Club 80-90 Forums

Afternoon All ,

1984 , 1,9 DG , W/C

My van is away at Jim Painter having front end done (hurrah!), so been attacking
Engine Bay on my old 1974 MGB .

Is it possible to use an Epoxy Primer on Vactan treated pitted rust and bare metal ?

I've looked on every site going and am a bit confused as Epoxy appears to be only
effective on bare metal and will not work on pitted rust areas .
Some suggest Acid etch primer in these cases , others disagree .
Appears Acid content in Rust converters/encapsulators will affect Epoxy Primers
adhesion and performance .

Epoxy strikes me as the way to go as it's waterproof and I can leave whilst cracking on with more rust removal .

I've rubbed down by hand but still have pitted areas on flanges which I have treated with Vactan
and left untill I can establish if an Epoxy Primer will adhere properly (and when my fingers grow back!) .

Ideally my plan is to remove as much rust to bare metal , cover the lot including pitted areas
with Vactan , then Epoxy Primer followed by Rustoleum .

Can anyone advise on this please ?
Thanks,
Atb,
Chris

Well for what it's worth, I've done all of the above and asked the same questions as yourself. Just recently, I cleaned and prepped my rear inner arches before giving them a few coats of rustoleum. Mighty impressed with the finish ( I used a brush but you can't see any brush marks) especially as I didn't bother thinning the paint. From what I understand, rustoleum requires no primer and prevents rust from reoccurring, thus, it appears that it ticks all the boxes. Others may differ and may have more time proven experience than myself.

Chap at Combicolour.co.uk assured me that it will be ok as it's used in far more punishing environments than our vans encounter unless your name is Richard Hammond and you're taking your camper/boat onto the big blue...

Too many choices to choose from, made my head spin! Mitch.

I've used Lechler epoxy primer on mine and I can highly recommend it.
I bought some vactan and it ended up in the bin to be honest because I don't think it is a good product to go under any kind of decent paint finish. Its too "plasticky" and "pva-like".
On mine I grit blasted and then epoxy primered. No point putting epoxy on top of rust - its got to be clean metal. Some of my van has been in primer for 3 years (van off the road in a cold damp garage) and its still the same as the day the primer was put on. There is an acid etch ingredient already in the Lechler epoxy so you get the best of both worlds.
If you think the metal needs a more aggressive acid treatment I would just treat it with phosphoric acid and just rinse off etc before using the epoxy primer.
If the rust is any more extensive it really needs blasting first before any of this I reckon..
I can confirm that epoxy primer really seals all of your repairs in so its excellent if you're slowly working your way around a project bit by bit (been doing mine for years at this stage!)
Rustoleum is good stuff alright but the grip of the epoxy on the metal is probably better and epoxy would be a more stable base for further coats. You can even apply filler over the epoxy.

Thanks Lads and I'm sorry for late thank you , been busy as ..... .

Well after a lot of thought I've decided to try Fertan following derusting ,Ive
no blaster , this should if it does as it says , contain what little pits are left .

I'm going with the Lechlar two pack Epoxy primer and then decide on a top
coat later ,after my head recovers from information overload !

Again thanks for the advice and have a rust free Christmas !
Atb,
Chris