Is your bus getting enough tea?

Website · Post by **CovKid** » 24 Aug 2006, 20:08

It might sound a bizarre question but I've been spending quite a lot of time raking out stone chips to expose the resultant rust spots and treating the metal with some stuff called 'vactan'. It does a nice job of turning the rust a black colour, halting progression and giving it a sealed coat prior to priming.

Now, fact is, many rust treatments contain tannin (found in strong tea) so just for an experiment I left wet tea bags on a patch of rust overnight. Sure enough by the next day the rust had turned black. My guess is this treatment I'm using is just tannin and an acrylic binder but it just goes to show, household remedies still hold a place in this world. As for whether Earl Grey fares better than say a nice strong Kenyan tea I have no idea but clearly tea works and I would imagine that mixed with a clear acrylic is just as good as any proprietry treatment.

I do know that Vactan is used on barges. Now they're wet vehicles to say the least....

Post by **tezandkate1** » 25 Aug 2006, 08:02

Hi
Mines going a bit ruty in the seems etc, I want to stop it from getting too bad, poor thing lives under a tree so a big overhaul isnt worth it for a few years. What is the best way to go about this , any ideas?

Tez

Post by **orcecaveman** » 25 Aug 2006, 09:04

tezandkate1 wrote:Hi
Mines going a bit ruty in the seems etc, I want to stop it from getting too bad, poor thing lives under a tree so a big overhaul isnt worth it for a few years. What is the best way to go about this , any ideas?

Tez

Smother it in Ovaltine and stuff a packet of rich tea fingers up the exhaust.

Post by **kevtherev** » 25 Aug 2006, 10:53

I'm told Phosphoric acid does the same trick only more dangerously

Website · Post by **CovKid** » 25 Aug 2006, 15:13

The stuff I mentioned (vactan) can be painted straight over rust patches if you just want to slow it down until you have more time to deal with it. Rust patches are invariably bigger than they actually look which is why you have to scrape the paint back to clean metal and THEN treat it but you could use this stuff as a temporary measure I should think. It was something like £6 for half a litre from Ebay.

Its very watery so ideal for seams as it works its way into nooks and crannies easily enough. Mind you, if you've nothing else to hand, very strong tea applied with a brush would work too but the Vactan stuff has a coating combined to keep the air out.

More about Vactan here: http://www.paco-systems.co.uk/vactan.html

Theres also a Ministry of Defence report on that site which states:

"Vactan showed a time saving of 25% over the Trustan and 40% over a similar competitive product due to there being no need to wash down before painting or any need for a priming coat before the undercoat and finish coat.

Sample test plates from a single sheet of rusted steel were prepared, using all three products without any supplementary paint coatings and left outside for 12 weeks over the Winter period. At the end of the test period, surface rust had appeared on the plates treated with Trustan and the other coating, but up to the present, 20 weeks after application, no rust has appeared on the surface treated with Vactan."

Says it all! Hopefully this can be added to the WIKI as Vactan beats the pants off all the other rust treatments I've used. Brilliant stuff.

Post by **airhead** » 26 Aug 2006, 00:45

Loctite do a rust treatment stuff too. Not worth a toss really unless you do a couple of coats, and good god its messy! Nigh on impossible to wash off your hands and leaves this horrible gritty residue on your fingers. I tried it on the inside of the roof of my van and it didnt do a great job of preventing the rust. Lowes rust primer, on the other hand, isnt half bad. Half a year later and not a speck of rust.