Liquid Metal...
Refinishing Old Tanks with Galvilite 95% Zinc Paint.
- (above) Tanks sand blasted and wiped with acetone. "Liquid Metal" Galvilite.
- (above) Galvilite wet and Galvilite dry. When wet, the Galvilite color is almost indistinguishable from the steel... You have to keep a watch to make sure you are coating the steel completely and didn't miss any spots. The dry finish is very even and I can see why touch-ups will be invisible. The "dry" photo almost looks white but it is a very light, flat silver/gray. From a Mike Nelson
Sea Hunt UDT perspective... Very "Navy" looking IMHO.
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"Liquid Metal"... Reading up on the specs of Galvilite I learned a few things. First, Galvanizing anything coats it with Zinc. The purpose of it is so that the
Galvanic Reaction that causes corrosion will happen to the Zinc rather than the steel. I noticed during sand blasting that when I took off the corroded galvanized finish, the steel was almost smooth and untouched beneath. Galvilite works exactly the same.
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Galvilite is some Real Stuff... It's 95% zinc metal. The quart can I bought is
heavy. Open the can and you see liquid metal floating in the un-stirred paint. I used a stirring spinner and electric drill to mix and blend it well... And it needed it as a lot had settled in the bottom of the can. It never gets to looking even-colored like paint. The picture above shows it after spin stirring it for quite a long time.
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Expensive? At about $50 a quart, Galvilite is not cheap. But it goes pretty far. At the point this photo was taken, I had used about a quarter of the can to coat both tanks two coats, and the tank bands one coat. Compared to having a plater hot dip Galvanize, I expect the Galvilite used is cheap.
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The Real Expense... I've got a heck of a lot of physical time and work into this. And if I was paying someone for it, it wouldn't be worth doing. For example, I'm fortunate to have access to a sand blasting cabinet at work. Our blasting media is for surface prep before finishing custom rifles... So my blasting media is not very "aggressive". That probably added a lot of time to the sand blasting process. Also, the '60s black tank bands were coated in black vinyl. I had to soak them in acetone to get the vinyl off before sand blasting. A throw away tin foil turkey roasting pan was the only thing big enough to soak the bands in. They look beautiful now with the Galvilite coating!
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The Hard Part is Done. Now I've just got to sit tight and let the Galvilite cure for a few weeks...