Steel Beams

aspenpainting

im looking at painting some steel beams in a city park. there alittle rusted and have been painted before. anybody have any suggestions on the process of painting these. do i have to prime everything or just spot prime the rust?

AAPaint

Clean up the loose rust by abrasion of your favorite flavor, then hit them with ospho, wait 24 hours, prime, paint with a quality oil.

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-AAPaint

AA Quality Painting & Pressure Washing LLC
Jacksonville Painters
Jacksonville, FL.

jensenconstruction

What AA said.

aspenpainting

ospho?

jensenconstruction

find it here
http://www.ospho.com/

aspenpainting

so apply this stuff then do i need to scuff the beams up or does the oshpo take care of that? do you guys have an oil youd recommend after the prime?

AAPaint

No, you should clean most rust and rough areas by abrasion before applying the ospho. It will turn any remaining rust back to iron. Then you can actually just finish with SW DTM (direct to metal) alkyd paint.

__________________
-AAPaint

AA Quality Painting & Pressure Washing LLC
Jacksonville Painters
Jacksonville, FL.

Humble Abode

That ospho sounds great. AA have you used it before? Have you seen any of the work you did with it after two years?

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Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the Universe. Kurt Vonnegut, (1922 - 2007) from the Novel 'Hocus Pocus'
The NAPP
Milwaukee Painting Contractor

Teetorbilt

We've used Ospho down here for decades. You can also use it on tools, the body guys use it for vehicle repairs and 1000 other uses.

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AAPaint

Yes, ospho is awesome stuff. I've been using it on metal since I first started painting. Don't breath the mist off of it though....ack! It causes some kind of chemical reaction though that actually turns rust into iron again...it works right before your eyes, so yes, I can say it works great, and everything I've applied it to and painted has held up quite well.

__________________
-AAPaint

AA Quality Painting & Pressure Washing LLC
Jacksonville Painters
Jacksonville, FL.

Tom Rohland

Aspen,

I agree with all of the above. OSPHO is good stuff.

Protect yourself and the surrounding areas.

Just use a wire brush or other means to remove ALL loose paint and rust scale. You DO NOT have to remove tight rust.

Clean off dirt, grease, etc.

Apply a coat of OSPHO by brush or spray. Apply two coats where the rust is heavy and let it dry overnight.

Brush off loose powder.

Then just paint the steel poles with an oil base primer and paint like AA suggested.

Hope this helps.

Tom Rohland, Jr.
Ranger Painting & Pressure Cleaning, Inc.
Lake Mary, Florida


PS When applied to rusty surfaces, OSPHO causes the rust to turn black which is iron phosphate.

aspenpainting

thanks for the advise guys ill let you know how it goes