manicmechanic wrote:You say you mixed Rustoleum with acetone? Is it like oil base in a can paint ? When I was researching paint , I think I remember that rustoleum rusty red metal primer had more zinc in it than others and some other folks had had some great results with priming with rattle cans then top coating with other paint . My concern was those little pits that I couldn't reasonably sand out , I went over it with phospheric acid I think and used a product that was recomended by a guy who had a really nice yellow paint job on a 40's coupe at the beach ,said they used it on ships alot , I have some in the shop can't remember the name I'll look
Yes, acetone. Yes, the quart sized cans. Right from the can, the paint is fine for brush application, but to spray, it has to be thinned. I did a bunch of reading to see what others were using and how much to thin the paint. Some used lacquer thinner, some mineral spirits if I recall correctly, and acetone. Acetone seemed to get the best reviews, so I went with it. It does dry very quickly if you use acetone to wipe a panel off. I read that the best thinning percentage was 5-6% acetone to paint - so I went with this number, but I can also look at the paint in my spray gun cup and tell if it is too thick or too watery. On my body panels, as you will read, I added an enamel paint hardener. I used to spray using only DuPont Centari automotive paint with the hardener and the paint would come out like glass. They don't make the Centari anymore. But, with this truck, it will be outside in the elements for the most part and used for advertising, so I wanted a rugged paint that would hold up better than automotive paints. Rustoleum was my choice as I use it on car parts/pieces as it holds up well if the metal is prepared and primed. Their primer used to have fish oil in it and when sprayed, you could indeed smell it. The EPA required a reformulation of the spray paints and other paints that it can be very problematic when spraying several coats as it can ripple or bubble up without enough dry time between coats - so you have to spray multiple coats back-to-back and hope no runs or sags.
There are a number of "rust reformers", "rust inhibitors," and "rust encapsulators." You may be thinking of "Naval Jelly"? Great stuff on rust and I was able to salvage an engine that had so much rust on the cylinder walls that I was not sure I could save it. Repeated applications and scraping, I finally got the cylinders smooth and was able to knock the pistons out and my machinist was able to bore the cylinders enough to save the block without any sleeving of the cylinders. I worked on subs and they attach zinc bars to the hull which acts as a sacrificial metal and minimized rusting.