Preserve Your Rusty Patina Finish
- By Joan
- November 5, 2020
- 11 Comments
Preserve Your Rusty Patina Finish
I’ve had this rusty tray sitting around the house for over a year now. It was a flea market find that my sister was first to spy, but I was the first to pull my wallet out. 😆It’s everything I look for in a flea market find…it’s neglected, it’s old, it’s rusty and it was begging for me to take him home…yes, it did speak to me.
This tray spent the past year sitting in the sun holding half a dozen indoor house plants. Even if the pots leaked, the tray probably couldn’t get rustier than it already was.
My rusty tray didn’t have much patina left, it was just one solid piece of rust.
I could have left it as it was, but I wanted to reveal some of the original metal and have a nice non pitted surface.
For other projects, I may have embraced the pits, but for this project I’m whipping out my trusty sander.
With all that rust flying around, it was best to do the sanding outside. And I just happened to have a nice face mask lying around. I seem to have a lot of those these days.
After sanding, wipe off your surface with a lint free cloth.
I wanted to seal my tray and stop the rust but still preserve the rusty look. Rustoleum Rust Reformer claims to stop the rust and “instantly transform it into a nonrusting surface”. The only problem is, it leaves your piece with a flat black coating.
This is the secret ingredient I found to stop the rust and preserve the patina. FLOOD FLD4-04 Penetrol . I purchased mine on Amazon, I also found it at Lowe’s. The Penetrol was originally made to be ” added to exterior alkyd and oil-based paints to help prevent brush marks and leveling problems without cutting the paint”.
These are actual Amazon review comments. They may give you a few ideas for how you can use this product. Very few people actually added the Penetrol to oil based paints, the original use for this product.
- I use it is to renew the powder coat finish on my aluminum patio furniture every year. I mix it about 50/50 with mineral spirits and wipe it on the surface
- I used it to restore the shine of vintage Eames fiberglass chairs
- Also great at rejuvenating old wood, adhering paint, making paint on more easily.
- I use this to treat steel items I build that may go outside. Never rust.
- Used this as a tip from an old spa guy that said he wipes it on faded plastic cabinets and they revive. It sure did!
- I have a 2003 Jeep Wrangler that the hard top was faded. Applied this Flood product and now it looks completely brand new. Only time will tell how long it will last,
- This stuff made our slightly faded jeep hard top look brand new and is holding up great for months now
- Works really nice as a semi permanent clear coat for bare metal
…81% of the reviews gave the product 5 stars.
I painted the product on with an inexpensive chip brush and let dry. The directions suggest a 12 to 24 hour dry time. After 3 hours, the piece still had a tacky finish but did dry to a nice hard finish within 12 hours.
Right next to my rusty tray sat my old 3 piece aluminum bistro set. The Amazon reviews said it worked great on outdoor aluminum furniture, what did I have to lose? My set had certainly seen better days.
Since I still had my brush out from refinishing the tray, I just started painting. OK, that looks amazing, and no, I did not clean the chair before I started.
I did not move onto the legs because they do have a lot of dirt that has splashed up over the years and they will need to be cleaned off.
This picture was taken while the finish was still wet.
To finish my experiment with outdoor aluminum furniture, I did go out the next day and took another follow up pic. The difference in chairs is not quite as dramatic a difference as when I first painted on the finish but it is still an amazing transformation.
Back to my original project…the tray turned out great and I’m no longer afraid that the rusty patina finish will come off on counters or tables.
Since I have an overabundance of rusty objects I’ve collected, I’m sure you’ll be seeing this product again. This is what the product does to straight, nonsanded, rusty objects. The top railroad spike is not treated, the lower one has been treated.
I’m pretty sure you can tell what part of the lower object has been treated. By the way, I’ve had this machine part sitting around for ages. I have no idea what it is or where it was originally used. Hubby suggested a tiller blade? Pretty sure it would have rotated in its day, but those days have past. Anybody have any ideas what I should do with it?
Stay healthy and stay inspired.
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What? That is amazing. Gonna get me some of that.
Thank you Joan!
Great project and good discovery with the Flood. Joan, what do you think that pan was used for originally? Do you think it was maybe for an institutional food use or something like that? Very cool pan!
I looked up the data sheet on the chemical and it sounds like if you use care when using the product it should be safe. It could have tons of uses! Your aluminum furniture looks wonderful!
Since it is for oil base paint use, I would assume that if you wanted to use a latex paint to cover something you could just seal it with shellac or one of those types of sealers??
That’s a cool piece of hardware but I bet it has a bit of weight to it. Probably I would use it as part of an outside, fence adornment. My life is filled with lots of pets so anything that even looks like it could be sharp and heavy has to be treated as though they would knock it down or run into it.
Good Post!
I also use the Zinsser Bulls Eye Shellac Clear Finish & Sealer on all my rusty metal projects… usually the spray.
I’ll have to try it when my quart runs out. Thanks for the tip.
Hello,
Hope you are doing well. I wanted to get your opinion on some sealing questions. I am building an entertainment room and am using new corrugated tin that I rusted with muriatic acid and peroxide on the walls like a wainscoting. I have been looking at purchasing Ever Clear for the sealer but don’t know if it’s necessary considering the cost. It will not be touched really and is inside. Is Penetrol something you would recommend (much cheaper) or do you have other possible options. If Ever Clear is the stand-alone best option, then I’d go with it but would like to look at options. I really appreciate yor feedback. Thank you!
Hi Tom, I’ve never used Ever Clear and only have experience with the Penetrol. I’ve mostly used the Penetrol for outdoor projects. The Penetrol seems to work more like an oil and conditions the surface but needs to be reapplied every year as it dries out. Have you thought about a spray on varnish or acrylic sealer? Depending on your level of rust you might not need to seal it all since it will be an interior project.
What an incredibly useful post. Thanks, Joan. My middle name is Joan, so we are obviously soul sisters.
If you want to add a rusty patina to steel, hydrogen peroxide (10 parts) vinegar (1 part) and table salt (1 part) wipe it on let it sit for 30 min and it’ll be a beautiful brown rusty color. Then seal it with the flood and you’re golden!
I don’t suppose you are still answering questions here- I completed this suggestion, only to realize I’d accidentally used floetrol by mistake. This piece will be outside- do you recommend covering with penetrol (and then using polyurethane) or do I need to get the floetrol off before proceeding? TIA!
Hi
Looks interesting but the real question is the Test of Time. I’m a retired architect and builder, who’s installed many patina’d steelwork.
Photo that chair after a winter season outdoors, and photo your tray after a year indoors. They both could look great, but the challenge is whether the weather would turn the Penetrol oil gray, and whether the indoor humidity would create little whitish-grey spots of moisture effects.
All hail the true Emperors of All of Our Projects: Water and Time!
Good point about the test of time. The Penetrol works fairly well on indoor projects, the outdoor projects definitely need fairly frequent reapplication. Perhaps freshening up your tables before a party.