonates; thus, the paint needs to be compatible with that surface film. Oil-base coatings with drying oils, such as linseed oil, will react to form a zinc soap, causing later delamination and peeling of the paint layer

The way around this is to use a properly specified primer which is compatible with both the zinc compounds and paint top coats.

In the old days hot-dipped galvanised structures were often left for a year or so to "weather" and produce a stable zinc compound on their surface. Painting was then sometimes possible without specialised primer coats. It was still a bit hit-or-miss and it is an expensive mistake if the whole paint layer lifts off after a week or so!

Aren't metals interesting?

Regards,
Kerophile

 

ive had some problems with the paint bubbling under the burners after using for the first time, the paint seems to hold out elsewhere, and the bottom side of the tin is ok, seems a little strange dont you think, i dont overfill the priming dish, so dont know whats going on.



i also dont think they designed the pot stands to withstand the heat either, as the chrome has changed color, and bubbled, which you would expect when it gets red hot - it cant have had much use from new, i may make my own one from stainless later on.

my left hand burner seems to leak very slightly when turned off, pheraps the spindle valve has not bedded in being so new.

thabks forany help

 

I had the same problem with a 111t which I repainted - I think the whole burner (including the priming cup) just gets so hot that it melts the paint (I used blue auto spray paint). I just don't think the paint is designed for the sort of temperatures that the burner gets up to. I also found that it melted the paint on the underside of the tin (stuck the tin to the piece of ply it was resting on!)

However, I've got round the problem on an 8r that I've just repainted ( I used blue hammerite on this - even meltier than auto paint!) by cutting a small piece of glass fibre plumbers insulation mat (most diy stores sell it in the plumbing section - it's used to protect the surrounding area when you're soldering pipes in confined spaces) which fits under the priming cup. This insulates the hot burner from the tin.

Not the most elegant solution, but might help...

Regarding your leaking burner - it may be that the cleaning needle rack is bottoming out before the valve is fully closed, preventing it sealing properly. If you've dismantled the burner, try one less 'click' when you refit the needle. I'm sure others will offer more advice on this though

best
Matt