While painting could seem only a finishing touch in the manufacturing of a kart chassis, it actually is an essential step, both in terms of brand identity, since the chassis color (especially before the introduction of fairing kits) is one of the distinctive traits of each brand, and for the quality of the finished product. The purpose of the paint, in fact, is also to avoid the formation of rust on the molybdenum chrome steel tubes of the frame. There are few kart manufacturing companies which manage the painting process in-house. One of them is CRG, historic Italian company based in Desenzano del Garda (Brescia) which gave us the exclusive opportunity of visiting its painting department to discover, step-by-step, how “black” chassis are painted.

The raw frames coming directly from the welding department, are hung to the hooks of the conveyor system which allows the chassis to go autonomously through the various working processes. The first step is washing. The chassis enters into a special machine that is kept at an internal temperature of 48 °C. Here, it is washed with a jet of high-pressure water which is used to degrease it from oils and other residues remaining from the previous cutting, bending and welding steps. The second operation involves drying, which takes place at a temperature of 87 degrees. These two phases (washing and drying) are managed together in the first block of the painting chain. The machine has a capacity of 4 chassis.