Poverty Caps Keep Rusting

Hey all. I picked up a set of 3/4 ton rusty white poverty caps and wire brushed them to bare metal. I wanted the polished poverty caps so I made them myself, but I’ve been fighting rust on them. I clearcoated them and then they rusted out. I wire brushed them down again and bought 2k clearcoat with hardener thinking that I just used cheap clearcoat and now they have rusted a second time... Any ideas? I considered ditching clearcoat and just coating them in penetrol once I wire brush them again?


This is what they are doing for the second time….

It's the wire brushing that makes em rust , yes?

I have an idea...

I work at a place what makes parking garages, boat docks, etc. - pre fab concrete pieces with STEEL built in that is welded together ON-SITE.
Anyways, some of the exposed metal is GALVANIZED and in the steel shop they use a simple but good-lookin aerosol product called.....SPRAYON and that would certainly extend the intervals no? Maybe worth a shot.


Hope this helps!

That is sort of the nature of clearing bare metal, the type of finish that gives a coating the ability to adhere well is not the same types of finish that people want as a bare metal look (IE, sandblasting will give great bite, but not be a good look etc), You may have luck with applying an adhesion promotor first and then clear, make sure to get all oils and other dirt off first.

something like this: https://tamcopaint.com/collections/additives/products/hp2010

Silver paint?

Rust (or any oxidation) is basically the exact same thing as cancer on a living being. Unless you COMPLETELY remove it, it will definitely come back no matter what you coat it with. I can almost guarantee that wire brushing is not removing 100% of the rust despite how good it looks at the time. With even a few slight specks of rust left, it will eventually work its way through whatever coating you happen to have on that one side of it. Unfortunately there is no way around it really unless you use some form of chemical solution to dissolve the rust, and realistically whatever you could coat it with to prevent the return of rust will most likely not produce the nice shiny "bare metal" look you're going for

legopnuematic said:

That is sort of the nature of clearing bare metal, the type of finish that gives a coating the ability to adhere well is not the same types of finish that people want as a bare metal look (IE, sandblasting will give great bite, but not be a good look etc), You may have luck with applying an adhesion promotor first and then clear, make sure to get all oils and other dirt off first.

something like this: https://tamcopaint.com/collections/additives/products/hp2010

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I could try adhesion promoter, that’s not a bad idea. Thank you!

Rusty Nail said:

It's the wire brushing that makes em rust , yes?

I have an idea...

I work at a place what makes parking garages, boat docks, etc. - pre fab concrete pieces with STEEL built in that is welded together ON-SITE.
Anyways, some of the exposed metal is GALVANIZED and in the steel shop they use a simple but good-lookin aerosol product called.....SPRAYON and that would certainly extend the intervals no? Maybe worth a shot.


Hope this helps!

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This is very interesting, I will try this. Honestly have nothing to lose. This will be time number 3 lol. I may try 2 with your idea and 2 with legopnuematics idea. Then compare as time goes on.

As far as silver paint, I think I would probably just paint them white again before I did silver unless there is a really compelling chrome spray paint out there lol.

thank you all!

Hard to say why they rusted under clear coat like that
Oxidation can’t really take place without oxygen.

79dentside said:

This is very interesting, I will try this. Honestly have nothing to lose.

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Pm your address and i'll mail you the can in my hand - no cost to you, Mr. "Nothin to lose" -

Bodyshop suppliers sell metal etching solution than cleans out the pores of the metal.That may be only thing that'll work for a longer interval.

Rusty Nail said:

It's the wire brushing that makes em rust , yes?

I have an idea...

I work at a place what makes parking garages, boat docks, etc. - pre fab concrete pieces with STEEL built in that is welded together ON-SITE.
Anyways, some of the exposed metal is GALVANIZED and in the steel shop they use a simple but good-lookin aerosol product called.....SPRAYON and that would certainly extend the intervals no? Maybe worth a shot.


Hope this helps!

You must be registered for see images attach

Click to expand...

Not sure spray-galv is a good look?

Well, most of the metal the clients molds/casts/forms into lots of stuff is DIPPED into a galv bath they call it - and that has drips..when they do smaller, more detailed stuff or repairs I guess, they use the SPRAYON...tbh i've never used it but....I have 3 or 4 cans mebbe..it looks like a normal spray paint nozzle - it's the same color as the can wrapper..it could look freaking awesome I bet if it applies clean.


As a result of the galvanizing action being such close proximity, I did some googling about galvanized steel before today.

It IS a coating, nothing more. The Zinc schtuff it dips in creates a chemical reaction with the steel, expelling a loose electron and creating a chemical bond that has a half life.
The benefit to galvanizing is increased life and duration, not only appearance. The ZINC sacrifices itself and IT uses up first, the coating does , delaying the reaction of water to the steel a marked amount. Plus it looks badass imo and instead or rust color forming, it sloughs off in white powder.

Bet it wipes clean with a dry cloth.

I thought pretty hard about spraying the Honda's wheels with it!

Ima go spray some out this can. Stand by for incoming piggiddy pix.

*edit*
Sprays great on the grocery bag.
No rattle ball?
I don't want to lead anyone astray, this likely WILL extend intervals and it looks great on steel. If it was me? '79 has the perfect opportunity to use it for good and I bet this is the right stuff - but I don't know.

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She was at 7-15?!
i was at 7-11 - lookin for snacks.



I think it is a good idea.

I’m not sure that I’m going to do anything with my hubcaps now, I may actually turn them into wallhangers because I don’t want to spend like 4 hours between stripping them down again and clearcoating them again. That black section is actually vinyl wrap that I hand cut with an exacto knife… I know… it’s petty. But I don’t want to do that again… But I searched “hubcaps” on Facebook and picked this set up for $120 tonight…. Had some moss and one had a big old dent that one blow with a rubber mallet, popped it out completely. Then took some metal polish and these are 100 times better than my other ones ever were.





Thank you all for the advice. These caps are NEVER for sale around here. I can’t believe I actually found a set right as I was looking to redo mine.

I may eventually wire brush the first set down again, @Rusty Nail I greatly appreciate the offer, that is way too kind. You don’t have to do that. I can just buy that stuff if I choose to spend time on these rusty things

Nice enough.Im tempted to put my dogdishes back on my K10

Octane said:

Nice enough.Im tempted to put my dogdishes back on my K10

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I’m a sucker for center caps/derby caps/dog dishes. Pretty much everything I have owned has them.

Hay man I wanted to see it happen...I could get some more ...np.

As a side note, in attempt to dissuade any anxiety you might have had, they got some brand new fresh dipped back into the shop and I snagged a few pix - for the truly interested.

It really does look awesome, imo. The only reason I didn't spray the Honda wheels with it is because I didn't want to answer the questions. Knowwhatimsayin?



Hey..where ya get all that spray galv Russ?
What spray galv? It's Rustoluem yo.


It's bright


It shines


It's blingin yo