does anyone have a bare metal daily driver and if so what do you use to keep it from rusting.the thing is i have a 53 chevy and its my daily driver but i want to do the bare metal look. thanks
Nothin will keep it from going rusty but still give you a good "bare metal look"... Put some clear over it, or better still, some paint.
Gibb's brand penetrant works extremely well, check it out at www.roadsters.com and he's also a HAMBer.
I like seeing bare metal cars. I don't know about daily driver, but that's your bag. I was the head metal guy at Squeeg's for 5 years, and we kept all our turn-key projects in bare metal. There is a right way and a wrong way to do this IMO. I have seen way too many bare metal cars at shows, where it looks like they took a grinder to the whole car! YUCK! I developed a techniqe of sorts to get a really nice look. Let me know if I should bore you further! I have used gibbs, and I don't know that it really works any better than tool oil, IMO. Either way it is alot of upkeep. If you are gonna clear it, you might as well paint it.
O.K. , you asked... Well basically, get the paint off however. If you use stripper, use stripper. If you got a mud-hog with 40 grit, well use that, just basically get it off. If you have rust, use some metal-prep, with gloves! Dont ever use 24 grit grinding disks unless you are grinding welds. If you have grinding marks, get them out with 50 grit disks. At this point, buy some cheap 80-grit DA paper (your gonna go through alot of it) and DA the swirls, grinder marks etc. out of it. Kinda like polishing something. Once you got all your marks removed, and everything looking uniform. Take some red Scotch bright and "brush" the metal with it. Just scrub the hell out of it, but try to keep it all in one direction. Wipe down a coupl'a times with thinner, then oil. Hope that was clear. alot of work, but it makes for a nice finish. Good Luck! P.S. It takes alot of work initially, plan on about a whole day getting it right. After that, it is pretty easy to touch up. Just DA the rusty spots with 80, then scotch it. Some notes, try to keep people from touching it with their bare hands, It'll make rust spots. Jeem gave us like 3 bottles of Gibb's, I went through all of them, then went back to WD-40, and tool oil. I did not notice that one was any better than the other.
try this picklex had my car for year bare no problems http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php? t=235784&goto=newpost
I have heard of Picklex, never used it. Boss didn't want to buy it. It is what your sheets of steel come covered in. Probably your best bet. Some other metal fab guys told me about it. It may keep it from rusting, but you put it over grinder marks, still gonna look like shit. IMO.
Leaving something in bare metal to show off your fabrication skills for a business, or leaving that way so a future buyer is one thing. Is this the case? It's a bad idea, and not good for your ride.
I'd say bare metal would be nice for the trip when it comes out of the box to show off the metal work before it goes back and into the paint booth. I can find better things to do than cleaning rust off my car because it rained when I was on the way to work this morning. But then what do I know, back in the early 70's in Waco I was the guy who had the reputation of putting a fresh coat of primer on my truck every Thursday night so it would be fresh for that weeks rod trot in central Texas.
Just contact house of kolor, and tell them you need: -Adhesion Promoter 101 -Clear That's it. Set your promoter and follow promptly with a few coat of clear. Cure, and go from one more coat of clear, and then block out. Everyone makes everything so difficult.
Opinions are like assholes..... There's actually a whole market for this look you think is awful, it's called texturizing. You can get videos on how to do it, and it's not too far off from machine turning. You should see what it looks like when it's planned and not hap-hazard. Toss some sealant, some clear, and a candy over it and it looks GREAT! BTW: The technique you developed is pretty common amongst metal workers. You're just laying down a uniform grain to the steel/aluminum, what have you. Even Jesse James does it! He made a rolling brewery, and gave one guy a sore arm by making him grain the tanks... and they were HUUUUUUUUGE! hahahah
I heard Gibbs works nicely...but it would be a pain to get it clean if you wanted to paint over it. I have seen flat clear used with good results
Good info here. make sure to scrub it front to back.....tends to flow much better with the lines of most cars, if not all cars. Is Picklex or Gibbs hard to clean up once you want to paint the car? On the HOK solution: how does that clear hold up over the years, as far as adhesion? I like that whole concept, but we could never find a clear that anyone had a good feeling about, in terms of long-term adhesion..... THanks!
Mine is on bare metal, or at least part of it is now and the rest will be in a week or so. I just use some WD 40. If you use a wire wheel and don't scratch the hell out of it it won't rust very quick. The metal under my paint was smooth in most places. Only the parts that were scratched up rusted over the course of 2 or 3 months. Then the wire wheel took care of that. I wouldn't want to drive a bare metal car for to long. I only plan on mine being that way for a 3-6 months while I am doing body work.
I used Picklex on my firewall. First I stripped it and scotch bright buffed it. It had a nice bare metal look. Then I coated it with Picklex and it took on a different tone. Its not the same look as bare metal and WD40. For what its worth ...
If you are not going to clear coat it, invest in Red Scotchbrite and Elbow Grease. You can slow the surface rust down by using Gibs or WD-40, (one does just as well as the other) but that's all they do... slow it down. Take it from me, a bare metal daily is A LOT of up keep. I'd scrub mine once a week (that's if it didn't rain). I'd just paint it, the fad is over if you ask me.
Well, that closes the door on that mystery. lol Southern redneck flags and lovin' other dudes butts. Impressive. I've always been a "likes to hang with chicks and avoid getting locked up" kinda guy myself.
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