[TowerTalk] Rust & paint

[Earl Morse]

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>Message: 8
>Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2013 08:14:49 -0500
>From: Mike Reublin NF4L <nf4l at comcast.net>
>To: towertalk reflector <towertalk at contesting.com>
>Subject: [TowerTalk] Rust & paint
>Message-ID: <A32FF402-92C3-4351-ABE3-7CE0BF5F07E7 at comcast.net>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>Anybody got an opinion about Rustoleum Rust Reformer vs cold galvanizing? Would you use it with cold galvanizing, or alone?
>
>73, Mike NF4L
>
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In the mid 90s I went in with a couple of guys and bought 400 feet of used Rohn 45 that had been an AM transmit antenna.  It was painted red/orange and white.  The paint was old enough that it was faded and chalky.  I took my 100' share of sections pressure washed them, wire brushed a few spots and brush painted them with ZRC cold galvanizing right over any old paint that stuck to the tower after pressure washing.  It came out a nice battleship gray that blended in well with the woods.  

That tower is now at its second QTH.  No rust, no chips, and it hasn't been repainted since.  The ZRC is good stuff.  If you pull a rope over a tower rung it will actually polish the cold galvanizing to a nice metallic sheen.  At the rate its going I might even get a 3rd QTH/decade out of it.

The only downside that I can see is that you can't get the ZRC down inside the tubes like a hot dip galvanizing would do.

Earl
N8SS