Bought a small tub of each want to test both. Do they do the same job? I've used fe123 on small patches of a fiat uno. I need to sort some bodywork out Sunday so I want to use some protection on the areas I clean up. What do I use??

Hi Rebel.

As far as I understand, they are quite different products. The first - Kurust - is a chemical which converts rust into a stable iron phosphate or something. Anyways, it changes the actual rust into a tough compound which now acts as a 'skin' to prevent further rusting.

Red Oxide is essentially a primer which has anti-rust properties - a bit like zinc-rich primers.

The former - Kurust - needs to be applied to a lightly rusty surface or it's pretty pointless! Red Oxide should, instead, be applied to bare metal (possibly it could have light surface rust too - but check first) before an overcoat of whatever paint finish you chose.

So, if you have a rusty surface, first make sure it's only a light surface coating of rust - wire-brush off any flakes or thick bits which could fall off later taking the paint with it - then coat it with Kurust. After this has had enough time to convert the rust and dry completely, then overcoat it all with Red Oxide primer. Double-whammy. Then apply whatever finish top-coat you plan to use.

If there isn't any rust, just bare metal, then straight on to the Red Oxide...

Cheers, I kew a bit about kurust as I've been told it's similar to the fe123 I've previously used (I believe it's water based too?)
It would have been fine for a bit longer if I hadn't moved on a sea-side road for ten months :/ it's handy to know I van use both to ensure I keep the corrosion at bay!

I wouldn't personally use red oxide as a primer. Red oxide is a very 'soft' paint, so doesn't sit too well underneath a top coat. I think it was james Wallace had issues with this and ended up cleaning it all off.

There's detailed pics on the Hetty thread, but my process (on the sills) was:

Wire brush off the loose rubbish.
Wire brush drill attachement to clean up.
400 grade sand paper.
Kurust. you MUST wait until it goes blue, give it a good 4 hours (I hate body work its soooo slow)
I then used Upol Acid 8 etch primer - 2 coats (1 every 15 mins)
Followed by Zinc primer (3 coats, again, 1 every 15 minutes)
Left it for a day, flatted lightly with 800 grade sandpaper.
Top coat.

If you find any pin holes, I applied filler AFTER i had kurusted, etch and done a coat of zinc primer, putting the final 2 layers of zinc primer over the filler so it doesnt show through the top coats.

In practice it took 2 days to go from manky rusty sill, to smart clean sills.

We used it on the Acad, too - and I'd agree. I'd not bother again. There's _far_ better paints about. I'm using Rustoleum 769 on the AK's suspension, and it seems excellent. Sure, it's more expensive than red oxide, but what's a tenner in the grand scheme of things?

Cheers guys!! I've not bought any proper primer yet, that's on the list tonight! I'll post pics of what I get up to tomoz.

there are better proiducts
the product i had problems with was hammerite, not the red oxide in the car, it has been and is excellent,
its still there and going strong
its the black hammerite i had to clean off completly with thinners and since then im not using hammerite and never will again

thinking about overcoating the red oxide though,
not sure what to use but i want it white

other option is get the bastard galvanised
im thinking about stripping the wax oil off underneath and completly painting it underneath in zinc rich
covers near me sell a very high zinc content paint,
might do a test of paints actually see what is best

Not really practical.



When I got the Rustoleum, I asked http://www.tools-paint.com/ for their recommendations.

The "cold-galv" high-zinc paint is apparently great IF you're painting onto blast-cleaned steel. If it's only "mechanically cleaned" (abrasive wheel etc), then it doesn't adhere well. They suggested Rustoleum. Which was considerably cheaper...

I see