Whenever I'm painting over an already painted surface, I scratch up the paint with either a wire brush or rough sandpaper, essentially whatever is handy.

The hammered paint, like most rustoleum paints claims to work on rusty surfaces however I've always used products like Ospho to convert the iron oxide (rust) to iron phosphate, which is stable. Rust as you know never seems to stop on it's own. While Rustoelum's claims have been made for decades, I've always been worried about painting over rust only to have to paint whatever it is again a few years later, and find large pieces of metal missing due to the rust.

So that's my view of the cheap paint world.

Ospho dries in about 4-6 hours, however I've always given it longer, mostly due to available time, such as overnight.

 

So would it be OK to Ospho the cradle and then wait like a week til I could get the car back on a lift to put the paint on it or is this too vulnerable to be left like that? And is the hammered finish the best bet as far as a paint to put on the cradle or is there something better, without taking it out of the car and powder coating, ect?

 

The Ospho bottle says if you put on two coats (seperated by about 2-3 hours) you don't even have to paint over it. Which is true - I've done that before and it's lasted essentially forever.

The think I don't like about ospho is the picking effect - covering clean metal (not rusted) with ospho does no harm, and it turns a little whitish. Rust on the other hand, turns black. So you have a cowprint/pickled effect when you're done. THAT is why I always paint over it.

Before ospho:


After 2 coats ospho:


After one coat of some generic black paint for metal (probably ace hardware rustoleum knock-off):


You can see in the first picture, how bad the surface rust on my frame was. Though not bad for 14 years of completely ignoring it. The second picture demonstrates the pickling effect, though I have pictures of the frame that are much more pickled looking that that picture. The three pictures are of the same frame snout which is why I put them here for you to see - easier to see the progress. last picture of course is one coat of black paint, and I ended up puttin 3 coats on the frame.

Ignore the radiator support bushing hole seeming larger in the 2nd and 3rd pics - it is - I used GM body bushings just because I had them lying around and Ford wanted waaaaay to much money for new body bushings - something like $60-80 a pop...

 

so what is the difference between the ospho you use and the zink oxide 'metal ready' from por? I know the por doesn't turn into primer or black- just wondering.

I also noticed in the pic that you had some rust scale or layers- do you take the time to insure that you get down to the bottom layer of rust or have you had decent luck w/o doing that- sometimes it's a real pain...but i've always 'wanted' to make sure that every inch of rust can be treated so that it isn't covered and left to start up again.

 

Not realy sure what the difference is actually... just been using ospho for years, it's locally available, and not terribly expensive. So I keep using it.

I got all the flaky rust off through aggressive sandblasting and wirewheeling. I got everything that's loose off.

The one think I like about ospho is that it has the consistancy of water, so in really hard to brush spots, I put a can under what I'm working on, and simply pour it on/in or whatever.

 

So is hammered paint just as good as anything else as far as in car protection? I know some people would say to powder coat it or liquid bedliner it, but I don't have the time, she doesn't have the money, and it isn't possible to have the car apart that long to take the cradle out, clean it, have it coated, reassemble and install.

 

I don't know about "just as good" but it seems to be elastic enough to survive bumps and scraps yet strong enough to keep sticking and maintain the seal.

Iv'e enver liked powder coating because everything I've owned that was powdercoated, ended up flaking off eventually from use and abuse.

At some point I'll revist my frame with this hammered paint, I like it that much. I just won't have the time until the spring comes. Right now i'm buried in leaves.

Friggen trees.

 

How are the bed and rockers holding up? Or maybe I should ask, how is the paint holding up after a few months?

Parker