Spray can, "Cold Galvanizing." Not sure about this one. Thoughts?

[DennisT]

Someone on one of our forums recommended this: "Rust-Oleum Cold Galvanizing Compound," in the spray can. Can says, "contains 93% pure zinc." That much zinc sounded promising. I got some. Tried it today. It handles and goes on no differently than other spray paints. However, rather than the result looking bright silver color, or even dull silver color didn't happen. It dries out mere battleship gray. No different in look than gray primer. I'm a bit disappointed as I like the genuine look of real galvanizing. I do realize probably nothing will be the same as the real thing, but.....

Fortunately I only did test patches, so no harm done. Of course, even this looks better than rust, of which I only have a few spots of surface rust.

Anyone know of another product that looks better and protects tower iron? Or, what do you all use for touch up?

Dennis

[tst]

how about the rustoleum hammer tone finish, silver with kinda like potmarks in it, hides a lot of old rusty metal,

[mtblah]

there has been extensive discussion in the past few years about the question , "hannertone " is the most popolar finish , none are a perfest match , except Michael has a vender in Waco who does galvanizing , but it looks TOO perfect , not a 100 years old with charactor .

[DennisT]

Thank you all for the tips. I'll try some of that Hammer Tone in Silver.
Dennis

[RPinAZ]

I used ZRC on my tower. I was going to spray it so I thinned it a little with mineral spirits and sprayed two coats as recommended. At first it looked like a uniform sand blasted finish. Over time (its been about 7 or 8 months), it's weathered a little, darkened some and gotten a little mottled more like galvanizing. It's not identical to an old galvanized finish, but is getting closer. The only down side is that it's supposed to be applied to bare metal, that means all the mill scale had to come off. To do this, I made a 10' 'tank' out of 4 inch PVC and pickled the angle iron in vinegar - 3 or 4 pieces at a time for 24 hours. After that, the scale wiped off pretty easy with scotchbrite.

-RP

[Wayne]

You get it 20 or 30 ft in the air and it's hard to see the imperfections.

[DennisT]

I admire RPinAZ's devotion to his finish work. Thank you. The comments so far have been very helpful. I think mine will turn out OK. It was assembled from various genuine tower pieces, so they show variations. Sometimes when I look in the mirror I feel the same - so we'll match. (G)

[Bart78]

We machine pipe couplings in our shop. The zinc we have them played with will be shiny sometimes. And kind of dull sometimes.

[LoTec]

I use quite a bit of Rustoleum Cold Galvanizing spray. To my mind the battleship gray is a reasonable match to weathered galvanizing. They also make a Bright Galvanizing Compound that goes on much more shiny. If you read the fine print on their Hammered Metal Finish products, it says NOT to use it on galvanized metal.
There are many cold galvanizing products out there... and most are astronomically expensive.

[Challenge 27]

Have been following this thread, and will add my 2 cents worth ...

ZRC might be supposed to be applied to bare shiny metal, but when I put up my tv areal in 2020-21 (posts about that project can be found lurking around in the dark recesses of the forums), I applied it over the old galvo on the areal. This areal was an old 3 legged one that nobody wanted. I wire wheeled it thoroughly from one end to the other; getting off all rust and dirt and any loose galvo. Over 50% of the original galvo remained. Got down to bear shiny metal where I needed to. Adhesion of the ZRC has been excellent, even where its on old galvo.

As for "If you read the fine print on their Hammered Metal Finish products, it says NOT to use it on galvanized metal." After I had my tower thoroughly coated with ZRC, I then coated it with the hammered silver. I reasoned that while ZRC is called "cold galvo" in reality it is a very zinc rich paint, not true galvo. The adhesion of the hammered silver to the ZRC has been excellent. I will leave it to someone else to try putting some hammered silver directly on some galvanized metal.

As for the shine, the hammered silver has kept most or all of its shine. If you want the brand new shiny look, this is the stuff to use.

Challenge 27