Painting cast iron fountains, Restoring rusty fountains

A. The best thing to do is have it sand blasted, Then a heavy primer. Paint it right after its blasted, it will rust up on you real quick.

Jon Diamond
silver plater
Berkeley, California

A. Another alternative is as follows. Use a hand or power wire brush to remove the loose rust. Check for a Rust Converter [linked by editor to product info at Amazon] (spray or brush type). Coat according to instructions on the converter and then paint with an appropriate top coat. This stuff works very well and actually turns the rust into an oxide that seals the metal surface from further rusting. Not very expensive either. I use the Mar-Hyde brand and have excellent results. Hope this helps.

A. Try cathodic protection. Good luck and hope it helps!

A. First, no coating is going to be absolutely foolproof, because humans apply it. No disrespect intended. My choice would be a fiberglass resin, with no mat. One with a white tint should work well, based on your pictures. I would use two or preferably 3 coats, with the last one containing wax. Good fiberglass sources can easily set you up with this. Wearing an activated carbon respirator would be a good idea also.

A. I install steel cisterns for rainwater catchment. We use a product called 'Blue Max' by Ames Research =>
It is really easy to use and we've had great results. We've been using it for at least 2 years now and have not had any leaking systems.

A. I am in the coatings business. A product that will fix your problem is Vortex Applied Coatings.

Hi. We appreciate the responses from everyone who has tried to help, but this site doesn't consider suggesting brand names the way forward for a bunch of reasons. First, secret formulas don't answer the inquirer's question about comparing the pros and cons of polyurethane to epoxy, etc. Second, they provide no technical education into coating science, which is what this forum is about. Third, they promote one-sided glowing praise of products instead of balance, because people are justifiably afraid of hearing from a company's lawyers if they offer a negative posting about a brand name product. Fourth and probably worst is that they have encouraged fictitious postings from sales managers posing as satisfied customers in a race to the bottom -- which ruined many threads on this site. Please try your best to keep it strictly technical. Thanks!

I think Goran offered great food for thought with his posting about cathodic protection. You won't see a ship or a nuclear containment structure or even a water heater without zinc (or other sacrificial metal) anodes.

Regards,

A. Hi Andrew. I think the epoxy primer would be okay, as would fiberglass products whether epoxy or polyester based, as would the proprietary products mentioned -- but I agree with Goran's earlier posting, and feel that magnesium anodes are a big part of the right answer.

I think you would find sand blasting much faster and easier than grinding. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Electrolysis. Followed by drying completely and rubbing beeswax into the metal. It will turn a beautiful slightly glossy black.

I think you could submerge the whole thing by building a wooden tank around it somehow.

-Not an Expert.

A. Hi Christine. There are probably 3 approaches to slowing the rusting.

1. Purer water, lower in chlorides and sulphates, and less conductive. Drain the fountain, and use only distilled water or rain water in the fountain. If fertilizer, de-icer or anything else gets in the fountain, drain it and refill.
2. Sacrificial protection. Put a magnesium anode from a boating store or plumbing supply store in the water, firmly connected to the steel that the fountain is made of. Replace the anode periodically.
3. Coating the steel with paint to retard the rust. I don't know how this suits your aesthetic taste, but painting after a phosphoric acid (rust converter) treatment will greatly slow the corrosion.

I'd do all three. If it suits you to paint it the color of zinc with a "cold galvanizing compound", that would probably provide 2 & 3 simultaneously. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi again. Yes, rust converter and paint will get rid of the rust, but it will then be painted rather than raw metal. I don't know if that suits your wishes. And the repair will have a limited life before touchup is required; I don't know how long.

Regards,

A. Hi Christine. Best of luck with it. I've already told you three things that I think could be done now, but sorry, I'm not getting into after-the-fact "should haves" and contract disputes.

Regards,