RustOleum for painting equipment

Well, I was in Hawaii about 20 years ago and my coworker was repainting a car and got sidetracked. The fender he'd sanded to bare metal and put a coat of rustoleum on started to rust through in about 6 months. He was driving the car daily and had no covered parking. Joe

None of the normal primers has any rust preventative effects, the exception is the two part auto epoxy primer (might explain your friend's rust problem). Standard Rustoleum is a pretty tough finish but not as good as a powder coat or epoxy based enamels. I used the Rustoleum on my trailer hitch, it gets exposed to the road salt spray all winter. After

3 winters it is starting to get some serious rust through but I'd consider that to be pretty reasonable.

I have been us> Is RustOleum any good for long term rust prevention?

It is important to prepare the surface if you expect long life. Wire brush all surfaces with a cup brush on a angle grinder. Wipe down the surfaces with a clean rag and paint thinner. Brush on at least two coats following the instructions on the can. Brushing will always ensure a better bond with standard enamels because you are stirring the paint onto the surface. When you spray the paint lands on top of the metal or dirt and you hope it bonds. The thicker the paint film the better generally so multiple coats are better than one thick coat. Slow drying oil base paints are better than fast drying. On metal parts break all sharp corners with a grinder. A sharp edge does not hold the paint film so you end up with a very thin layer of paint. Moisture gets under the paint at the edges and corrosion lifts the paint film off. That's is all I can think of. Most people like to blame the paint but any good paint job is in the preparation. Rustoleum is a good brand but you will not get as durable finish with a spray can as with a can of Rustoleum brushed on. Randy

Thanks

It's probably OK if applied properly. The part where it says to clean and degrease is really important and I admit I usually skimp on that step. But if you want it to last you have to get it super clean and grease free. Also, use a primer then then paint your color on top. But don't just use a primer because they can absorb moisture and allow rust.

Whut Randy said, augmented as follows:

The best prep for steel is sandblast, though wirebrush works pretty well too.

After that, treat with a phosphoric acid based metal prep like Ditzler

579. You'll find that at a store that sells materials for autobody work. It's about $10 for a quart. You dilute it 2:1 with water for use, so a quart can treat a lot of metal.

It makes a huge difference. Slosh it on, wait a bit, hose it off. Rust-Oleum then wets and flows out beautifully and adheres well.

I don't agree that brush is better than spray on properly prepped metal, but I do agree that paint from a can intended for use with brush is far better than paint from a rattlecan. I've had very satisfactory results with Rust-Oleum sprayed on metal treated as mentioned above and then shot (suitably thinned) with a spraygun. Cheap import sprayguns work fine with Rust-Oleum. Use Rust-Oleum thinner. That also seems to make a big difference.

Additional bonus: you can mix colors to get exactly what you want.

I have steel parts thus painted with Rust-Oleum that have been outdoors for more than a decade with no rust.

What is their thinner, I've never seen it. I just bought a gallon and it said to use Acetone, up to 15%. I've also seen recommendations to use Naphtha (sp). How much do you thin it? What size tip does your gun have? Mine is 1.5 and is too small.

Alex

All my life I've been reading most technical books I've found and I've *never* found a good primer on basic spray painting with a gun, much less HVLP. Anyone know of a good way to learn this other than to blow a bunch of money and time experimenting or taking an auto painting class?

GWE

AHS wrote:

I restored a car recently and did the painting myself. I learned how to do it by reading the forums at

and They sell some videotapes to help you out, also. I also read a couple "How to Paint your own Car" books. But in the end, until I got the spray gun in my hand and started spraying, I didn't really learn much about actually pulling the trigger. The books are good to teach you about prep work (cleaning and sanding) but they never do a good job telling you what to look for when you are painting. It's kind of hard because it is happening so fast that you just have to have a feel for it.

If you can do a decent job with a spray can then you can do a decent job with a paint gun. At first you'll probably make it to dry or too wet. Too dry and you have texture in your paint. Too wet and you have runs. But you have to start sometime so either live with the runs and texture at first or grab some fenders or whatever to practice on.

Most people will get the hang of it almost as soon as they start, at least good enough for spraying your welder or whatever, so don't worry too much about it.

Grant Erw> All my life I've been reading most technical books I've found and I've

#7700 thinner -- but if they say acetone now it probably works OK.

Thin it enough so it sprays well thru your gun. With a little experience you'll know when it "looks right". I can't give you a formula.

I've just used cheapo inport guns with Rusoleum. You might need to turn up your air pressure.

A class would probably be the best way,, though I've never taken one. There are several books on Amazon, most of them inexpensive paperbacks. Paint & Body Handbook, Don Taylor &Larry Hofer, HP Books #204 has a couple of chapters on painting that might serve as a good primer.

Like welding, there's no "magic answer". It does take some practice.

PPG/Ditzler used to have a lot of free literature that I found very helpful, but I don't know if they still do. Auto paints are much more expensive than something like Rustoleum, but if you follow the detailed directions carefully for mixing and applying you can get excellent results. A basecoat-clearcoat system is most expensive, easiest to apply, and gives the best results. This would go over a properly-prepped surface: metal-prep, epoxy primer, high-build sanding primer, wetsand, perhaps a sealer, then color and then clearcoat. I use cheap import guns for all but color and clearcoat. The occasional burp, sputter, drip or sag don't matter much with primer because you don't need to shoot it "wet" for gloss and you'll wetsand the sanding primer anyway.

A good gun does help when you're after gloss. A cheap gun sometimes works OK but a sputter or burp as the pot runs low can screw up an otherwise good job. Good guns don't do that. They spray consistently from full to nearly empty. My "good" guns were made by Sharpe. They're considerably less pricey than Binks and DeVilbiss, seem to work fine.

Basecoat-clearcoat is easier for a couple of reasons. You shoot the color basecoat fairly dry. This avoids drips and sags, and it's a lot easier to get metalflake uniform. The gloss comes from 3 or 4 full wet coats of clearcoat. It'll take some practice to get that right -- good gloss and "definition of image" with no drips or sags. It sure is gorgeous when you get it right, though. Seeing what was an ugly old mutt of a car glow like a new Mercedes is quite a thrill.

I once bought my daughter a Rabbit for $300. It was in excellent interior and mech condition and only 80K miles, but so ugly a neighbor of the guy I bought it from thanked me for removing that toad from their common alley. After I fixed all of the rust, replaced the broken window and painted it, she had a friend tell her she wished her daddy would let her paint her BMW like that. I had let her choose the color at the paint store. She chose a blinding Chevy Geo yellow. The thing looked like a glazed lemon drop. The paint cost twice as much as the car. She drove it for several years.

Lacquer is easy to shoot and cheaper, but more work overall because it must be "rubbed out" to get full gloss. Further, it doesn't wear as well or resist UV as well. It can get dull in just a year or two unless it's kept waxed and in a garage most of the time.

For jobs where you're not after a "showroom" finish, like steel fabrications and machinery, RustOleum works fine. It is neither as robust nor as glossy as good auto paint, but it's a whole lot cheaper and it hides and protects OK.

For simple utility, I sometimes just shoot epoxy primer and let it go at that. It's available in several colors (black, white, gray, reddish and a sort of babyshit green-gray), dries to sort of a satin finish. it adheres well and it's quite rugged. It's also pricey. Use a cheap import gun because if you don't get it absolutely clean afterwards you'll never get it clean after it cures and dries. Having said that, I've been using the same $29.95 gun(s) for over 10 years.

For small jobs, a "jamb" gun works well. There are import copies of the Binks jambgun. I've also used the little HVLP guns from HF (< $50) with good results. Less overspray, paint goes further.

Don't even think about shooting epoxy primer or urethane autopaint without a good respirator and very good ventilation. If you can smell it at all, you're not protected.

A phosphoric acid poison that I like to use for removing rust chemically is naval jelly. It is a pink gel that you apply with an old paintbrush. Don't take a whiff or you'll nose will not feel good for a while. Paint the stuff on the rust and then wipe it off with an old rag. I use it on machine ways and milling machine vises, etc where I want to remove light rust but mechanical grinding or wire brushing would destroy the ground and hardened ways. The scratches left by abrasive removal also have a tendency to trap more dirt and rust in the future.

Don Foreman wrote: ...

Whoa - $600 for paint! Boy, I'd be so nervous that I'd never get it right.

How expensive is the primer?

Bob

I seem to remember a nasty and beautiful color - yellow green primer - I think it was for Al only. That was something. It was Air force and SAC rated AOK. Chromate ?? Martin Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

Grant Erw> All my life I've been reading most technical books I've found and I've

"Martin H. Eastburn" wrote in news:1125194839 snipped-for-privacy@spool6-east.superfeed.net:

Zinc Chromate

SNIP

I had remembered today on the trip across the country :-)

Naturally with a nominal amount of thought process needed the mind crunches other things.

Martin Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH, NRA Life NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

Ken Moffett wrote: