Beating Rust

by admin on April 15, 2013 in Reports with No Comments

How to keep invasive and unsightly rust at bay

OK……sitting comfortably, then let’s begin. Let’s face it even the ‘polishers‘ amongst us can struggle to keep their cars looking tip top, and with so much exposed metal many owners are concerned about using their cars in winter due to salt on the roads and the long term impact of that.

What follows is my ‘take’ on the steps I’m taking to protect my car, it isn’t The Bible of Rust, but after hours of research I think it has a solid base to work from.

I wanted to address 3 issues:
1/ Protecting the chassis / suspension etc long term
2/ improving the cosmetic look – long term
3/ Being able to use the car in all weathers ( salt included) with no detrimental effect to what i’d used in 1&2 above.

1st thoughts turned to POR15, and whilst research shows its well thought of I wasn’t sure if I would be using it for its intended purpose, and a couple of calls confirmed just that. My concern had been its long term effectiveness given that it’s designed to be applied to a bare surface ( albeit a rusty one). I know a fair few have used the stuff on their cars, what I didn’t have was a real reference point that would confirm one way or another that it would last for x amount of time, which is why i kept looking and reading.

In the end I decided on a 2 pronged approach, to coat metalwork where possible with 1 product and then to go perhaps for slight overkill by protecting that as well.

Moving away from boggo tin top forums I came across mention both sides of the pond for ‘epoxy mastic’ paint, something that I believe started life in the marine world and found it’s way into other sectors. It ticked a few boxes as far as I was concerned.
a/ can be applied over another painted/powder coated surface, OR direct over stable rusty bare metal.
b/ requires less prep than most if not all of the other solutions ( let’s face it I like the easy route )
c/ has a solid tested rep amongst alternative car communities ( been tested loads in the classic world)
d/ is UV stable and no other coating needed.
e/ a 2 pack substance that seems to have the real durability I want without the potential for flaking attributed to others.

So I splurged on a litre of the stuff – not cheap but wow does it go a long way.
in truth the chassis on the R6 was in very good ‘nick’ so prep really consisted of a heavy duty degreaser and a bit of wire brushing. The 2 pack is mixed 1:1 and can be thinned for painting ‘fine’ areas…….Admittedly I had the benefit of the car being up on a lift so access was very easy, but the 2 coats that I managed to apply took no more than 5 hours – start to finish. Talking of finish, I have to say this stuff goes on very well and I was pleased with my efforts as I’m not really a patient person for ‘detailing’. Update: I have agreed a 10% discount for products from www.rust.co.uk, the last conversation with them was interesting, one of the Classic Car mags has run a 3 year test on all the well known/top rust paints and guess which came out on top – yep, Epoxy Mastic.

OK with phase 1 complete I talked with the UK Importers of ACF50 that I’d mentioned before and spent another truckload of hours infront of the pc to read 1st hand experiences. The consensus is that ‘it’s the nuts’. It’s an unusual product in that it provides a sacrificial transparent coating to whatever it touches, over here bikers have latched onto it in a big way, often prepping their bikes in Autumn with the stuff and cleaning it off in the Spring. Essentially nothing ( yep nothing not even salt ) gets past its coating. Being sacrificial it degrades over a period of time – how long depends on how much ‘work’ it has to do, I imagine that for us the front wishbones etc would degrade faster than say a bit of metalwork higher up in the engine bay.

Again after reading more about this stuff it would seem that the bikers are missing a trick, because although it degrades it is possible to ‘top it up’ where/when needed without doing the whole lot again.Signs of it failing would be the way the water runs off or beads. Bear in mind this stuff can be pressure washed, hand washed – and only time/abuse and a solvent based cleaner will properly remove it.

Anyway – as I mentioned I called the importer and had a chat. The importer is actually an aviation supply company, as ACF was developed to protect planes. After listening to what my goal was he steered me to a sister product – Corrosion Block. Corrosion Block is a multi surface product, it can be used on both painted surfaces AND electrical/plastics. It has a couple of relevant properties for our use – firstly it is a penetrative substance, so similar to say WD40 will find it’s way under bolt heads/threads etc. Once coated it kills existing corrosion and forms a barrier to prevent new rust forming. Like ACF50 it will degrade and will need a ‘top up’ – but I figure that as its clear and can be applied by a misting type domestic sprayer then that is no hardship after x amount of time. On the time front it’ll be interesting to see how long it will ‘do its stuff’…….typically this can be between 12-24months, although my guess is that those vulnerable areas on our cars may need a top up a little sooner.

As yet I haven’t applied Corrosion Block, and will report back over the next few days once it’s on, but I can’t see any drama: clean surface, spray and wipe any excess with a soft cloth – simple. Update: I applied this stuff yesterday and it is a doddle to work with, spray on, get a cloth that’s drenched in it and just wipe over any sureface, it will of course start out wet but over a few hours will dry to form a barrier.

What should the end result be after this 2 part approach ?
Chassis protection against invasive rust, long and medium term – with the epoxy mastic protecting larger areas for a longer time and the corrosion block giving confidence to drive year round without worry about water/salt etc etc.
cosmetically appealing – it’s amazing how fast a bit of metal can attract unsightly surface rust – a look at our front suspension shows that and to be honest it irks me seeing rusty steering arms etc when the rest of the car looks good.



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