APPLICATION AND PREP GOOD AND BAD ISSUES:
It took a bit more effort than I expected, and wasn't without hitches. But the rust bullets surface, and its adherence is excellent, like glue (almost).
It’s a really different surface coating. It does have the appearance some observers in various online forums have made, that is, a smooth over coating with a slightly metal sheen to it, almost as if it’s been sprayed with ‘new metal’, or has been galvanized, but smoothly and evenly.
The paint pulls remarkably well. Despite the tough seeming coating, it hasn't changed the shape, lines or form of the vehicle at all, it sprays a bit thick, almost like spray filler, but it thins itself somehow (or it did for me). I got a smooth even coating of only a few “mils” (not millimeters - “mils” as in dtf microns) – I cant measure it of course, but I’m sure its above the minimum thickness required by the Rust Bullet guidelines and lines of the the car look clean as (in all sections that don't need future panel work anyway that is).
Like all paint, its all in the prep – and with Rust Bullet that prep is a bit different than with some other paint systems.
Rust Bullet likes to go over steel or solid paint ‘roughed up’ with 100-120 grit, when I say steel, either clean shiny steel or can be rusty steel, but without any non rust bullet system approved chemical coating or residue.
It may not adhere well if surface treatments like deoxidine, or other ‘rust converters’ have been used anywhere and left on the vehicle. If you look at a clean steel surface that has been treated with de-oxidine, you will see rainbow colours in it - this is a coating that sticks to the steel.
At the time I used it Rust Bullet was not approved to go over this, the chemical adherence was unknown, it may be approved (or not) by now however – talk to your Rust Bullet dealer. You can sand deoxindine residue off before applying Rust Bullet if you have put it on however.
You don’t need these products with Rust Bullet anyway, they have their own product for difficult areas called “Metal Blast”. Rust Bullet likes bare shiny steel, or solidly painted surfaces scuffed up with 100-120 grit. But, stopping flash rusting on bare shiny steel overnight can be very difficult.
Rustbullets “Metal blast” – like deoxidine and K&H rustconverter, needs to be washed off with water. So you put water on your shiny steel…… note the golden yellow… flash rusting. Rub back with wet and dry… again! And again and so on.
However, I have to say that Rust Bullets Metal Blast product works a lot better, easier and faster than de-oxidine or K&H rust converter. You are supposed to rinse off any white residue after using Metal Blast of course, but then, the area you are gonna paint has to be totally dry before applying the Rust Bullet paint, this can be very tricky for some areas, with channels and seams, if you leave it to dry overnight, how can you see if its flash rusted before you paint?
However, Rust Bullet has some tolerance to go over a bit of residue of the Rust Bullet “metal blast” product (which is largely phosphoric acid I think).
The Australian Rust Bullet technician I spoke to approved this level of Metal blast residue for one small area of the car I could not otherwise get clean and dry if I had to rinse it off (I sanded the residue off this area instead). The pics below show how Metal blast can get difficult areas clean into the corners (the brown colour in the pics below isn't rust, its just brown paint), - one of many areas I was keen on getting clean and rust free for this car is this interior channel along the roof join on both sides, usually, this would have been pretty tricky, but metal blast did it well. The far right pic shows the opposite channel on the other side of the car after the same prep, given a day to dry and then two coats of Rust Bullet. (I have lost some of my pics, so couldn't show the exact same area, but the prep and the results are the same on both sides of the car).
mETAL BLAST USE FOR REVEIW reduced.jpg Metal Blast channel.jpg Opposite channel after paint.jpg
I found looking at their online information and talking to the Australian Rust Bullet dealer helped me get it right.
As for soda blasting… urrrgh - the issues are worse I think when using Rust Bullet. The issues people can have with soda blasting (I discovered after doing it) are that the soda residue can, sometimes, be very hard to remove. It depends what brand soda medium the blaster is using, and establishing this is really imprecise. Many soda blast websites will tell you (and I think mostly genuinely innocently) that the medium is just plain bi-carb soda, but it is not. It depends where they source it, but it always contains some form of lubricant, (usually a silicone) to get it to flow through the blasting gun. In my case, in some sections of the car this stuck on so hard it would not abrade off, it made melted smears of ‘stuff’ this was eventually removed with citric acid, but… it wasn’t real easy. I don’t know if other paints would have tolerated this surface well in a rustproofing fashion, quite probably not, but I was advised with Rust Bullet to remove it all, which I did, so in the end, the prep was all shiny steel, – apart from the sections that will be cut out later (some pics of those areas still to come in next post).
Side and gutter.jpg Front on steel.jpg Some panels.jpg
Now, that all said, I did have some trouble with the initial application of Rust Bullet. I tried to use a spray gun with a 1.8 mil nozzle (that is within the recommendations of 1.7 to 2.0) and it clogged up and carried on, and I did not get good coverage, it was a mammoth and toxic session and it wasted good paint and Xylene, I only just got the first coat on so thin, enough to just coat all steel to stop it flash rusting overnight, but too thin for the first decent coat – it was just a mist coat in some areas. I contacted the distributor and they said, it had to be a 2 mill nozzle. I got the nozzle and had to scuff up the first coat to make the next one stick because I was outside the 48 hour window (not too hard took about 2 and a half hours) – that said, the paint amazed me, even sprayed like that it stuck hard, and had finished quite well.
Then with the two mil nozzle it went on really really nicely, but I ran out of paint after one and a half coats!!! I needed two, so, I had to order more, which took about three days before it arrived.
When I opened the protective packaging around the new tin I was surprised to see that it was swollen up, as if it was about to explode – the bottom of the tin was puffed out so the tin could not sit flat. I went ahead anyway! I opened it gingerly, (wearing full protective gear of course) and it did not explode, but the paint seemed thicker than the previous tin. This time again, I had real issues with it, it would not flow nicely through the gun as it did on my second session, it blocked and carried on. I called the distributor.
They were aware of the problem, they told me that sometimes, in transport, the paint can thicken in air transport due to changing temperatures in air transit. A thinner had just been developed. I knew the thinner was a brand new product as well because I had seen it for the first time just a week prior on a UK Rust Bullet site, and wondered about it. The distributor had only on shipment of thinner and sent me a (very) small bottle (free of charge), you can only thin it by 5% though anyway or the paint may not work. (I think they calculated how much paint I had, and sent me no more than would otherwise have been too much).
Anyway the paint really is pretty thick when its right anyway... it needs to be like drinking yogurt, so I got the thinner, mixed it in stages, and it went on well, so in the end I got three and a half coats, two and a half good, and one just below acceptable.
Two coats is the required standard, the first coat reacts with any rust to inhibit it but doesn’t seal it, the second coat is the sealant, and surface tension dress coat.
Now it sounds like a nightmare, (and it was a bit – but it’ll be easier with van number 2 now I’m more used to the paint) but, the resulting finish for a rust proofing coat seems very tough, and I reckon its gonna work very well.
Front with door and nose cone after RB.jpg passenger side after RB.jpg Door with RB cropped.jpg
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