Substitute for Xylene or Toluene

[Jonathan_Ferguson]

This afternoon was the first time I've gone into this paintshop that has been there for like forever, but the fellow there hadn't heard of Xylene and the only product he had with Toluene was only 51% and he couldn't say what the 49% was. So onto the hardware store and looking over many tins to see what chemical they were, most just list the percentage of Hydrocarbons, then I saw Goof Off and it's the only product I saw that came close to what I need.

Are either of these suitable for cleaning the workpiece before shooting Rust Bullet, aswell as cleanup of the gub afterwards?

 

[Jonathan_Ferguson]

I searched the interwebs over and over, and the only gub in my price range was this one and their store in Dandenong is not too far from Glen Waverley.

On Monday I got a gub mount filter and regulator from Paint Mobile.
Spray Gun Mini Filter $11.00
Air Regulator AR802 $22.44

I went by on Tuesday to pickup the 1.7 tip gub, but there had been a mistake and the gub wasn't ordered in. I was a offered a $100 plus gub with a 1.6 tip for the same price as the 1.7, but I declined it as I want to follow Rust Bullet's specs.

Today when I went there the gub was already sitting on the bench, so I pony'd up the $66.95 and after the transaction the chap asked me what size airline I'm using and walked over and gave me a 1/4 BSP Chrome fitting.
Gun H827 $66.95

 

[rockcrawler]

Where are you getting Rust Bullet from?

 

[Jonathan_Ferguson]

Where are you getting Rust Bullet from?

The first Quart I bought by emailing Andrew Darr, he created an invoice and I put the money into his Bank account. - This was back in (I think) April and all was done in reasonable time.
To complete this project I needed more of the Automotive Formula and this time I wanted to do the transaction the same way, avoiding Paypal. I had emailed Andrew on several occasions over the past five weeks using three different email addresses, including the one I used for the first order, nothing. During this period I telephoned and left two messages on his mobilephone, one week apart towards the end of the business day on a monday, listed on his Internet site, nothing. I tried his landline 02 65734188 listed on Rust Bullet's international list but I got an answering machine with a woman's voice saying three persons name, including Andrew. - tried a few days later and the same deal.
As I was getting desperate as I had dropped off the already sandblasted Towbar at the Panel Beater one week prior, I tried to make a purchace from Rust Bullet UK but it uses Paypal, I also tried Rust Bullet themselves but thier system with a legitimate checkout couldn't determine shipping to Australia, nor could their link to Google Checkout and third option was Paypal.
My second last option before breaking down and using Paypal, was telephone Rust Bullet in Auckland last friday at 12:55 New Zealand time where I got an answering machine.

Paypal charged me AU$1.00 as a seperate charge from the $250.50 from the getgo, and I immediately telephoned the NAB and the woman could only think that it could be a $1.00 fee imposed by Paypal.

If I hadn't already started a project with Rust Bullet and I wanted a silver like colour, I would spray two coats of POR 15 Rust Preventive Paint and then two coats of Stirling Silver, instead.
POR products are cheaper from this retailer than the Distributor's internet prices.

 

[rockcrawler]

Thanks for the info Jon. Think I'll give Rust Bullet a miss then, one thing I don't like is being stuffed around like that
Been trying to find a supplier for Rust Bullet without any luck for about a month myself.
I was actually going to do the frame in VHT engine enamel which is the toughest paint I know of and I know it would do the job very well but then I found this VHT Roll Bar & Chassis Paint
Going to get a can of this and do some tests, don't expect any problems as VHT does great paint but as I have never used it on anything I want to see how it compares.
I sprayed one of my work chairs with VHT engine enamel about 15 years ago. This thing gets used and knocked around quite a bit on a daily basis but the paint has still not worn off or chipped.

 

[Jonathan_Ferguson]

I picked up the first lot of items painted with Rush Bullet this afternoon. 1 US Quart was just enough to cover the Towbar, its step treadplate, the radiator splashguard for the Bullbar, and few little pieces. The painter commented that spraying the Rust Bullet made his eyes sting.
Anyway, the Rust Bullet isn't anywhere close to smooth, atleast it's got consistant proud flecks allover, though. - The painter handed back both of the Goo Off Products as he didn't use either.
The sandblasting was quite severe and when moving the towbar holding onto the tube portion gave a weird sensation. - The Rust Bullet covered all the pitted like surface well, as there's no pattern coming through at all. I had a few items painted that weren't sandblasted, those being new powdercoated tubeclamps from ARB that join the Bullbar and Sidesteps together and new Towhooks that were in black paint and covered in antirust oil, these items have the exact same appearance as the sandblasted items. So I don't know what the deal is with the Rust Bullet not coming out smooth.

I don't think I'll use Rust Bullet products again after this project, the colour is nice, though I did expect the Aluminium pigment to be obvious in the coating. - It's a consistant colour all the way through. It's just the lack of smoothness that dissapoints me.

 

[rockcrawler]

Did you take some closeup pics of the sandblasting Jon? I spoke to a sandblaster in Dandenong a few months ago about getting my frame done and am curious of the results.
The more rough the surface of a metal, the easier it corrodes. This is something I have been thinking about a bit insofar as the pro's and con's of sandblasting.

 

[Jonathan_Ferguson]

No photos as I took the items directly to the Panel Beater in Springvale. The sandblasting was done by DH Corrosion in Dandenong, I dealt with Angie Romas and he's quite knowledgable even though he hadn't heard of Rust Bullet he knew about Single Stage Moisture Cured Polyurethane.

I'll try to remember to take photographs next time, as I still have the Bullbar, Sidesteps and the Sidesteps' treadplates to go.

Just to add the cost to this thread, sandblasting is $250 an hour, for my parts it equated to $190 which is way more expensive than the two weeks the parts lived at the Panel Beater's with 1.5 hours of paint time and I paid $150

 

[Jonathan_Ferguson]

The three quarts of Automotive Formula arrived this morning by courier, a few hours shy of two weeks. - I guess this means Andrew Darr is not dead, yet. Still doesn't excuse why he didn't respond to emails sent to the same address that the autorespond email came from through the Paypal process.