Rustoleum vs POR-15
 

I'm a truck owner on a budget and I'd like to find a way of preserving the frame on my truck. I was looking in WalMart the other day and I discovered they have a rustoleum in an "International Red" color. 1 quart goes for about $10. I like the color and I think It would look good with a Satin Black paint job on my truck (in near future, specifically "House of Kolor: HotRod black).
On the other hand: I've used por15 before to touch up some rust spots on my car and the stuff works insanely well. But a quart is at least $30. The POR-15 dried out in the can, i couldnt use it all.
Does anyone have any experience with a similar rustoleum product? Is it worth the time? Anyone know if I can find the POR-15 cheaper?
Thanks for the help guys

https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal.../89730.320.240

Rustoleum provides a nice anti-rust coating for surface rusted materials, however it doesn't like to be beating on, i.e. chipped at by road debris. Sand, gravel, road salt, etc will wear through the rustoleum.

What I would do is find yourself an ace hardware or equivilant, and purchase a bottle of "Ospho" (www.ospho.com). It has the consistancy of water, and you brush it on heavy out of a metal can of some kind, collecting what drips off into that very same can. One bottle was enough Ospho to do my crewcab's entire frame, inside and out, twice. And it's not very expensive either. I forget the bottle size, maybe it was a quart, but it was $10-$11 dollars. I also did my gas tanks, the bed floor underneath, the cab underneath, and various other things that had a ton of surface rust.

Ospho converts iron oxide (rust) to iron phosphate, an abrasion resistant primer that you can paint right over, with rustoleum or any other industrial or rattle-can paint. Ospho turns your frame into a pickled color, which is kinda funny.

Before:
http://frederic.midimonkey.com/f350/IM001033.JPG

After:
http://frederic.midimonkey.com/f350/IM001047.JPG


Before:
http://frederic.midimonkey.com/f350/IM001080.JPG

After:
http://frederic.midimonkey.com/f350/IM001090.JPG


In fact, in the bottom left corner of the last picture, you can see the bottle of ospho sitting on the ground. It's the clear plastic bottle with the green liquid inside.

When you use this substance, wear goggles as you will have some splatter with the paint brush. You have to brush hard and dab a lot to make sure you work it into the surface rust. Also, wear gloves, this stuff doesn't feel too good on your skin. I found out the hard way not to wear latex gloves - they dissolve slowly, and bond to your skin. Instead, buy a small box of nitrile gloves. You can leave the gloves in a can of ospho and they will be just fine the next day, so your skin is protected.

It's cheaper than POR15 by far, and it goes a long way. Be liberal and generous with your brushing... and again, let it drip off into the can. It takes a few hours to dry enough you can apply a second coat, and let that dry overnight before you prime or paint over it.

What does collecting the drips do? Am I conserving product by doing this? Or do I get better performance from the Product??

just collecting the product.


por 15 works very well and goes a long way but is pricy it is 7.00 for a half pint or 180.00 a gallon. i would consider the ace brand rust stop in a black container it is made for industrial use only and is 23.00 a gallon comes in tons of colors. it is oil base and protects from rust well.

We sell a bunch of rust products at work and Por 15 seems to be the best by far. I can't stand the stuff, its messy, takes forever to dry, and usually dries up in the can. But the Por 15 rep came by a while ago and showed us a piece of pipe that was half painted with Por and half bare, severely rusted metal. When he challenged us to chip it I beat the pipe against our dumpster a few times (like I was trying to hit a grand slam) and all it did was put a huge dent in the pipe. The por was still there, unchipped. As far as the drying up in the can thing, when you reseal the can after its initial opening put a piece of saran wrap over the can and then put the lid on. We had a customer try it and he said it worked perfect. You have to make sure to clean the lip of the lid out really good though. And about that $30 price tag, there's no way around it. We're a dealer and we PAY $23 bucks a can for it. But, its an all in one product. Ospho is (I believe) phosphoric acid, which we also sell. Its really cheap, and it kills surface rust only. And it HAS to be painted over. So if you consider the $11 a bottle for the ospho and the paint price you could've bought the por 15. Anyways, they all work, but take a hammer to the rustoleum after its painted and let me know if it chipped!

Conserving product.

Because it has the consistancy of water, and you want to brush it on heavy to get it into all the nooks and crannies of surface rust, the excess runs right off.

When I bought the ospho, I tested a section of frame, primed with rustoelum, then painted with rustoleum, and it didn't chip with a hammer. I also didn't wail on it like an over-caffienated monkey, either. But for my crewcab which spends all it's time on the highway for the most part, this is more than good enough. Should protect from road debris, rain, and salt.

You don't have to paint over ospho, it says so right on the bottle. It says to apply a second coat of ospho if you don't want to paint. One bottle was enough to do my crewcab's frame, front to back, inside and out and all the cross members, the shock mounting ears, the spring perches, and most of the other bracketry that's attached to the frame, twice.

So then his cost would be $10.

I chose to ospho twice ($10), prime ($6.99) and paint ($6.99) just because I didn't want the "pickled frame" look, like so:

http://frederic.midimonkey.com/f350/IM001043.JPG

Where it's dark, there was rust. Where it's white, there was bare metal. Yep, was very rusty!

Another thing about storing POR-15. In addition to the plastic wrap (which also helps keep the lid from siezing to the can), put the can in the refridgerator if you can (we have a second one in the basement). POR-15 cures by absorbing moisture from the air and the lower humidity in a fridge helps keep that from happening. We have a gallon can that's nearly a year old and still good.

Anytime I use Por-15, I buy one of the multipacks of the small cans (I think 1/2 pint?) you can get them in 6 packs. It might cost a bit more than buying a single quart can, but you only open what you need (as soon as you open the can, it runs the risk of getting hard)

We've had a can of POR in the fridge for going on 2 years now. Pull it out now & then for misc. projects.

I bought some POR 15 about a year ago to paint my bumper after my mustang got rear ended. I also painted a pair of old needlenose pliers with the stuff. They are a cheap pair but I end up using them a lot for little rinky dink stuff. They usually end up dropped on the floor and then laying there for a while getting stepped on and such. Pretty much abused. Well they are chipping badly. I'm not saying POR 15 doesn't work. I may not have "prepped" the pliers correctly but they didn't have any surface rust on them when I painted them. They were "clean" but in all fairness the probably had a lot of greese oil and dirt on them. You may also check out Eastwood company. They have stuff that seems comparable to the POR 15 but supposedly without the health hazzards, especially if you spray it. They cost a little less but are still up there.

LMAO

Funny story 250FordTruck...

I have two sets of hand tools actually (well, probably more I guess). I have "the" set I use for serious work that requires good tools. For everything else, I have older tools that were "the" set at one point, or purchased at flea markets and garage sales and so forth. Those tools get used incorrectly and left on the floor, and are not so pretty. By having two sets, this allows me to abuse tools and not ruin my good set for when it comes time to build an engine, solder some electronics, and so forth.

Wire cutters make good nibblers too :D Screwdrivers as pry bars, that sorta thing. Stuff you need to do in a pinch, but don't want to ruin the good set.

Thanks for sharing that, gave me a nice big early morning smile.

i've used ospho long time ago, i didn't think they sold it anymore, it's some jam up stuff, i guess i need to to look alittle harder, ace hardware you say, i'll check it out. thanks

Zero-Rust is another good product.

I found some stuff at Advanced Auto Parts called Right Stuff. It said on the label to compair it to Osphy. I bought some to try after reading this thread and not being able to find the Osphy. It worked very well. My intentions were to just stop the spread till I could get some patch panels but now I am wondering if I can just cut out the holes and weld in a vary small patch instead of putting in a whole floor pan? And the price was 3.95 for 1 Qt. It is green just like the Osphy in the photo too.