Priming with Rust Encapsulator

April 9, 2010 - Finally the weather has warmed up and the live oaks have just about quit spewing their pollen granules. I was able to tape up the car last weekend and attempted to start priming the car with Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator. The Rust Encapsulator is a great product and puts down a great coat but I don't think the creators intended for it to be used in a spray gun even though they do sell spray cans.

My first attempt at using thinned down Rust encapsulator ended in frustration as it just kept stopping up the gun. I used lacquer thinner like they suggested but it would just not spray. I eventually had to buy paint strainers and strain it extremely well before the gun would spray it. But once well-strained, it sprayed on like a champ. I have no doubt that the paint will lay down and adhere nicely to the coat of Rust Encapsulator. I intended to spray on two coats but I went thru 1 & 1/2 quart cans mixing up and straining enough for one good coat.

I should add that last Sunday after getting frustrated with the spray gun stopping up, I went to manual mode and used a 1" brush to paint the outer firewall in the hell hole. So when I figured out the straining trick, the hell hole got a second sprayed-on coat.

I'll paint the interior with the same blue paint as the exterior. I only have about 1/5 of the original gallon left. If I run out before I'm finished, I'll have to buy more. I'm pretty sure this paint is not cheap. For the hell hole/transaxle area, I'm going to use Eastwood's Rubberized Undercoating in spray cans. I used the undercoating after repairing the rust in the the passenger side front wheel well and it turned out extremely well.

Here's the car after taping it up:



Hell hole view from rear looking up forward after being primed:



Hell hole view, firewall closeup:



Hell hole view, left side:



Hell hole view, right side:



Transaxle compartment view, looking up from ground:



Interior view, driver side; passenger side not primed yet:



Interior view, driver side footwell:



Interior view, seat back firewall; passenger side not primed yet:



Interior view, driver seat well:



Interior view, driver side seatback; passenger side not primed yet:



Interior view, driver side seat well:



Interior view, driver side foot well:



Interior view, driver side footwell closeup:



Interior view, passenger side primed:



Interior view, passenger side seat back view:



Interior view, passenger side foot well:



Interior view, fully primed:



Interior view, both foot wells primed: