The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Cab underside & frame paint

I have decided to use one of the following to paint the underside of the cab and frame of my 1965 C10:

1) Eastwood Rust Encapsulator Premium/Eastwood Satin Chassis Paint

or

2) Rust-oleum Rusty Metal Primer/Rust-Oleum Semi-gloss Black Professional Enamel.

Whichever one will follow wire brushing with my hand grinder and cleaning with acetone. I plan to apply the primer and paint with a brush rather than spray cans.

I have looked at POR 15 but for some reason not that enthused about it. Maybe it's the prep required.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thank You

I have not used the Eastwood stuff, but I have been doing the rustoleum combo for close to 30 years and never had a problem.

I skipped the primer on a couple beaters, but I would not recommend it. One lasted fine, the other had the topcoats flake off after a couple years.

I am using the Eastwood product. It seems to scratch easily, but I am brushing a coat on, and then spraying with a heavy coat after assembly.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I think I will go with Rust-Oleum. It would sure be more convenient to be able to obtain paint locally, On my roof I have a weather vane I painted with it many years ago and it has held up remarkably well. I guess with the truck I just feel the need to use an "automotive product."

Ferris Bueller's comment made me think of a paint I have also tried - VHT Roll Bar & Chassis Paint in gloss back. It is readily available, seems to go on well, looks good, but seems to scratch up fairly easy.

I guess hardness is POR-15's strength, but agree with buoymaker on the hazards.

Here what I used, I see the price has jumped a bit.

zero rust

I used the VHT on the core support for an LS swap about 5 years ago. It has been durable, but turned chalky after about 2 years.

I painted the entire chassis, frame, and floor pan of my '56 Cadillac with Rustoleum Semi-Gloss Black in rattle cans. That was 20 years ago and I have not experienced peeling or flaking or any paint failure whatsoever. This car gets used all time as regular transportation. I did not use primer.

I use Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer and Rustoleum gloss black on everything which is black on my trucks. I use rattle cans. This paint flows very nicely and ends up smooth as all get out, and holds up very well.
The best part is that touch ups are a breeze, and every hardware store in America carries it.

It isn't very cheap (what is now?), but I've had good luck with X-O Rust water based satin black acrylic enamel. Apply it with a brush (it isn't gloss so you need not worry about shine) and clean up with water and soap. If you get it on your hands, stop painting and go wash. If it dries, you'll be wearing it for a while. Most oil based enamel is going away. In fact, if you study the ingredients in what is being sold as oil-based enamel, you'll see it is much more akin to lacquer. We've discussed this before...when folks complain about paint lifting, crazing, cracking with lines, etc...it is all due to ingredients.

Anyone familiar with Chassis Saver ??... not cheap either...can find it on Amazon...multiple finishes (i.e. Glass Black, Flat Black, Silver-Aluminum...etc) and best of all no difficult prep or pre-finish needed.

Eastwood worked great, too great in fact. It took a lot of grinding to prep for welding adjacent areas I didn’t paint 17 years ago.

Now, here in Florida, everyone uses Rustoleum. I painted a utility trailer 4 years ago…still holding up, and it’s always stored outside. I am starting to do under my cab too and plan on using Rustoleum.