Anybody tried CLR for removing surface rust? I would like to just strip the rust and re-paint without spending any time sanding or messing with industrial strength chemicals. Call me lazy but it's any old tractor that I am not too concerned with appearances.
thanks.

 

I tried CLR a few years ago when I repainted our sheds. It worked ok, but what worked 10xxxx's better was the stuff I got at Home Depot in the sprinkler department for putting in systems where well water is used. I think it was like $10 a gallon. Spray it on and it watch the rust disappear. I then primered with Rustoleum & painted.

 

Thanks, I'll take a look for it. Also, I'm glad you mention Home Depot, one of their employess let a cart get away from him and it hit the side of my Centurion, they was supposed to get in touch with me last week about repairs, I'll call them now

 

That too happened to me at Home depot. I was loading the back of my truck and all of a sudden WHAMMM!!! I went around the side and there was a lumber cart with a 5" wide orange scuff on the silver side of my bed. It was crowded and I looked around and nobody came forward to apologize. So I let out a few loud cuss words. Everyone stopped and turned to look in my direction like I was EF Hutton. But still nobody had the ***** to say anything.

I would have just smiled and said don't worry about it. Sh/t Happens ya know.

Jim

 

Carlene, You wouldn't happen to recall the name of the Home Depot product you used to remove surface rust would you?

 

Tom - it's called "Rustaid Sprinkler Rust Stain Remover"

We started using it years ago for our tub, sinks, toilet, house and chain fence before we got City Water. Our water was orange. Had some left over when I decided to repaint our shed's and worked great, just spray on, let it do it's thing & rinse off. Just wish I knew about OSPHO back when I did the sheds - would have put that on also as a protective measure from that nasty 4-letter word (rust).


Here's a description of the stuff from the Home Depot online store:

Marinize Features:
100% Organic biodegradable non-carinogenic formulation
Safely removes sprinkler rust stains by a neutralizing reaction
Fast acting
No rubbing or scrubbing, stains simply disappears
Environmental safe formula, will not harm plants or grass
Contains no mineral acids that could damage surface
Safe on paint, metal, stucco, porcelain, fiber glass, plastic and many more

Hope this helps.

 

Carlene, I had been sand blasting the bed of my truck and it turned into a more time consuming project than I anticipated due to the rainy weather. This sounds like a great cure for light surface rust before priming. Thanks

 

Hey Tom - it should work great for the surface rust, but before primering, I'd still put OSPHO or something similar on it. You can get OSPHO at Home Depot also and it's alot cheaper that getting it at a paint store. I think a gallon of the stuff is like $15-$20 ($10 at the auto paint store for a pint).

The sprinkler stuff doesn't convert the rust like OSPHO does but will knock much of the heavy surface rust down so you don't have to hand sand so much. If the rust is too thick when you spray the OSPHO on, you'll have to sand it smooth after it bubbles, turns black and dries and possibly respray some areas. Also, since you're taking it down to bare metal don't forget to use an etching primer before putting on the epoxy primer.

Good luck on your project. I'm still working on the cab and doors on ours.

Almost forgot, the sprinkler stuff is in the plumbing dept. and the Ospho is in the paint dept.