rust inhibitors

[townlineterry]

One of my winter time projects is to rebuild the bed on my dump truck , the truck frame is very rusty so I want to clean it up and repaint it. There are a lot of products out there CLAIMING to remove rust and or nuetraulize it. Anybody recommend something that will actually work?

Terry

[Lavoy]

POR 15 is supposed to be the cat's meow. There are others out there that I assume are the same thing, just different name.
Lavoy

[BigV]

POR-15's product to derust is Metal Ready- it is overpriced Ospho, and because of liability concerns it has gotten weaker and weaker. With POR, you're supposed to use Metal Ready and then their paint.

Ospho is the same thing as metal ready, has good coverage, much more reasonably priced. It also isn't as diluted. Ospho's primary chemical is phosphoric acid. Ospho once done leaves a crusty sort of finish, like Naval Jelly USED TO. It will prevent re-rusting for a good while, but for it to last a long time- you need paint.

More expensive and an actual rust converter is Evapo-Rust. It works best as a dip, but it is good as spray, and if you've removed the heavy scale with a wire brush, it converts the rust over and leaves clean metal. Problem is in humid conditions it will flash back over fairly quickly unless painted.

Zero Rust is the best of the paint over rusted crap type stuff- in my experience. Zero Rust has a real strong phenolic enamel base, and if you get the silver, it will has a high aluminum shaving content that seals off real well. Their black- if it is still available- is the best chassis black I've seen for rails and undercarriage.

I have an S1854 International with a spreader bed on it- it was used for hauling Chicken Litter only. POR-15 lasted a year with their Metal Ready when hauling chicken litter. It had to be redone. I got ahold of some red Zero Rust(red was cheap for some reason) and used Ospho as the prep chemical. 90% of it is still on there and protecting 10+ years later, heck- it is holding the bed together really well.

Same thing on the tin roof of the block garage. I used Ospho and then Sherwin Williams marine paint, it is holding up magnificently well.

If you are turned off by POR-15 paint's price or Zero Rust's paint price, look for someone selling clearance paint. Sherwin Williams Industrial and Marine Enamel is doggone close, and you can find it on Craigslist for $5 a gallon if you watch. If you need to know precisely what the Sherwin Williams looks like, I can take a picture. I buy it when I can find it to use on the farm. I just tinted some "Safety Yellow" to John Deere Industrial Yellow tint using Valspar John Deere Industrial Yellow as a reference. I will use it on my crawler here if we get a good warm spell before Thanksgiving. It doesn't harden as quickly or as well as the Zero Rust or POR type paint, but if you add a cheap enamel hardener(WEAR A RESPIRATOR) to the S-W paint, it will harden nicely and hold up.

[Steven Walters]

There is another product, its just like por 15 but 30 years newer chemistry. A salesman and one of the chemist left por 15 and made there own paint supposed to be 30% cheaper than the por 15 and just as good if not better. I have the info at the shop will try to remember to post it. I used por 15 and had no problem with it, just fades in the sun. you have to paint over it. If you want to stop the rust before it starts shoot it up with fluid film, all my salt truck get pressure washed and shoot up with it. it saves the truck hands down.

[whiteclipse16]

I painted the frame of my old truck with POR 15, used the Metal Ready also. I used it since it said you could paint over the rust with no issue. I figured that'd work great since a lot of places on a frame are hard to wire wheel and I didn't have time to take the bed off.
It lasted one winter and anywhere there were flakes of rust that I painted over it just flaked right off.
I was pretty disappointed considering the money I had in the paint and Metal Ready. I could've bought a can of Rustoleum for 1/8th of the cost and just touched it up each year.

[Lavoy]

They say you have to remove all loose rust prior to painting is what I remember.
Lavoy