Paint Over Rust?

[Bird]

A neighbor has one of those cheap little metal storage buildings in his back yard for his lawnmower, string trimmer, etc. It's getting pretty rusty. If I wanted to do things the lazy way; i.e., just spray paint over the rust to make the little building look better, what paint would you recommend, or is there any paint that wouldn't just be wasting time?

 

[George2615]

Bird,
For rusty metal have him get some POR-15 and apply that first. Then he can use any good enamel paint for metal. See POR website for description of product.
George

 

[HomeBrew2]

I have had great luck for many years using Rustoleum primer for heavily rusted metal. It's the brown/red color. Just knock loose rust off, wipe with laquer thinner, prime, then paint. You can find it practically anywhere and usually pretty cheap at Wally World, etc.

 

[roxynoodle]

Rustoleom even has some paint you can put right over rust. I painted all the radiators (heating) in my house with it. It's been years since I did it and they still look great.

 

[EddieWalker]

On one of those cable channels, they were talking about how do people figure out things. The topic came up about paint that eliminates rust. It seems a very clever guy realized that the metal on fishing boats didn't rust where the fish had been. He did some looking into this and found out that fish oil will kill rust!!

He either works for, or is is the owner of Rustoleum paint.

Eddie

 

[Bird]

I think the POR-15 might be good stuff, but it's so expensive, it might be cheaper to buy a new storage building. I guess the Rustoleum is probably the best thing for the job. I've had good luck with some Rustoleum in the post, but it was smaller jobs and after I cleaned off most of the rust with naval jelly.

 

[Dargo]

I think the POR-15 might be good stuff, but it's so expensive, it might be cheaper to buy a new storage building.

Well Bird, you beat me to it. I've used POR-15 in some of the restoration projects I've done on my muscle cars and, although it works rather well, it is somewhat spendy; if you know what I mean.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

A neighbor has one of those cheap little metal storage buildings in his back yard for his lawnmower, string trimmer, etc. It's getting pretty rusty. If I wanted to do things the lazy way; i.e., just spray paint over the rust to make the little building look better, what paint would you recommend, or is there any paint that wouldn't just be wasting time?

Back in the day, before the world took to high tech EVERYTHING, it was common practice to paint rusty metal with "aluminum" paint, then after that dried down, paint with a good oil base enamel. The aluminum paint seemed to penetrate the rust and hold further rust in check. It's cheap, (relative term) and a gallon will paint all of Texas and half of Oklahoma.

 

[Glenn9643]

"Ospho" has worked pretty well for me. Brush off any loose or scaly rust and spray or brush it on; a thin watery liquid. After it dries you can paint directly over it. The last time I had a need for some I found that Ace Hardware carried a generic brand that was the same ingredients according to the label for about half the Ospho price. It worked just as well.

 

[BB_TX]

Bird - My neighbor was using Rust Reformer Rust-Oleum Brands - Stopping Rust is Just the Start on some rusted metal he was working with. He bought it at Walmart. Never used it myself but it supposedly chemically converts the rust to something else. Don't think it was all that expensive. But I think it only comes in black.