Suffolk Punch Front Roller Paint - yes or no?

Good day,

I'm not an expert on Suffolk's, I've only worked on ones with Plastic or wooden rollers, so assume the roller you have is  originally electroplated / chromed / zinc coated.  

....ahh.....  I remember......I see your other posts on The Colt Running issues, as I say, ones like this I have owned had the black plastic front rollers.

Often, like yourself; I find they go rusty and need to be addressed  after  filling and / or  painting, you want it to look good and last, so lacquering is a good idea

MY WAY: / WHAT I  DO:

A Roller I recently did was completely pitted, so cleaned off all rust, dipped in phosphoric acid for three days,   washed off / degreased thoroughly.  then sanded with 4" twist grip wire brush on 9" angle grinder  then cleaned off ..applied  Isopon body filler (other makes available)  rubbed down, primed, saw imperfections, applied more filler, rubbed down primed,   repeated 5 times, applied more primer, happy with appearance, like new, then I used heat proof silver or aluminium effect spray paint.  So as you advise you can lacquer to keep it good, particularly if, as the Colt you are restoring, you wish to use.

Re-electroplating can be done by amateur kits, not that I have ever tried them or  getting stung by a company doing electroplating.

Thanks for your invaluable advice - always well received.  I have removed the rust through electrolysis and then wire brushed and put the roller in the lathe and ran some 80 grit paper over it to remove the black electrolysis deposit.

The roller is well pitted as to be expected and the chap I am doing this for is keen to have a restoration sympathetic to the vintage of machine rather than 'concourse' as such.  Hence, the patina is to stay.  This does present me a slight issue as removing the electrolysis deposit from within the pitted areas is a bit fiddly.

So I'm going to proceed with an acid bath - I'll start with white vinegar as I have some of that to hand.  If that's not enough, then will try phosphoric or oxalic acid.

Once that's cleared up, then I'll electroplate zinc - I'll do this myself, it's quite easy and cheap.

Then finally, a coat of POR-15 clear lacquer and should be job done.

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P.S. - I'll update soon on the engine running issue.  Not had a chance yet to play with the governor settings and try your suggested approach.

From what I've seen, you don't need any advise, everything you are doing is high quality and attention to detail!

You have certainly done more than us, in regard to electroplating.

We look forward to more photos and enjoy all the great posted content.

Thank you so much - thought it worthy of showing a few pictures of the electrolysis journey with the front roller:

First stage - rusty roller

Then made an anode to go round the roller in the electrolysis bath from some strips of mild steel:

All hooked up in the tank:

Electrolysis underway:

Post electrolysis with a layer of black carbonate residue:

and after a scrub, ended up like this:

So I'm rather pleased, but needs the acid dip and then electroplating - I'll post some pics when I'm at this stage.