Ok guys, i'm to the point where i have the majority of the bad paint and crud off of the bottom of the bed. Now it's time to acid etch. My concern with this stuff is clean up, both getting it off of the metal after it's done it's job and not getting it on anything else, like my garage floor.

Any tips on using this stuff and not making a mess?

 

I'm not to clear on what you mean by "acid etch." I know you can buy an acid-etch primer and I have used a product called Oxisolve (product is now called Rust Converter) from Eastwood that is an acidic rust converter product. Obviously there would be no cleanup with the etch primer, but with Oxisolve the cleanup entails wiping off the excess and then thoroughly wipe down the surface with lacquer thinner. You can sand if you want before you prime/paint. To avoid the mess on your floor, just lay down some plastic sheets.

 

If your refering to a metal prep. Which has a phosporic acid. This is a rather mild acid but you don't want it on you. You must keep the surface wet for 10 min for it to work, then you must clean (wash) it off, dry it then paint. The surface will have a dull look. This is what you want. I would recommend that you take the bed off and have it on its head or tale so you have full clean access to the bottom. The acid will not harm concrete, except maybe clean it. I would get your self a hazmat chemical suit to protect you, alone with gloves, rubber boots, goggles and face shield or full face resperator. Do this outside it will make life easier. Then once you finish the metal prep take a hose and rinse every thing down with water, including your PPE (suit, gloves ...)

I assume that you have the bed off the truck if not you will need to remove it to make it easier. If not do you have a gun that will spray up? It take a pressure feed pot tank system to spray paint up. None of the suction or gravity feed guns can do this.

 

I am referring to metal prep. The bed is off of the truck and is now upside down on a bench, i can also stand it up on the tail. Actually Cujo i thought you used some acid etch product to clean up the rusted metal behind your cab corners before glueing, i guess not.

I have a lot of surface rust on the underside of the bed at this piont nothing serious. I thought i'd acid remove it to bare metal and then paint with rust bullet.

I'm not sure i trust the converter stuff, i've tried that in the past, the problem was it rusted back, however i did not top coat. How has your experience with it been?

Thanks for the tips, as usual Blue, you guys are my go to guys. I'll pick up a suit. I was thinking i'd do a small area at a time. Hopefully that would be the least amount of mess.

I'll post some more pictures hopefully tonight, i just got a new digital camera capable of nice picture quality.

Duke

 

The problem of using concentrated acid is that you must nutralize it or it just keeps eating away. I use to use some inhibited acid where I worked for cleaning up parts for failure analysis. It would disolve rust but not the good metal. Which is similar to what metal prep does, but one step further. It etches a pattern into the surface for enhance adhesion. Rust bullet is an encapuslator, like POR15. After you clean it up with metal prep and have washed and dried it. You have several options. 1 is a encapsulator, the other is epoxy primer, then top coat. Epoxy primmer will seal it up, with 2 coats, then spary your color on top of that. Or Use the encapsulator and apply color over it. Then for extra protection add a under coat.

To stop rust you have to do one thing, and that is keep moisture from it. Some times it get moisture from the back side. In the coating industry, we used cold tar epoxy on water tanks. Most encapsulators are cold tar epoxy systems. Was good for ~10-15 yrs if done right, we also added anodes, or impressed system. AL/Magnisum are the best for our application. Zink works better if you are dealing with higher temps. They make impressed current system now for our application. Would be very useful if you live on the coast and like playing in the sand.

If its been a re-accouring problem. I would add anodes and or impressed current system. I feel the impressed current system would be more effective due to the fact that anodes require moisture to complete the circuit, so placement is critical.

 

What I did on the cab corner repair after I removed all the loose rust was to treat the metal with Eastwood's OxiSolve for 30 minutes, then wipe off the excess, clean with lacquer thinner, painted the inside surfaces with Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator (Not on gluing surfaces), seam sealed all inside seams, and then I glued on the cab corners.

 

I looked at the rust converter on the Eastwood website, was the Oxisolve a 2 part application with a part A and part B? Looks good i think i'm going to order it and give it a try, i really like the way the metal on your pictures looked clean and fresh, not black and greasy.

I have posted some more pictures on my webshots of the latest efforts. Most of the undercoating and paint has been removed i do still have some touch up to do. i was shocked at how solid the undercoating looked, i was even thinking i was doing more harm by taking it off, but after getting through it i found lots of surface rust under the coating.

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo...02354164gBcwRv

 

I ordered my OxySolve quite a long time ago (It's all gone now though), but you're correct in that their new product called Rust Converter is a 2-part system. The original OxiSolve product was just a 1-part system. All these rust converter system are designed to be top coated once the rust has been converted. The Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator product on the other hand does not need to be top coated.

Your statement on undercoating is right on the money. It looks good on the surface, but once water gets behind it the water can't get out and the rusting just speeds up. Some of the worst rust I've found was behind undercoating, but I will state I've found some pristine panels behind undercoating as well. It's a crap shoot, but I've decided not to use undercoating on my restoration project.

 

I got the rust converter last night, pretty impressive, i ordered it the day before. Anyway, I can't use it and rust bullet together... I'm bummed.

Rust converter is a latex product that you don't remove. Rust bullet specifically states not to expose there product to latex or water...

I'll have to send it back but at least i learned something. I think i might pop an email to Eastwoods and ask them to give a little more info about the product for others.

 

Eastwood has a users forum that you can use to find out information about their products and other restoration topics.

http://forum.eastwoodco.com/

 

Sorry I didn't see this post earlier. Our Fast Etch product has replaced the OxiSolv. Fast Etch is a comparible product that dissolves the rust, just like OxiSolv. The Rust Converter converts the rust to a more stable form (inert iron oxide). Rust Converter can be topcoated with our Rust Encapsulator. I hope this clears things up.

 

From my experience, if you follow the directions from the products mainly ensuring a dry, grease free base you will be satified of the results. In fact for most of us (again, I assume) the metal will be here long after we are gone. Of course, if your starting with rusted out crap and don't fix the initial cause i.e bad rubber seals, clogged drain holes, driving on salted roads etc. the previous statement may not hold true. The bottom line IMO is if your serious about doing a good job and follow the directions of quality products the results will be as good or better than if you farmed it out.

 

I'm sure the product is a good one, the reason i cannot use the product is because i read the directions, and found it was not compatible with what i want to top coat with. I have every intent on doing a good and proper job.

 

Thats what I'm talking about. I have in the past just bought stuff because either I heard someone used it or thought it would work OK only to learn the results were unsatifactory. In reality, I was using uncompatible products. Hopefully I wised up because this stuff (paint products) has gotten really expensive. Good luck on your project