Dave L 's 1954 MSS rear mudguard

The rear mudguard on Dave L's 1954 MSS had been powder coated when it arrived with the kit of parts to assemble his bike. The rear mudguard had some sort of staining on it, that looked like something had been spilled on it, and had eaten into the powder coat finish. When I contacted him about it, thinking it must have happened when in the workshop, he said the rear fender and battery platform had been subjected to a bad battery acid attack, and probably had not been properly prepared before being powder coated. I decided a baking soda treatment to attempt to neutralize the lasting residual effects of the battery acid corrosion -

Last year, when my friend Dave Smith was over for a few months looking to help out in the shed, I asked him if he could grind off all the powder coating finish from the outside of the mudguard for me, leaving bright bare metal. 

This Memorial Holiday weekend, I treated Dave L's MSS rear mudguard to a bit of love. I unbolted it off his bike, here I had been test fitting it. Next was to mix up a solution of one part baking soda, to three parts water, and brush the solution all over the mudguard. then I mixed a one to one baking soda and water mix to make a thin past, and panted the whole mudguard - then let it sit for the day. . Next I washed off the mudguard with water, and used compressed air to blow it off and dry it. Next I gave it a good wash down with contact cleaner and and wiped it down to ready it for paint. Lastly I coated the battery platform and rear mudguard with POR 15 black paint / sealant.  This will leave me a nice base for top coating with black enamel. The POR 15 is brushed on heavy, and will have dust and bug spots, as it is a little slow drying, and I want to apply a nice spray paint finish on all the parts, so all the black matches -