Vintage Windmill and Wind Generator Forum

Fellow windmillers one and all, what's the best cold galvanizing compound of them all?

Got one of those masts, for lack of a better term, for mounting outdoor tv antennas. Seems old school, in these days of satellite dishes.Traditional three post design, in good condition but rusty.

Can clean off the rust. Feel I ought to put some galvo on it afterwords. Have seen some good discussions in the past about this; would like some hints about which one might be the best.

Would be particularly interested in one or those that closely match the weathered galvo on windmills. Remember seeing a restored windmill so coated that was being kept inside. Color was about right, but it was too shiny. Wondered if would look a lot better if it was put outside about a year to weather some. If you are suspecting that I am thinking this project might be a good way to learn more about this type of product without having to actually restore a windmill and put it up you are right. Too much trouble to put up a windmill and then have your spray or paint on galvo go bad.

Challenge 27

P.S. Some have said that the Rustoleum spray on galvo really looks good when you first put it on, but it really darkens with time. What do the experts say?

I use a product by Rust-oleum called Hammered. On can says it hides imperfections. It drys with kinda a rough look more like galvanizing. I've only done small projects never a complete tower.

Steel-IT brand of paint makes a stainless steel spray paint that would work well for your tv antenna tower. Its pricey but holds up well. Probably wouldn't want to do a windmill tower with it.

Rustoleum zinc primer $100 plus per gallon, weighs 20lb+

What windmillerman said. Big plus on the $100 per gal

CRC makes some that seems pretty good but not sure on the long term look. There is another one that I forget the name of. Check out the welding supply places or maybe Mcmaster? I suppose you could try the 3 or 4 brands on a random piece(s) of steel set out to age. Report back to us with the results of your experiment

Most cold galv paints are battleship gray so never match old galvanizing. I used a product from McMaster that is 95% zinc--heavy as heck, and you have to keep it constantly stirred. Comes out that battleship gray but I found that VERY lightly over-coating it with one of the shinier spray paint style options adds just enough to be cosmetically hidden, at least from a distance.

You need to spray extremely lightly and from a bit of distance. Most of the spray can stuff goes on so shiny that it looks like fake spray-can chrome which is absolutely awful--but barely and I mean *barely* coated takes some of the battleship gray down by adding just a hair of a shine. Letting the tip get a little sputtery also helps a bit with the cosmetics.

Obviously YMMV.