By Ryan Manson – Images by the Author
Anyone who has ever had a sheet metal panel media blasted and failed to immediately cover said panel with some sort of protective coating knows what the expected result can be: surface rust. It might take a week, might take a month, but Mother Nature knows no bounds and she certainly doesn’t care that you’d like to retain that bare-metal beauty in her natural element for as long as possible (or at least as long as it takes to make all the necessary sheet metal repairs!). That was the state we found ourselves after we had our ’64 C10 cab blasted and proceeded to begin the repairs that we’ve covered thus far. For the first few months, the sheet metal was bare and clean, making repairs a fairly straightforward task. But over time, moisture and humidity began to seep in and soon enough, instead of a rose-colored glasses view of our project, our cab began to take on a rosy-colored hue, and it didn’t fill us full of optimism!
Optimism did in fact prevail, however, after speaking with the guys at KBS Coatings and relaying our project’s current woes. Not wanting to have to reblast the entire cab, we called looking for a chemical solution that we could apply at home to solve our surface rust issue before we press on with the usual body and paint process. Turns out, KBS Coatings has a three-part process that cleans, converts, and seals rusty surfaces for good. Known collectively as the Stop Rust Kit, it consists of KBS Klean, KBS RustBlast, and KBS RustSeal. Available in quart form for smaller projects or gallon form for large ones, the Stop Rust Kit is the perfect method to solve surface rust and effectively kill it in its tracks.
While we covered the components of the KBS Stop Rust Kit in a previous story, what we didn’t cover are the methods of application and best practices to be followed for each step. The first step will be to wash the entire firewall area with KBS Klean, a concentrated, water-based, biodegradable cleaner that will prep the surface to be nice and clean. Next, KBS RustBlast, a powerful rust remover, zinc phosphate pre-primer, and metal etch will be applied to the surface as well. RustBlast effectively dissolves rust, corrosion, metal oxides, and tarnish from most metal surfaces, leaving behind a perfect foundation for the next step, KBS RustSeal. Impervious to road salts and a variety of chemicals, RustSeal is a high-performance, single-part, ready-to-use, rust-preventative ceramic-like coating that is resistant to scratches or chipping and will not crack or peel.
When it’s all said and done, we’ll be using the KBS Stop Rust three-part system to effectively protect the majority of our C10 cab’s sheet metal, while some sections, such as the firewall and dash, will then be finished in a more traditional paint and body manner with KBS filler primer, body filler, and topcoated with KBS Maxx. Inside the cab, RustSeal will provide the final finish before insulation and interior is installed, while underneath the cab, the process will be repeated followed by an application of KBS Coatings’ Rubberized Undercoating.
With 60-plus years of neglect and abuse, it’s apparent the need to address many areas of our C10’s cab to get it up to modern standards. And with rust being one of the biggest culprits of damage on many an old truck, we can rest assured that, once addressed with the proper techniques and products thanks to KBS Coatings, we can kill that cancer, once and for all. CTP
Check out this story in our digital edition here.
