Dear V-8 Buick warriors against rust, I have been researching products like POR-15 and promptly getting myself confused with the usual excessive choices and conflicting claims. I would have loved to find a little chemical explanation of how this products worked so that I could try to decide for myself if they really are as good as they claim. I couldn't find that, but I found instead a fellow that decided to such compare the three popular products by testing them. The products he tried were: POR-15 Rust Preventive Paint, Rust Bullet, and Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator. He simply painted some steel bars with the various products and left them in water to rust away. He describes his experiment on his blog: http://www.drjing.com/Mini/BLOG/SideBySide.htm He concludes that POR-15 held up better at least in his experiment. Take a look at the pictures and see if you agree. Cheers, Edouard :beer
chassis saver is suposseivly same spec formula as Por-15 but like 10 bucks cheaper from what ive always heard. rust bullet is a 2 part formula so that should lean towards as less effective. all i know is any of these products are only as good as the prepwork.
Muddy waters (Re: Comparison of common rust encapsulating products) Dear Mike and V-8 Buick warriors against rust, I hadn't heard about Chassis Saver and I suppose the fellow who ran the experiment hadn't either. Here is a link to the product page for anyone else who wasn't aware of it: http://www.magnetpaints.com/underbody.asp I tried to find some more info about it, but alias all I find are either product claims or gossip from forums. If you type "POR-15 Classis Saver" into Google, you'll find that this comparison is being talked about on many automobile oriented forums. I found on the TurboBuick forum a claim that Classic Saver was created by a man who left POR-15. However, Classic Saver claims to be better than POR-15, so that would suggest it is a different formulation - not simply a cheaper version of the same POR-15 product. I found something else that I found surprising. Supposedly POR-15 has just filed for a patent. You would think that POR-15 would be a patented product. I was wondering if Classis Saver was indeed a "clone" of POR-15 that was now possible because the original POR-15 patents had expired. So to make a long story longer . . . . sure don't know what to make of all these products. I suppose we all have to make our best guesses given all the hype. Cheers, Edouard
There are a variety of reasons to not patent a product- mostly because the information becomes public and other nations (who don't respect intellectual property concepts) will then copy the product... Thanks for posting this, BTW. It's an interesting topic. -Bob Cunningham
A man with a watch . . . . . . (Re: Common rust encapsulating products) Dear Bob and V-8 Buick warriors against rust, That is an interesting possibility. If the creators of POR-15 hoped to keep ahead of their competition by keeping the formulation secret, then the defection of one of their employees might indeed result in a truly equivalent product. However, if that was the plan, they should have had all their employees sign a secrecy contract to avoid this possibility. In that case, POR-15 could then sue Classic Saver for breach of contract. So something still doesn't add up. Well alas, what we all really need on this topic doesn't exist: a carefully controlled experiment that compares all these products so that we can made a product choice based truly on performance - not manufacturer claims. It is a bit like the "murphyism:" A man with a watch knows the time, a man with two (or more) is never sure. When only POR-15 existed, the choice was easy. Now that there are multiple products with conflicting claims - how do you choose one of them? It is always tempting to save money, but newcomers who offer a product at a lower price need to do something to lower costs - how do they change the formulation to save money? If the modifications reduce the efficacy of the product then it is definitely no bargain. On the other hand, suppose the rival products truly are an improvement? So in the end, I have the feeling that I know less now then when I started researching all this!! o No: Cheers, Edouard
In an ideal world . . . (Re: Common rust encapsulating products) Dear DL and V-8 Buick rust annihilators, Funny you mention such a noble solution. I remember attempting to do just that on a boat trailer one summer during my high school days. Dad and I really tried . . . . by the next year the darn trailer was rusting once more. :af: I'm sure that if you have the right tools, products and procedures, it can be done. However, I'm reasonably confident - it t'ain't easy!! I'll be the first to admit that my first choice would be to strip down to bare metal and protect that properly. However, if for some reason you can't - what then? If you are familiar with the story of my trusty wagon, then you know that I've been force to come up with "Plan-B" . . . . a lot!! So much so that we might have to extend the alphabet. So I do spend a lot of time exploring possible options - cuz, I might need 'em! Cheers, Edouard
Re: In an ideal world . . . (Re: Common rust encapsulating products) Not sure where you're located ? In FL they use Galvanized trailers . I've went almost exclusively to have parts dipped and de- rusted. Blasting is time consuming, concerns of silicosis ect . Certainly has its place, but like you eluded to, more then one way to skin a cat. Metaphorically speaking of course,, Regards, DL
Ouch!! Bad memories!! (Re: Common rust encapsulating products) Dear DL and V-8 Buick "mature teenagers." Ouch!! I had forgotten the whole story until you forced me to try to recall why all this happened! In a time long ago (~1977) and it seems at least one alternative universe away, my parents bought a 14 foot sailboat. For some crazy reason, this tiny sailboat weighing no more than 500 pounds had been put on a trailer that could haul 1500 pounds. We also had a 14' power boat and my Dad was greedy. So the plan was to swap the boats on the trailers and eventually end up with a larger power boat. I guess in California in those days, galvanizing trailers just wasn't done. We didn't have a sand-blaster or other fancy tools. Almost all the work was by hand. Naval Jelly was a new product at the time. Clearly we didn't do enough disassembly and prep work. With the correct tools and materials, a boat trailer is probably an excellent candidate for stripping down to bare metal and painting. However, any trailer that has to deal with salt water probably should be galvanized. Indeed, that's where I find myself. Some areas of a car aren't practical to dismantle. If you cannot expose a region to remove all the rust, then encapsulation is a viable plan-B. I think your original point should be taken to heart though. Whenever possible, it is always preferable to strip to bare metal. Cheers, Edouard
