# Experience with rust doctor? Other recommendations?



## Terrence (Jul 6, 2006)

Rust Doctor is a water based latex paint that allows you to paint over rusty metal and then topcoat with any kind of paint without the need to sand or grind to bare metal. 

Any of you ever use the stuff? Does it work?
What about for more advanced rust?

Facing a rusted railing job, and looking to try out a new method...

Any help would be, uh... helpful.
Shanks!


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## Brushslingers (Jul 28, 2006)

Water based latex paint over rusted railings.... never heard of it and quite frankly, can't trust a word of the above sentence  Really there is only one way I TRUST to do exterior railings, electroplate, or powder coating.. sorta the same.

If it's that rusty though, id grind it down and HVLP oil it... latex is water, railings are metal.. how does a coating that is full of water stop rust?


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## AAPaint (Apr 18, 2005)

Brushslingers said:


> Water based latex paint over rusted railings.... never heard of it and quite frankly, can't trust a word of the above sentence  Really there is only one way I TRUST to do exterior railings, electroplate, or powder coating.. sorta the same.
> 
> If it's that rusty though, id grind it down and HVLP oil it... latex is water, railings are metal.. how does a coating that is full of water stop rust?


Agreed. I use oil primer and topcoat usually on railings. You can however go with a zinc primer and waterborne urethane system which is pretty dang bullet proof for being water based topcoat. SW has a system they use on industrial things like water towers that is this exact method.


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## Brushslingers (Jul 28, 2006)

Nice AA, ya I must be tired, completly forgot about zinc. It is a good option, though normally even on water towers i'd use a two part epoxy for finish... heh, though i'll never ever do one again.


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## slickshift (Jun 14, 2005)

If it's a little, I'll remove the rust and oil paint it
If it's bad, or a lot, or I can't get to the rust to remove it, I'll encapsulate it
This stuff is awesome










> Eastwood Rust Encapsulator has been tested by an independent lab to be the most effective rust preventive product yet. Tested against well-known brands, the Eastwood Rust Encapsulator has proven to be superior in sunlight resistance, preventing rust creep, and overall durability. One quart covers about 50 sq. ft. with a double coat. Can be thinned up to 20% with lacquer thinner for spraying. Contains no isocyanates. Heat resistant up to 400º F. Made in the USA.


(img courtesy of Eastwood Co.)


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## AAPaint (Apr 18, 2005)

Forgot to mention, if it's just surface rust, grind it down a little and hit it with some ospho. It turns the rust back to iron oxide and leaves you with a ready to paint surface. Good stuff that ospho is. I always have at least one bottle on hand.


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## Brushslingers (Jul 28, 2006)

AAPaint said:


> Good stuff that ospho is. I always have at least one bottle on hand.


Shoot a link, thats a new one on me.. I wanna know!


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## AAPaint (Apr 18, 2005)

http://www.ospho.com/ 

Love this stuff....been using it for years with awesome results. My favorite place for this stuff is iron railings and lintels on brick/concrete construction. You brush some on, it turns the rust from red to black....sweet!


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## Terrence (Jul 6, 2006)

Thanks guys!

Yeah, that job was today, and I already did it before seeing your responses. Ground the rust away with a belt sander, wire brushed it where the BS wouldn't fit, and went oil. Looks great.

But what great suggestions. I'm going to check out all of these. Really helpful for the future. You guys rock as usual.

EDIT:

"OSPHO is water-thin, and therefore goes on easily and covers a larger area than paint. One gallon covers approx. 600 square feet. Historically, best results have been achieved using an oil-base primer and topcoat. Test a trial sample before using under epoxy or latex-base paint applications. OSPHO is equally effective for exterior and interior work alike and is highly recommended as a pre-treatment coating by leading paint manufacturers."

Interesting... I wonder why they say that about epoxy?


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## AllPro_Painting (Aug 5, 2006)

Ill wire brush it and put ospho on it. then prime it with red /gray iron oxide
primer, its oil base


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