Rust converter is tannic acid which turns the iron oxide into a protective and paintable layer of iron tannate. Rust converter is usually in another, stronger, acid to speed up the chemical reaction. Rustoleum Rust Reformer is an example, it paints on white and turns coal black.

Oh, I have a method that is cheap, relatively easy to apply, and I am testing how well it holds up to rust:
--Find the rusty part you want to fix,
--Take superclean or some other strong degreaser to it
--Knock off the excess rust after it dries with a wire brush
--Hit it with Rustoleum Rust Reformer in the spray can (wherever spray paint is sold)
--Wait until the shine is gone, do two or three more light coats (lay it in the sun)
--Hit it with black Rustoleum Hammered Finish paint (again, wherever you can find spray paint)
--Do two or three coats, waiting just until the shine disappears (lay it in the sun)

I did that today to the big funny bracket in front of the radiator that holds the hood latch and the airbag sensor. It went on real easy and dried to handle in no time. It is very easy to scratch when you handle early like I did. But the finish looked great and it seemed to coat well. Most labor intensive part was getting the hood latch back in alignment. And that was a piece of cake.

Time: ~ 1Hr
Most Difficult part: Getting the grille off.
Most Labor Intensive part: Replacing the hood latch properly
Effectiveness: TBD

Regards,

Thomas

 

personally,i've had pretty good success with POR-15 products.

i did the drive shafts in my '92 Jimmy with their gloss black, and after 6 years, almost 250K, and burying the thing up to it's doors more times than i can remember, there was only a few spots of rust starting around the rear yoke. my guess is it was from the stones/road crap finally taking it's toll.

only two issues with POR-15 products. you need to follow their directions to the "T". as long as your frame rails (or whatever you're painting) is clean of oils and such, it'll bond amazingly well-don't use anything petroleum based to clean with, whatsoever! just knock off the stuff sitting on top, and paint right over it. the rustier the surface, the better it seems to bond, as proof of my drive shafts lasting as long as they did.

they're also not very UV friendly-at least they weren't before. i haven't needed to paint anything with POR lately, but i know in the past that the UV rays would make the blacks turn to a suede like finish (in colour & touch, weird), and the silver would turn to a light silver/green in the Sun (actually kinda nice colour), don't remember if it affected the aluminum colour too. but they did have a clear coat that would protect against the UV rays.

 

Por 15 is all I use and it awsome. I have done the under carriage of all my cars with it and has held up great. Will be doing the bravada in the spring. You can roll, brush it or spray it on. We sprayed an entire 63 galaxy with it before paint and its holding up great.

 

i've never sprayed the POR before Luis, how did you cut it? and you definately have to post some pic's in your album of that Galaxie.

 

Supposedly the Eastwood stuff is better than the POR stuff. I had surface rust on the rear of my Camaro as well as some lube leakage out of the weld areas. I sprayed it down with brake cleaner then painted it. It has held up well, but it really should be topcoated as it isn't very UV stable either. It has kind of a bluish color on some parts. Eastwood says you don't have to top coated it, but if you're driving in winter I would.

 

Can you apply por15 over paint? i want to paint black from the body line down with por15 and was wondering if you had any expierence with painting over existing paint/clarcoat? i know that i will have to apply a UV protectant coat over it but i couldnt find any info on painting over existing paint?

 

you're refering to the underside of your truck (bottom of the foor pan)?

i've painted right over top of painted surfaces before, no problem (it was the fenders of my car trailer). it even out lasted the original paint i painted it with when i built it. i replaced the fenders Summer of '08, and other than the silver turning a nice shade of frost green, it was still shiny-even after................(calculating).......9 years! (holy s**t, didn't think it was that long)

also did the whole front suspension on my brother's Summer Dime (used as a base sealer), nothing has ever peeled on it. funny, that's why the fenders on my trailer got done, had extra paint left in the tray. kinda regretting the POR now though. were currently doing a "refresh" on his engine bay, frame, and front suspension, and that POR just doesn't want to come off-even with the SB.


i'm actually talking to Pat Dolla now about an order, i'll ask him for specifics, maybe i just got lucky, who knows.

just noticed your sig Ryan, what's up with the Swinger, full resto?

 

yea, its a project car me and my dad just bought. we got it stripped down to just the body right now planning on what we want to do with it.