OT: Tin roof care ?

I am in the process of buying a farm that has an early 1900's 2 story brick house. The house has a standing seam tin roof that seems to be in decent shape other than the roof looks bad because of the rust. It doesn't leak other than around the chimneys. I am looking for some type of paint that will reseal the steel incase there are any pin holes, stop further rust, and be a fairly long term answer. I have stopped at several paint stores looking for a rustoleum type paint and been told that is not a usable product for steel roofing. They all want to sell me some fiber laden sealing type paint, which would be fine but none of it is tintable. I want to paint the roof a forest green to match the ornate trim work on the exterior. I know the silver was used to help reflect heat instead of absorb it, but the house has an attic so I am not to concerned about being baked out of the upstairs bedrooms because the dark color is absorbing the heat. Its weird, the house has a silver tin roof but the barn has a black shingle roof.
Any ideas what type of paint product would be available for this situation?

Seal up around the chimneys with blackjack putty or something like it.As far as sealing up the rest of it,there is some stuff used to coat trailer house roofs that is great,and any trailer house seller should be able to get You some.Its also available at some local lumberyards.I wish I could remember the name of it

I've been painting for 14 years and done several steel buildings that had rusty metal. I sprayed a product made by Rustoleum called Rusty Metal Primer first then after 4 days I painted the top coat which was Latex. The sun bakes it on and it looks just as good as any new painted steel metal siding. You can make any color you want but some colors will fade. I have done Hunter green, Van Dyke Brown, Red, White, basically any color the customer wants
The reason for waiting 4 days before top coat is to allow the chemical that attacks the rust to evaporate otherwise it could lift the topcoat. Learned that the hard way.

Brewer cote is a brand of tin roof coating, silver color. There is a product that they can spray on that is a thicker paint type stuff that seals pin holes and rusty spots and lasts really long without rust coming through. We had it sprayed on our barn 8 years ago and still looks good. Contact someone who paints barn roofs. They should be able to help you out.

I have seen several metal roofs painted with a two part urethane paint. Wont fade and can be made in most colors. Green is available because I used some several years ago. I would suggest preparing with a rust converter such as Ospho that converts and stops rust. Also, there are several good primers such as Rustoleom Rusty metal primer(used it on my tractors). A;so there are some excellent single part urethanes available. Henry

I bought a gallon at Menard's, and I can't remember the name of it, either. Works great, though.

What about Soy-Zinc? Used to be sold by F.S.; affilated with Farm Bureau. Armand

The two kinds of mobile home roof coating I have experience with are Snow Roof, which is white and rubbery, and the other kind, which looks like aluminum paint, but has an asphalt base and some kind of fibers in it. Both work pretty well on tin mobile home roofs that are fairly flat. The white Snow Roof seemed to help cut down on solar heat gain in the Summer better than the silvery looking stuff. I applied both products by dumping a puddle out of the 5 gallon buckets and then spreading it around with a cheap broom. On the mobile home we had, the roof needed some recoating every couple of years, or it would leak a small amount, since the panels of the roof flexed some with temperature changes and that opened up cracks at the joints. Incidentally, I sure would never buy another mobile home with a nearly flat roof. I live in snow country and have had to shovel off the roof many times.

I have never tried either product on a sloping roof, but bet they would work pretty well, at least for a couple of years. I think I would treat the rust spots with one of those products that is supposed to convert the rust to a paintable surface before I tried putting on the mobile home goop. The rust converters I have used end up black.

If you have never worked on a sheet metal roof, I suggest that you be ultra careful. They can really get slick, and before you know it, you are falling off the edge, since there is nothing to grab to hang onto. So when I am working on a metal roof, I always have a rope over the peak and securely tied to an immovable object on the ground. Having the rope attached to a safety harness that you are wearing is the best situation, but just having the rope close to you and ready to grab has always been enough for me. It is flat scary to find yourself sliding out of control on a metal roof, especially when that roof is about 16 feet off the ground and you don't know what might be under you! BTDT, never again!

There may be better alternatives to the mobile home roof coatings, but the mobile home coatings are not all that expensive and definitely can be applied by just about anyone. It just might need to be done again sooner than some other kind of paint. Just be super careful and use a safety rope. Good luck!