Question for anyone who's used Pickelex20...

[Jayru]

So i've been doing some research on this stuff and it seems prety cool. But i have some questions.

First i'll explain what i'm looking for...

I have a 72 240 with minimal rust. There is rust in all the comon areas (battery tray, floor, etc.) but it is only surface rust. The paint has also begain to flake off the firewall (which will eventually lead to rust).

Eventually i'd like to fully restore the car (but time and money are not a factor now). I'd like to coat the rusted areas with something to protect/stop the spread until i can someday restore the car. I have no time right now to strip/sand anything. I litterally only want to spray down the rusted/exposed areas.

The Pickelex20 site says it can be sprayed on rusted/non-rusted metal with no surface preperation, and it will convert 100% of the rust to a black colored type thing. It also says it will last up to a year without applying any coating on top of it.

Is this really true? Has anyone done this? I'm thinking this would be the perfect thing to do, just spray it on, let it dry, and i'm protected for up to a year. And if it begain to rust again i could just re-apply no?

Will it damage existing paint, rubber hoses, ect? Let me know.

Thanks,

Jay

[jmortensen]

I'm not a Picklex20 expert, but I have used it a bit in my project. It seems to have the same active ingredient as Ospho, which is phosphoric acid. The difference is that it doesn't have to be rinsed off like Ospho because it isn't as concentrated. The downside is that it produces a surface coating that from what I've read isn't strong enough to face the elements. I think what you've read has been distorted a little. I believe they do advertise that you can coat metal with it and that coating will last a year if it's not subjected to the weather.

It would work fine as a rust converter, but you'd want to put another layer of paint over it to seal it. I'm using the Picklex20 and then I'm going to go over that with Zero Rust, then whatever paint I decide to use will go over that.

[Jayru]

Interesting. I didn't want to paint it because then i have to go back and remove that paint when i strip the car properly.

But i guess a light coat of paint wouldn't be to hard to remove when the time comes.

So does it convert the rust 100% as promised? even with no surface prep?How did you like it?

[jmortensen]

So far it's worked well for me, but my car has been in a garage for the last two years. Here's a little bit on my cowl rust I just recently fixed: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=106849

This in particular was why I bought Picklex. My car has rust coming out of the seams, and the thicker rust treatment stuff won't get in there. Picklex is so thin that it got right into the seam and went straight through.

I don't know if it completely killed all the rust. I don't even know how one would test or check that. But it did turn it black and chalky looking and I'm hoping between that and a top coat of Zero Rust I'll be good to go.