How it went in specialised problem areas:
Rust Bullet Automotive seems to handle areas where corrosion has caused mild pitting really effectively. It also has a slight filling effect, its not total, but its good, way better than I expected, I feel fairly confident that there are not tiny surface undulations in the rust coating that moisture might find under the base primer coat.
With most paints, for decent prep, you have to make sure you get all the black out of the tiny pits, before going with a base coat, if you don't get it all, its pretty much gonna rust/continue corroding at some stage under the new paint. Looking at that Mustang video for instance, Rust Bullet doesn't have this requirement for its 'ten year guarantee', however, I wanted my job to last as long as possible so I prepped to full spec for normal paint, (the blasting helped).
Ignoring the sections I will need to replace, this van has only pitted corrosion in one area; in the cowl under the windscreen (this is lucky considering some of the rest of the car). The two pics below are the best I could recover of after the prep and after Rust Bullet. Also, the second pic shows damage to the far passenger side of the cowl. I haven't done anything to this section at this stage except remove the bog that was there and paint it, that work is for later on. It will be interesting to see at that stage how the rust bullet goes thinking of the impact and mandrel tests linked to in post number one.
Pitted cowl sectio prepped.jpg Pitted cowl section after RB.jpg
Another thing that is pretty awesome is the way it handles rough surfaces. Here's some pics of the interior - in these pics the prep is minimal, it wasn't rusting that I could see, the odd bit of surface here and there. I just went over the existing paint with a cup brush on an angle grinder (which I decided has to be rougher than the 100-120 grit spec for going over existing paint) and sprayed the rust bullet on. This surface was previously several layers of different paints, and the brown that is evident is partly paint, mostly glue that probably held carpet stuck to the walls at some stage (it looked like old vinyl/carpet glue to me) and so it was pretty lumpy, I had no idea how I was going to prep this section for making good paint stick and look flat, it seemed like hours of work, but I decided to just see if the Rust Bullet would clean it up as promised, so I saved the last of the Rust Bullet as a test to try it out. Result was excellent! The paint covered really well on one coat, has no bleed through, even over the glue residue, - this on its own is pretty useful!!
Interior quick prep.jpg results of first RB painting session after curing 011.jpg results of first RB painting session interior.jpg
Now... the really bad sections.
As mentioned at the top of this thread this car had some fairly serious rust/problem sections, and because of the way things worked out, I had to rustproof and base paint it before doing the body work and final coats. When I got the car, the rear quarter sections both had poorly executed patch welding done at some stage in its life, (on the drivers side the area is large). This had been bogged over, and on the drivers side had completely rusted out again near the wheel. Because these areas will need to be completely cut out and redone again in the short to medium future, I didn't spend too much time on the prep, but gave them the same coating of rust bullet as the rest of the car. I wanted to just hold any continuing rusting in any of the body till I get the cash, parts, and plan for completing the job properly. (This is where it will be interesting to see how Rust Bullet goes with welding at some stage). Anyway when it came to primer and top coat, I decided on the spur to give these sections a go over anyway, albeit only a few light coats, just to make it look a bit more of a going concern.
The pics below show the drivers side rear quarter just before it was painted with Rust bullet and then given a base coat of Dulon acrylic primer around 18 months ago. The rest of the primer surfacer coats and the top colour coat went on about 12 months ago. The pics with the colour coat were taken this week (as again, I lost the pics of just the rust bullet, which is a shame because the top coat hides it, and after 12 months garaged, you'd expect most paints to still look like this). Its not enough of a test yet to know, and these sections will get cut out before too long, but, if you look into the rusted out section, the pics do show in close up how Rust Bullet goes over flaking corrosion. (Btw the angle grinder cuts are to show me where the minimum amount of rust I need to cut out is - because I expected that the Rust Bullet would hide this after painting, - which it would have.)
April May Early June 132.jpg 18 months after RB 12 months after top coat.jpg Close up.jpg
And finally, really ridiculous sections!!
Below are pics of the upper tailgate - its completely rusted out around the window, top and bottom. This would have been almost a chuck out... but its original Sandman, but last on my fix list right now, so I prepped it as well as I could, and the rusted out sections I decided, well, its heritage value.... as long as, (if I do decide to put it temporarily back on the car), it doesn't spread rust to the rest of the body. I gave it three good coats of Rust Bullet wondering why I was wasting the paint.
The effect again was the same, the rusted out sections are not as pliable as they had been, the paint is tough stuff it seems. So then I briefly primed it and very quickly top coated it (using the very last of the Dulon I had, maybe two coats - the pics show where the paint ran out). I've actually ended up with a rough, but serviceable upper tailgate...for the moment... if I keep an eye on it..., this was not something I expected to even bother attempting to paint, but would it now be acceptable to put back on the car without it spreading oxidisation around.. I gotta wonder... I sorta think so yes, and it'll be a good wall hanger for a long time now at least.
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SOME DOT POINT ISSUES AND TIPS:
An opened tin cant stay exposed to air, you have to place glad wrap on the surface of the remaining pant and then fully seal the lid if it beyond the specified time limits.
It cant be sprayed in humidity above 90% - (although it can be sprayed in temps as low as 0 degrees C ! – useful in winter! - remember overcoat paint requirements though)
You can’t taint it with any other paint.
You need a decent water filter on your airline, getting water in the paint will muck it up – although at the end of my third coat my gun started dripping water off the nozzle from condensation, some drops fell on the surface being sprayed, they actually didn’t mix with the paint, they just sat on the top of it and evaporated (I am talking maybe three drops over a whole car here though and it already had two coats on it).
Once I got over its issues, - which took a while… and of course you haven’t got much time to work when it mucks up cause you cant thin it I found it actually sprays pretty nicely off the gun, and it dries so much better.
You do need the recommended type of spray gun or it will stuff up. I used gravity fed HVLP eventually with a 2 mil nozzle as recommended, – I wouldn’t attempt it again with 1.7 even though the instructions say you can – I had trouble at first with even with the 2 mil nozzle – it is thick stuff (and my initial coat was really not satisfactory to me, too thin in parts, with a few spits and splotches, and this took up expensive paint and I had to order more, – but, I ended up in the end with really good coatings.)
And a pretty decent compressor – and a heap of xylene for cleaning everything between coats, its, 4 hours plus to dry for one coat and the paint will ruin the gun in that time if not really thoroughly cleaned.
And you need to spray the moisture out of the gun with xylene first.
You need a respirator of course and full body covering including gloves and safety goggles/ or a full or half face mask.
It is fussy. Very. You need to follow the instructions to the letter, this is harder than it initially seems. (see links below)
Its solvent is Xylene.
It sticks to everything .
(It sticks very well to skin, and doesn’t come off for up to two weeks - maybe more!)
If you get it on you you have to use Xylene to get it off, Xylene dries the skin really intensly, and stings, and can burn, and you may absorb it. Xylene is really bad to inadvertently inhale, a leaky respirator will easily give you chemical pneumonia and a plethora of general side effects and potentially real immediate problems. But then again, so will Tolulene (or other thinners).
Its very easy to end up working in a rich Xylene vapour atmosphere if you are in a garage even with the doors open and the product over thickens, (see above #2) – and of course, venting Xylene to atmosphere is illegal in most states and territories (just like Tolulene).
I have read people who had bad probs, like it just falls off, peels in sections etc, all I can say is prep!! - This paint only likes what is advised, don’t use De-oxidine for instance, doesn’t like it, wants to go on clean steel, or roughed up solid paint.
It was particularly difficult I found, to use it after soda blasting.
It must not be mixed by shaking, or it spoils the product,
It is not supposed to be thinned (although they do now sell a thinner).
Further Links:
http://www.rustbullet.com/uploads/RBAPPLGUIDE711.pdf
http://www.rustbullet.com/faqs_print.asp?id=4
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