Journey with Confidence RV GPS App RV Trip Planner RV LIFE Campground Reviews RV Maintenance Take a Speed Test Free 7 Day Trial ×


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
 
Old 09-10-2019, 07:41 PM   #1
Bus Geek
 
musigenesis's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 6,995
Year: 2003
Coachwork: International
Chassis: CE 300
Engine: DT466e
Rated Cap: 65C-43A
Yellow underside?

Is there any reason not to paint the underside of my bus yellow? My original plan was to ospho the underside and then paint it with POR-15, but I decided this would take too long and be too expensive and toxic. Instead I'm planning to use two coats of Rustoleum rusty metal primer over the rust and then one or two coats of rustoleum enamel. I could use black enamel but I'm thinking I want a paint color that will readily reveal any rusting-through problems. Yellow ("safety yellow") seems to be the only color light enough for this.

__________________
Rusty 87 build thread
musigenesis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-10-2019, 09:04 PM   #2
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: Michigan
Posts: 48
would painting also help protect against future rust in future salty winters up above the Rust Belt? Thanks for this question, I hope someone more experienced can answer it for you soon!
LoveBusTreatery is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-10-2019, 09:14 PM   #3
Bus Geek
 
musigenesis's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 6,995
Year: 2003
Coachwork: International
Chassis: CE 300
Engine: DT466e
Rated Cap: 65C-43A
Quote:
Originally Posted by LoveBusTreatery View Post
would painting also help protect against future rust in future salty winters up above the Rust Belt? Thanks for this question, I hope someone more experienced can answer it for you soon!
Yeah, if the paint layer adheres and prevents any water from contacting the metal, it will stop further rusting. But it's the underside of the bus so there will be a lot of road debris chipping away at the paint and re-exposing the metal. And my bus is sufficiently rusted that I'm sure sometimes chunks of paint will just fall off, so I'll need to keep a perpetual eye on things. Black enamel would just hide any problems as they're developing.
__________________
Rusty 87 build thread
musigenesis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-10-2019, 09:15 PM   #4
Bus Nut
 
bigskypc50's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: MONTANA
Posts: 471
Year: 1995
Coachwork: AMTRAM
Chassis: INT
Engine: DT466
Rated Cap: Big Girl
Why do you want to paint the underside of the bus? I see you're in the city of brotherly love, major rust belt. (I use to live right around there, I would get off the subway at 5th and market all the time).

What kind of rust are you talking about here? Surface or cancer, Why not make life simple on yourself, just wire brush the surface stuff off spray on a rust CONVERTER (Rust Reformer by rustoulam) and put on something like fluid film? I hear it's good for the salt belt. Cancer has to be cut out, and replaced. A quick coat of paint is not going to anything to stop or slow down that rust.
bigskypc50 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-10-2019, 09:31 PM   #5
Bus Geek
 
musigenesis's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 6,995
Year: 2003
Coachwork: International
Chassis: CE 300
Engine: DT466e
Rated Cap: 65C-43A
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigskypc50 View Post
What kind of rust are you talking about here? Surface or cancer, Why not make life simple on yourself, just wire brush the surface stuff off spray on a rust CONVERTER (Rust Reformer by rustoulam) and put on something like fluid film? I hear it's good for the salt belt. Cancer has to be cut out, and replaced. A quick coat of paint is not going to anything to stop or slow down that rust.
This kind of rust: https://imgur.com/a/yisoA9i

Can't replace the entire floor (although I will be doing exactly that around the wheel wells). Spraying anything from below (ospho or rust converter) is the "toxic" bit I'm looking to avoid, both to myself and to the lot where my bus is parked.
__________________
Rusty 87 build thread
musigenesis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-10-2019, 09:33 PM   #6
Bus Geek
 
EastCoastCB's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Eustis FLORIDA
Posts: 23,764
Year: 1999
Coachwork: Thomas
Chassis: Freighliner FS65
Engine: Cat 3126
Rated Cap: 15
Quote:
Originally Posted by musigenesis View Post
Is there any reason not to paint the underside of my bus yellow? My original plan was to ospho the underside and then paint it with POR-15, but I decided this would take too long and be too expensive and toxic. Instead I'm planning to use two coats of Rustoleum rusty metal primer over the rust and then one or two coats of rustoleum enamel. I could use black enamel but I'm thinking I want a paint color that will readily reveal any rusting-through problems. Yellow ("safety yellow") seems to be the only color light enough for this.
YOu still gona ospho it?
I'd rather just leave rust than paint over it.
EastCoastCB is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-10-2019, 09:35 PM   #7
Bus Nut
 
bigskypc50's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: MONTANA
Posts: 471
Year: 1995
Coachwork: AMTRAM
Chassis: INT
Engine: DT466
Rated Cap: Big Girl
Holly crap dude, I don't think anything will help that mess! Was it a sight unseen buy?

Looks like your still early in the build, scrap it, sell it and find a rust free bus. Oh come now, the rust converter is not that bad. You're not spraying on radioactive paint.

Quote:
Originally Posted by musigenesis View Post
This kind of rust: https://imgur.com/a/yisoA9i

Can't replace the entire floor (although I will be doing exactly that around the wheel wells). Spraying anything from below (ospho or rust converter) is the "toxic" bit I'm looking to avoid, both to myself and to the lot where my bus is parked.
bigskypc50 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-10-2019, 09:39 PM   #8
Bus Geek
 
musigenesis's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 6,995
Year: 2003
Coachwork: International
Chassis: CE 300
Engine: DT466e
Rated Cap: 65C-43A
Quote:
Originally Posted by EastCoastCB View Post
YOu still gona ospho it?
I'd rather just leave rust than paint over it.
If I just leave it, it will continue to rust so I kinda have to do something about it, don't I?
__________________
Rusty 87 build thread
musigenesis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-10-2019, 09:40 PM   #9
Bus Geek
 
musigenesis's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 6,995
Year: 2003
Coachwork: International
Chassis: CE 300
Engine: DT466e
Rated Cap: 65C-43A
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigskypc50 View Post
Holly crap dude, I don't think anything will help that mess! Was it a sight unseen buy?

Looks like your still early in the build, scrap it, sell it and find a rust free bus. Oh come now, the rust converter is not that bad. You're not spraying on radioactive paint.
I was actually going to say something before like "please don't say scrap the bus, I've heard it before." Honestly, if you don't have something constructive to say, I really don't want to hear it.
__________________
Rusty 87 build thread
musigenesis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-10-2019, 09:44 PM   #10
Bus Nut
 
bigskypc50's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: MONTANA
Posts: 471
Year: 1995
Coachwork: AMTRAM
Chassis: INT
Engine: DT466
Rated Cap: Big Girl
Aye, each to their own. Makes a lot lot more work for yourself

Quote:
Originally Posted by musigenesis View Post
I was actually going to say something before like "please don't say scrap the bus, I've heard it before." Honestly, if you don't have something constructive to say, I really don't want to hear it.
bigskypc50 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-10-2019, 09:45 PM   #11
Bus Geek
 
EastCoastCB's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Eustis FLORIDA
Posts: 23,764
Year: 1999
Coachwork: Thomas
Chassis: Freighliner FS65
Engine: Cat 3126
Rated Cap: 15
Quote:
Originally Posted by musigenesis View Post
If I just leave it, it will continue to rust so I kinda have to do something about it, don't I?
That's what I figured, but the way you worded that made me wonder if you were talking about just covering the rust in enamel and moving on. Once the rust is treated paint it any color that suits your fancy.
EastCoastCB is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-10-2019, 11:44 PM   #12
Bus Geek
 
musigenesis's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 6,995
Year: 2003
Coachwork: International
Chassis: CE 300
Engine: DT466e
Rated Cap: 65C-43A
Quote:
Originally Posted by EastCoastCB View Post
That's what I figured, but the way you worded that made me wonder if you were talking about just covering the rust in enamel and moving on. Once the rust is treated paint it any color that suits your fancy.
Well, Rustoleum rusty metal primer goes directly onto the rust, but I'm not sure if that counts as "treating" it.

I have a bunch of angle brackets that came off the bottom of my bus that are in the same rust condition as the rest of it, and I've been doing a bunch of experiments on the best way to get a solid layer of paint attached to it. The best so far has been the ospho + POR-15 but the latter is pretty expensive stuff. The rusty metal primer directly on the rust + enamel seems to be nearly as good, and turns the job into basically just painting.
__________________
Rusty 87 build thread
musigenesis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-11-2019, 01:27 AM   #13
Bus Geek
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 3,856
Year: 2002
Coachwork: Thomas Built Bus
Chassis: Freightliner FS65
Engine: Caterpillar 3126E Diesel
Rated Cap: 71 Passenger- 30,000 lbs.
In your experiments, have you developed a good eye at spotting lightly rusted pieces? I ask because the lightly rusted parts can be converted and painted. The heavily rusted are structurally weakened. It is difficult to determine the good stuff from the bad at times.


I do wish you luck with your underbody protection. I will be doing *something* to ours once I have the time. So this thread bears much interest to me. I'd like to hear how it is going for you.
Native is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-11-2019, 05:47 AM   #14
Bus Geek
 
EastCoastCB's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Eustis FLORIDA
Posts: 23,764
Year: 1999
Coachwork: Thomas
Chassis: Freighliner FS65
Engine: Cat 3126
Rated Cap: 15
Quote:
Originally Posted by musigenesis View Post
Well, Rustoleum rusty metal primer goes directly onto the rust, but I'm not sure if that counts as "treating" it.

I have a bunch of angle brackets that came off the bottom of my bus that are in the same rust condition as the rest of it, and I've been doing a bunch of experiments on the best way to get a solid layer of paint attached to it. The best so far has been the ospho + POR-15 but the latter is pretty expensive stuff. The rusty metal primer directly on the rust + enamel seems to be nearly as good, and turns the job into basically just painting.
It IS just painting. You'd be better off skipping it instead, IMO.
EastCoastCB is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-11-2019, 06:46 AM   #15
Bus Geek
 
musigenesis's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 6,995
Year: 2003
Coachwork: International
Chassis: CE 300
Engine: DT466e
Rated Cap: 65C-43A
Quote:
Originally Posted by Native View Post
In your experiments, have you developed a good eye at spotting lightly rusted pieces? I ask because the lightly rusted parts can be converted and painted. The heavily rusted are structurally weakened. It is difficult to determine the good stuff from the bad at times.


I do wish you luck with your underbody protection. I will be doing *something* to ours once I have the time. So this thread bears much interest to me. I'd like to hear how it is going for you.
The underside has a pretty consistent layer of surface rust everywhere - the holes in the floor all rusted through from the inside, and it's easy to tell the bad stuff from inside (visually and from walking on it). The worst parts of the floor are a couple of feet in the back where I've finished welding patches over all the holes, and about an eight-foot section around the wheel wells that I'm going to cut out and rebuild entirely.

The rest of the floor has a few small holes ("small" for me is like < 3", ha) but is basically OK from the middle forward. The original floor was 16 ga. I osphoed the rust off both sides of a couple of samples from my floor and cleaned them up and measured the thickness, and they were barely off the original 1/16" (although with light pitting so not quite as strong as originally).

I think my plan might be to try the rust primer + enamel everywhere, and then whenever the paint fails in one place and continues to rust, treat that area with ospho and POR-15.
__________________
Rusty 87 build thread
musigenesis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-11-2019, 06:53 AM   #16
Bus Geek
 
musigenesis's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 6,995
Year: 2003
Coachwork: International
Chassis: CE 300
Engine: DT466e
Rated Cap: 65C-43A
Quote:
Originally Posted by EastCoastCB View Post
It IS just painting. You'd be better off skipping it instead, IMO.
Well, I meant it turns the task that I have to do into just prepping and painting. I don't know how long rusty metal primer + enamel will remain adhered to rusty metal, but as long as it lasts it will stop further rust, whereas if I did nothing it would continue to rust. Maybe I'm missing something, but I think doing nothing is my worst option.
__________________
Rusty 87 build thread
musigenesis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-11-2019, 06:55 AM   #17
Bus Geek
 
EastCoastCB's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Eustis FLORIDA
Posts: 23,764
Year: 1999
Coachwork: Thomas
Chassis: Freighliner FS65
Engine: Cat 3126
Rated Cap: 15
Quote:
Originally Posted by musigenesis View Post
Well, I meant it turns the task that I have to do into just prepping and painting. I don't know how long rusty metal primer + enamel will remain adhered to rusty metal, but as long as it lasts it will stop further rust, whereas if I did nothing it would continue to rust. Maybe I'm missing something, but I think doing nothing is my worst option.
By encasing the rust with paint you'll only accelerate it.
Rustoleum doesn't "stop rust" despite advertising such on the can. Its just oil based enamel spray paint.
EastCoastCB is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-11-2019, 07:00 AM   #18
Bus Geek
 
musigenesis's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 6,995
Year: 2003
Coachwork: International
Chassis: CE 300
Engine: DT466e
Rated Cap: 65C-43A
Quote:
Originally Posted by EastCoastCB View Post
By encasing the rust with paint you'll only accelerate it.
Rustoleum doesn't "stop rust" despite advertising such on the can. Its just oil based enamel spray paint.
I'm using this stuff: https://www.rustoleum.com/product-ca...y-metal-primer (the rusty metal primer, not the white clean metal stuff) which as I understand it is not the same as the standard spray can stuff. The enamel layer would be, but I'm not putting that directly on the rust.
__________________
Rusty 87 build thread
musigenesis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-11-2019, 12:05 PM   #19
Bus Geek
 
EastCoastCB's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Eustis FLORIDA
Posts: 23,764
Year: 1999
Coachwork: Thomas
Chassis: Freighliner FS65
Engine: Cat 3126
Rated Cap: 15
Quote:
Originally Posted by musigenesis View Post
I'm using this stuff: https://www.rustoleum.com/product-ca...y-metal-primer (the rusty metal primer, not the white clean metal stuff) which as I understand it is not the same as the standard spray can stuff. The enamel layer would be, but I'm not putting that directly on the rust.
Its just brown enamel.
That's some clever marketing but those claims are really boisterous. Its just paint. There's no magic ingredient in it that's not in every kind of spray paint or bucket of over the counter enamel product.
Unless you treat the rust, the chemical reaction continues.
EastCoastCB is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-11-2019, 12:41 PM   #20
Bus Geek
 
o1marc's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Dawsonville, Ga.
Posts: 10,482
Year: 1999
Coachwork: Genesis
Chassis: International
Engine: DT466/3060
Rated Cap: 77
Personally I don't think you'll ever get the underside of a bus clean enough to accept paint.
And you'd be screwed if you scrapped it now. When I scrapped my 87 BB, scrap was paying $7.50 for vehicles and $6 for scrap/ Went by yesterday and vehicles are down to $3.50 and scrap at $3 (/100lbs). I made money on my scrapped bus, at todays rate I would have lost considerably.
o1marc is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


» Featured Campgrounds

Reviews provided by

Powered by vBadvanced CMPS v3.2.3

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 07:44 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.