Primer paint

AllisG

Member
Is there a paint that you could paint over metal with surface rust on it? Iam doing labor on the tractor and the supplies are supplied to me so i have a bunch of cans of NAPA etching gray primer.
 
Yes and no. There is rust conversion primers which if you are going to paint over rust will work better but I don't recommend painting over rust. If you want the paint job to last you need to remove the rust and use epoxy primer.
 

Even if you remove all visible rust you will still have rust which will slowly grow and after 3-6 years will start to bubble. This is what acid wash is for. It converts rust that you can't see into inert Iron phosphate. It is sold in many places under many names, but the best bet would be your paint jobber. Once you understand how to use it you can buy it much cheaper from a dairy supplier or restaurant supply where they sell it for mineral film remover. If all you have is light surface rust it should neutralize it without sanding or D-A ing.
 
If you are just doing the labor, using materials supplied by others, you want to make sure that you don't get blamed for anything later since you are not making the decisions on materials and methods. You should make that extremely clear to whoever is having you do this work. Different individuals will approach such a project differently, depending on desired quality, longevity and cost. However, there is no decent quick fix for painting over rust, despite claims to the contrary by some product manufacturers. A "decent" job of repainting an old tractor is a labor intensive and potentially costly effort, in my opinion. But "decent" is in the eye of the beholder, after viewing the job several years later.
 
NO. Your best bet is to remove the rust mechanically. On sheet metal I use a fiber wheel on an electric drill. It gets all the paint and rust off. If you are afraid you don't have it all after that, or you want to protect the metal until painting, use Picklex 20. It will leave a harmless white residue that can be removed by scuffing with a scotchbrite pad followed by wax and grease remover just before painting. You do not need to wash it off. Somewhat more complicated is cast, which is harder to treat. I use a wire wheel on an angle grinder and get off all I can. If the parts can be sandblasted I do that, but not the whole tractor. I am hesitant about using Picklex 20 or any other Phosphoric acid mixture on cast because it gets in the pores and "may" lift the paint later -- I have done it once without problems with lifting. However if you use it on cast it makes it virtually impossible to get the cast clean, that is it reacts with the cast and you are trying to remove the black deposits for hours afterwards. So I just clean it after the wire wheel. Come to think of it I did have to repaint the torque tube/clutch housing on the tractor I used Picklex on 9 years ago, I blame that on the Picklex, but I have no proof.
 
Rust conversion coatings and etching primers can help, but they are not equivalent to traditional proper preparation.
 

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