Hello all,
I thought I’d share my review/experience of Rustbuster (RB) Epoxy 121 for painting the underside of my Dolly. When I was choosing which paint to I found it difficult to get real life user info, so I thought I’d share my experience.
Why did I choose 121? After looking at various magazine reviews and searching the net it came out with great reviews for longevity and general hardiness. It is expensive though by the time you factor in VAT and delivery it’s £46.14 for their 1.25l chassis starter pack.
I have used Por15 before and found it utter pants – within a year rust was breaking through even though I had been meticulous in cleaning and preparation. I’m not saying that I didn’t do something wrong but if a paint system is so sensitive to the application process it’s not for me.
I used it to paint the rear wheel wells on my Dolly – I took it all back to bare steel (no easy task in the confined space of the wheel well). I used a combo of a grinder with a poly disc/knot wheel a drill with the same and hand wire brush.
I then painted on the rustbuster rust converter and put three coats of 121.
Things I learnt!
It takes a bit of trial and error to judge how much paint you need. I found myself wasting quite a bit of each mix at the start.
This will sound odd given my first point, mix more than you need. In my learning to find how far a batch will go I cut back too much and ended up having to do a mix mid way through.
I think both wheel wells was about 150ml a coat.
Wear gloves! It’s a bit like Engineers blue – before you know it it’s everywhere and you’ve got a nice smudge on your forehead
I bought a 3M respirator, I brush painted mine which RB doesn’t specify a mask for in a well ventilated area. I personally think a mask is essential as the fumes are pretty powerful.
The paint is very thick and hard to get a 'clean' finish free of brush strokes.
I experimented with the final coat to get a 'shutz' type finish. I found a sponge and a dappling technique works well but the sponge does start to fall apart and leave bits behind so you need to carefully pick the bits out and change sponge regularly.
I also found that if you let the paint cure for 30 mins or so you could go back with a brush and stipple it with (probably) slightly better results.
I bought a pack of mixing cups and mixing sticks which made life a bit easier.
Syringes (I used old pet medicine ones) are good for sucking up smaller amounts of each of the 2 parts for smaller mixes.
You’ll need cellulose thinners for cleaning – I bought 500ml and I ran out. I’d recommend a least a litre. The epoxy is a pain to clean up.
I think the end results look good, I can’t comment for durability yet. Will post back in a year or so with feedback.
Hope this is helpful
Alex
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