Rust Converters

[Edin Dundee]

I've had a look on Google, there seems to be 4 main types.

Hammerite Kurust (I've used this, not impressed).
Aqua-Steel (very expensive).
Jenolite - just acid?
Vactan - sounds good.

Does anyone have personal recommendations? I need to treat a lot of rust quickly, I want to stabilise bits and pieces before I can get the work done properly over the coming months/years.

Thanks,
Bill.

[MarkVeryard]

I don't know about the other stuff, but my favourite method is to:
i) apply Jenolite over and over again, until you get back to bare metal (or at least mostly bare metal with a peppering of black dots where there is still some rust that I can't be bothered to get rid if)
ii) spray with zinc primer
This seems to works for me - some bits of my car were treated like this in the early 90's and are still fine.
Mark.

[xvivalve]

Yep, I'm in the Jenolite camp too. It is just phosphoric acid; try not to breathe the fumes even though they are sort of pleasant! Diluted to about 5:1 with water its ideal as an alloy wheel cleaner too!

[sprint95m]

Another brand to consider, Bilt Hamber, please see this WEBSITE Bill.
I have used their products myself and was happy enough with the results but that is completely unscientific since I'd need to have tried all the others too to form a decent opinion. Bilt Hamber always score well in comparison tests (eg, those in Practical Classics) but then again they are a major advertiser (not that I'm a cynic).
To be honest, if I was tackling suspension components for instance, I would use a shot blaster then a surface prep (I have used Eastwood's zinc phosphate and this does work). I did successfully strip the Dolomite's components using a Bilt Hamber solution but it took days of steeping.

I haven't used Jenolite myself but have experience of it. My neighbour was repairing his Talbot Solara a few years ago using this stuff. It had a heavily rusted section on the roof above the middle of the back window. I didn't think it would work but applying Jenolite and repainting showed no sign of the rust returning a couple of years later. So I was proved wrong.

[1300dolly]

Rust converters, is that not the name given to the goverment scrapage scheme?

[Toledo Man]

There's a 5th option. The trusty angle grinder. Used to great effect on Becky, my red Acclaim. (see my "Oh no, not an Acclaim!" thread)

[Edin Dundee]

There's a 5th option. The trusty angle grinder. Used to great effect on Becky, my red Acclaim. (see my "Oh no, not an Acclaim!" thread)

Nice work, get in there!

I'm a lot more lazy, and I don't have room for a welder, even if I could afford one.
So the plan is to keep the car in the dry lock-up garage, treat whatever rust in any way I can, and in the spring take the car to my brother's garage 65 miles away and point out the bits he needs to weld for me.
I might go as far as investing in some tin snips and cut some plates ready for him - but I just know they won't be right!