Painting a steel ute tray

[Blackened]

G'day

I'm going to do some maintenance on the ute this weekend, and she has a 6'3 long steel dropside tray on the back of the dual cab.

I'm planning to paint the undersides and chassis in chassis black, and the sides, floor and topsides in a white epoxy enamel, like killrust. Obviously i'll be preparing properly including rust conversion, etch priming and then two or three topcoats. I plan to brush and roll.

Does anyone have any other better ideas? Mainly the best brand of chassis black for both finish and protection, and the better brands of rust converter?

Dave

[finga]

Body Shutz is a good product Dave and easy to bung on the underneath.
It stops a lot of stone chips and the like..... so it will make your good job last longer.

http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediawe...6EVs6E666666--

[DAVE_S]

I would sand blast it and then spray in 2 pac as for the black use gmh black .
The chassis black that you buy in spray cans is rubbish as c 18 will wash it off.

[Lucky_Phill]

Dave,

Penetrol is a fantastic product to use prior to painting.

http://floodaustralia.net/products/anti_corrosion/

Cheers

[Blackened]

G'day

Scott, thank you I'll check it out.

Dave... not an option as I don't have access to sandblasting or spraying equipment. Was going to brush the chassis black, will look into the GMH stuff.

Phil, thank you, hadn't thought about the penetrol as base layer.

Dave

[dreemon]

Find a primer that is rich in zink, that will slow the rust the best along with your top coats of kill rust or similar,
to make it a lill easier use a med roller with a brush ( med roller is a very small roller) the paint shop will know what you mean, but it'll put the paint on more even and you'll get the job done quicker and with a better finish ,

If it's really rusty use an angle grinder with a wire wheel, cone shaped one, makes easy work out of it , but wear at least sunnies, sometimes some of the wires fly off, they don't stick far in your skin, only 1-2 mm. Cheers

[oldboot]

Hell if you are going to use a wirewheel on a grinder....full face shield at least..even then if the wires cop you in the chin they can go in 2 or 3 mm.

OH..don't forget the heavy trousers or better still a leather apron.

I've used plenty of GMH black....the problem is that it is nitro bassed and not UV stable and provides almost no protection for what is under it..and ya realy want to be spraying it........looks great for about 6 weeks... dries fast though.. real fast.

If ya trying to get rust off...a 40 gritt flap disk is your friend on steel..follow it with the wire brush.... forget the rust converter just get it all off.

Wattyl superetch has given me good results, it contains zircon as a corrosion inhibiter rather than zink... comes in black and grey.

As for the top coat, unless you are brushing, you will be better off with a thinners based product like automotive QD enamel... cheap and cheerfull, and a hell of a lot less jammy than turps bassed enamel.......you may be able to get a hardener for it too.

Drop down and have a chat to the boys ar MPA refinish supplies down at thornside.

That is if you havnt got it all sorted by now.

cheers

[finga]

I thought Zircon was a poor man's diamond.
Is this right?? If so how does it inhibit rust??

Well it's probably better described as a poor man's wife's diamond.

[oldboot]

you are thinking about Cubic Zerconia...I don't know what they are made of.

Zircon is a mineral extracted from sand....As far as i remember, a portion of the black stuff in mineral sand.

How it works I could not say, but that is what the gurus at wattyl told me.

My expectation is that it is a blocking agent rather than a sacrificial meterial like zinc.

wattly make superetch in black and grey, they make a similar product in white, but it does not have corrosion inhibiting properties. I was told they cant put the zircon in and still get a proper White.

cheers