Dang! Surface rust on steel stand

[Smite]

Needless to say I'm pretty bummed on the amount of surface rust I'm getting on my steel stand. System is 1.5 years old and the stand is powdercoated. I think between swapping to MH/T5 and adding a sump fan without adding more ventilation to my skin doors caused this. I'm working on cutting fans into the skin doors to keep the humidity down and have killed the sump fan for the last few weeks. Once I noticed a spot the spread has been pretty quick.

Besides adding more ventilation, is there anything I can do or apply while the tank is up and running?

Thanks,

Matt

 

[HB AL]

Sand down to bare metal and get some zinc spray paint from home depot. Been using it on my boat trailer for 20 years. Its gray so aesthetics might not be great buy powder coating is not a cure all, all it takes is a little chip and the water wicks under the powder coating. Better than powder coating is getting the steel stand galvanized but your gonna need to remove the tank and take it to a galvanizing shop. The spray zinc will buy you some time but you will need to spray paint over the cold zinc spray to match the color since the cold zinc is spray but better than rust showing.

 

[Smite]

Sand down to bare metal and get some zinc spray paint from home depot. Been using it on my boat trailer for 20 years. Its gray so aesthetics might not be great buy powder coating is not a cure all, all it takes is a little chip and the water wicks under the powder coating. Better than powder coating is getting the steel stand galvanized but your gonna need to remove the tank and take it to a galvanizing shop. The spray zinc will buy you some time but you will need to spray paint over the cold zinc spray to match the color since the cold zinc is spray but better than rust showing.

So I'd probably have to pull my sump, sand down and coat. Wonder how bad it smells? tanks in my living room

 

[immortl]

Petroleum products and our tanks don't really mix, but... Could you wipe the stand down periodically with oil? Thinking something analogous to me periodically wiping down firearms that are laying around the house. Put the oil on a cloth and 'dust' the stand with it. I spray Windex on a cloth and wipe down the exterior of my tank and lid, no issues after 8 years of doing this.

 

[MikeRizz88]

Rustoleum makes a cold galvanized compound spray. But I’m assuming you would have to sand the rust areas down completely, clean up, than apple this paint. Good luck

 

[TheHarold]

Have a photo? I don’t understand a good powder coating getting “surface rust”. I thought typically any rust would come up from cracks in the coating that develop over time, but not over the powder coating itself.

 

[HB AL]

So I'd probably have to pull my sump, sand down and coat. Wonder how bad it smells? tanks in my living room

Once dry it doesn’t smell, I’ve only experienced this on my boat trailer, but there’s a reason saltwater trailers are either aluminum or hot galvanized steel. I’ve never seen saltwater boat trailer powder coated. They powder coat steel t tops but it doesn’t last once a chip or 2 happens and the saltwater wicks in, its just a matter of time with powder coating.

 

[HB AL]

Rustoleum makes a cold galvanized compound spray. But I’m assuming you would have to sand the rust areas down completely, clean up, than apple this paint. Good luck

A grinder works better to eliminate all rust to clean bare metal, this still will only buy you some years.

 

[HB AL]

This is what you want, has worked great on my 22 year old trailer originally hot galvanized.

 

[Smite]

Have a photo? I don’t understand a good powder coating getting “surface rust”. I thought typically any rust would come up from cracks in the coating that develop over time, but not over the powder coating itself.

This is the left side of stand, but is what the right side looked like 3 maybe 4 weeks ago.

This is what the right side now looks like today

Would adding vents slow this down at this point? I'm wondering if coating a small layer of silicon would buy me some temporary time?

 

[Tamberav]

Oh that is a bummer! I bought a stand someone made and they used some sort of truck liner coating and it has held up fantastic and really hard to chip. I agree with trying the rusto-leum, I used to paint the cheap non-coated iron stands with it and it held up decent but not perfect.

If you ever take the tank down to re-do it... the liner coating is some tough stuff!

 

[Viking_Reefing]

To be honest I would just bite the bullet and tear down the tank and fix the stand properly. Realistically you will be hard pressed to find a solution that works without removing your sump.
The longer you wait and and do som half-arsed temporary solutions the harder it will be to correct when you finally do so.

Probably not what you wanted to hear but facing the problem head on is often the best course of action and will save you time and money in the long run.

 

[KStatefan]

I would try applying some rust converter to the rust spots if you can not take in down to start over. If you do start over and go back to powder coat talk to your coater about applying a pretreatment before the powder.

 

[TriggerFinger]

I have no idea about any of this stuff but just throwing this out there...is that rustoleum available in a can to “paint” on instead of spay?

 

[MikeRizz88]

Yes it is. Just google search it.

 

[X-37B]

What you want is POR 15. It is an automotive undercoating.
You can apply over rust to seal it.
I painted my welded stand with it an its bullet proof.
You need to take it down and coat it or it will just get worse.
If you scratch it you can touch it up with a small paint brush right over any rust if its showing.

 

[TriggerFinger]

Yes it is. Just google search it.

Thanks!! Not looking for myself, just trying to help @Smite not have to take down the entire set up to spray the stand. I thought a paint on might be easier for him/her