Painting Hunter Alignment Rack

[volvoguy]

Hello everyone. This is my first post here. If this question is in the wrong forum, my apologies and please let me know. I’m a Volvo technician of 20 plus years and currently setting up my second auto repair shop.

I recently purchased an older 9K Hunter alignment rack. It has a decent amount of rust so I’m debating on how to proceed. I would like to make it look better as the shop is freshly painted, most of my other stuff is new or lightly used etc. I also want to make it last as new racks are pushing $30K I believe.

Does anyone have experience painting or refinishing a rusted rack? Clean/grind/sanding what did you use? Rust inhibitor? What primer and paint? I also want to match the Hunter red as close as possible.

Thanks in advance for any help. It is much appreciated.

 

[jpaw]

We repainted the deck on our old one. Used a 4 1/2" grinder with a flap disk and wire wheel to knock the loose stuff off. We just used rustoleum red by the gallon and it matched well enough. Didn't take long with a brush and roller.

 

[Stelzer]

It might help to list your experience with painting as well as the equipment you have to do the job. Ultimately, those 2 factors will determine the best products to use for your application.

 

[Steve_P]

The "I want to make money and would like it to look ok from the 10' customer view" method is what jpaw said.

The GJ method is to take it apart, degrease it, send it out for sand blasting, epoxy prime it with $300+ worth of materials, fill the rust pits with filler, sand, 2K fill primer with $300+ worth of material, sand, topcoat with $600+ worth of Glasurit urethane single stage. And get to work in a month after spending as much on it as you paid for it. But hey, it'll look new from a foot away.

 

[dnschmidt]

^^^^ This guy knows what he's talking about. Well sort of. Sandblasting is so last year. Wet blasting with either soda or glass beads is the hot setup today. In a pinch garnet works pretty good as well.

 

[The Cobbler]

a clean up of major rust , a coat of low lustre paint ( even with a brush & roller) will look good to most people. it will likely bother the author of the paint job more than anyone else .

 

[dnschmidt]

I'll stay out of the paint argument because I'm a painter but to remove the rust I highly recommend clean and strip discs as flap discs just don't like rust as it kills them quickly. Also a stiff wire brush on an angle grinder works well most of the time and if the rust is really bad then a needle scaler should be the first step to remove the loose stuff. Actually for pedestrian stuff Rustoleum works pretty good if sprayed it can look very good. The secret sauce with Restoleum is to use the following formula to make spray grade Rustoleum. 4 parts Rustoleum, 2 parts Acetone. Or better yet for added wear resistance: 5 parts Rustoleum, 2 parts Acetone 1/3 part acrylic enamel hardener which greatly toughens the final paint as the hardener (isocyanate) at least partially cross-links the paint.

 

[dchawk81]

Be easier to junk up the rest of the shop to match.

 

[mike93lx]

Wire cup wheel on an angle grinder, clean with acetone or alcohol then hit it with rustoleum pro in spray cans. Let it cure for a few days and you'll be back to work.

If you can get someone to help you, the wire wheeling and painting can all be done in a day