Frame Coatings

[ScottM]

A big day is almost here, a good friend and welder will be back in about a week to help fix up the frame on my truck. While we are doing this I will need to cost between the mating surfaces of the frame members. What would you recommend for a direct to unblasted steel surface? We will get things as clean as we can but there is bound to be a bit of grime, paint and bit of surface rust - I just can't afford the completely split the rails. Don't mind ordering something but it will be shipping to Canada if that matters. Eddy must have something in his bag of tricks that is better than Chassis Saver or POR 15...

[Eddy]

Scott, There are 3 different encapsulating moisture cured urethanes. POR15 formulated using the chemistry available in 1980. It was the best thing we had for 28 years, chemistry has come a long way since then. The second on the market was Chassis Saver. Chassis Saver was a copy of POR15 using lower cost components to put a product on the market at a cheaper price point. Both were formulated by the same chemist. They have two issues neither has any UV stability and always need a topcoat. They also are known to have adhesion issues.
In 2007 POR15 decided to commandeer all the accounts from their sole distributor for Iowa, Indiana, Georgia and Florida and stopped selling him paint.
When he showed up at hq to see what was going on, they threw him out. On the way out the door he said that was OK he knew how to make it and add UV stability. The POR15 chemist was mad because he too knew how to add UV stability, they wouldn't let him change the formula so he followed him out the door and KBS Coatings was born creating the third option RustSeal. All three created by the same chemist using the same concept. Whats different excellent adhesion and UV stability, not 100% yet nobodies figured that one out yet, but 90% across ten different colors and a better price.

The reason you want to use a moisture cured urethane is two fold. It encapsulates the object and prevents moisture and oxygen from penetrating it. That ends rust. Second is durability, you can beat on it and it doesn't crack or chip. When I demo RustSeal I use two pieces of pipe similar to car exhaust. Paint them and let the customer beat them together. No matter how hard you hit them and they get beat out of shape to where they don't look like pipe anymore but the paint doesn't fail. As a bonus is it's immune to the salts and brines used on the hiways. It is self leveling so it can be brushed, rolled or sprayed. Temps are above 50. Humidity has to be 40% or better and (should) be be below 75%to start the curing process.
If you get it on you, you're going to wear it for10 to 14 days. I can tell you stories from customers on that one

Have I lost you yet?
. But wait there's more!
Tomer and Aaron should be a long soon to beat on me.

[Frank Surber]

Before you apply the rust seal though. After you have beaten scrapped and dug all of the rust and grime off that you possibly can, Mix some Klean in scalding hot water. use a garden pump sprayer if you have one to spray everything down, wire brush as much as possible then rinse with high pressure, this should remove a lot of the residual grime. Next spray it down with rust blast try to keep all surfaces at least moist looking for a while. the directions in the pamphlet are there to be read more than once. if you have any areas where you have separation due to rust build up treat them several times with the rust blast. it works better if not used in direct sunlight or when windy as it evaporates readily. If possible, when you have the frame moist/ wet. wrap it in household cling wrap or shrink wrap. A box of 18 or 24 inch wide wrap will have several thousand feet on the roll. the wrap prevents air for evaporating the rust blast. if you can leave it overnight then retreat the next day then rinse off allow to air dry I did a trailer neck that had layers upon layers of rust after beating as much of it off as possible I did the rust blast treatment as I described then painted with rust seal. it turned out really good. My one mistake was when I added a topcoat over the rust seal I had waited too long and did not scuff the surface well enough for the MAX topcoat. If you are going to apply a topcoat over the rust seal it is real time sensitive depending on where you are at the window yuo have to top coat gets shorter I found that out the hard way. but the rust seal base coat is hard and as durable as nails

[ScottM]

Cool, thank you both. Very interesting story Eddy, I will have to go searching for some RustSeal unless I can buy it online from you Eddy. Definitely sounds like a bit of a process but I am okay with that so long as it is once and done....

[Eddy]

Scott

I took down all my shopping sites when the pandemic hit and went wholesale only, I have 20 stores and resellers working for me and I'm the only KBS Distributor. I can get you what you need or find the nearest dealer, at the best price, Are you North or South of the border? It can also be purchased online from the factory.

There are two differnent methods to prep the surface
1. Sandblasting will always be king, if you can this is the way to go.
2. Prep it with chemicals
a. Remove any loose, flakey, and powdery rust. I use a paint scrapper, putty knife and a wire brush and a knotted wire brush on a right angle grinder.
b. Use KBS Klean a concentrated degreaser, mix a small amount 1 to 1 in a spray bottle and remove any heavy greasey areas. Spay, soak, scrub and rinse until klean.
c. Mix Klean 10 to 1 and spary the entire area to be painted. Let it soak for 10 to 15 minutes and rinse with water and let dry. Hot water or stem will enhance cleaning.
d. Wet with KBS RustBlast, re-wet as necessary to keep it wet for 45 minutes and rinse with water with no pressure, This is a phosphoric acid that etches the surface to ensure adhesion. It will also dissolve the top layer of Rust. It also leaves a zinc phospate coating on the surface to improve rust protection. let it dry COMPLETLY.

Now you're ready to paint. Two coats of RustSeal and a topcoat. There are differnt instructions for applying the multiple coats Between coats of RustSeal wait at least two hours since the last coat and apply the next coat before the previous coat is 8 hours old. Apply you topcoat 2 hours after the last coat and before the previous coat is 6 hours old. The option is to let the previous coat cure for at least 24 hours, and scuff the gloss off with a 320 grit paper. Caution it's hard to sand be ready to put some effort into it.

To keep a can of RustSeal or our BlackTop top coat. Open the can and stir. Remove the paint you're going to use and put a puff of Argon gas or nitrogen gas in the top of the can and close it up. If you want to stor it long term, put it int freezer, it prevents it from setting up. Caution if you leave ANY paint in the rim of the can and put a lid on it you just glued it shut. It's NOT coming off. Try a church key on the bottom of the can. If you're going to brush it work it as little as possible. You will never brush all the brush marks out of it. You have to learn to put it on and walk away and let it do it's magic. It will level. It will cost you more in paint thinner to clean your brush than the cost of a new brush. Never thin RustSeal or BlackTop more than 10% and only with xylene or xylol. If spraying use a 1.4 to 1.6 tip on a conventional paint gun, get a run brush it out and respray it and it will fix it's self. Clean your gun immeditaly and completelyy after spraying. You may never use it again, buy a cheap throm away gun. To roll it get a tight short napped roller.

And above all if you are ready to proceed and aren't sure CALL ME.

[ScottM]

Many thanks Eddy, I will give you a call tomorrow...

[Eddy]

Scott the wife dog and I are on the way to the Carlisle Fall Swap meet. We're on the road try calling me in the early evening or leave a message and I'll call you back