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aristoff · 01-11-2005, 02:29 PM,

Happy New Year everyone,

I was looking for information on painting my steel tank for the upcoming season.

who does that in the metro area?

how much?

Thanks

LKunze · 01-11-2005, 03:15 PM,

I checked into this a couple years ago pretty extensively. There was one place in town that I contacted that said they'd do it but that they were planning on getting out of painting scuba tanks. The reason was that the paint doesn't hold up that well. After researching it more via the internet I discovered that the easiest and cheapest option was to just remove any loose paint and to treat the bare metal with a product called Exrust by Kano Labs . Once I treated the bare metal I sprayed three coats of Rustoleum Cold Galvanizing Compound (available at Ace Hardware) over the bare spots. This has held up for me for two years now with absolutely no new rust spots. It's not pretty but it's effective. If you want the tank to look pretty I'd have the tank blasted with a nutshell media and then apply a few coats of ZRC to the tank. No need for paint. The ZRC is not cheap but it's very good stuff. All you have to do then is touch it up if you get any dings in the tank and since it's zinc it won't look like crap when you touch it up like paint does. Zinc coated steel tanks offer a much better exterior finish than paint. Hope this helps.

Kirk · 01-13-2005, 08:43 PM,

All Safe Fire and Safety over on North Washington, near downtown Minneapolis, can paint your tanks. These are the same people who probably do your hydros. You can just paint them yourself, though. If you do paint them yourself, be careful if you have a cat. Mine tipped over one of my tanks as it was drying, and broke my sink a few months ago. Little creep.

MNDiver · 03-17-2005, 10:19 AM,

All Safe Fire and Safety will no longer blast and paint scuba tanks. I dropped off some tanks for service and to get blasted/painted and they said they would no longer do that service. If anyone knows of a business that will clean and paint tanks, please let me know.

Thanks, MN Diver

dbarlow · 03-17-2005, 10:39 AM,

what it invloved in the process, do they just sand blast the tank and then prime and paint? what kind of paint, anything special? how much did it cost?

I have access to a blaster and paint booth.

Doug

LKunze · 03-17-2005, 06:18 PM,

Personally I wouldn't repaint a steel tank. If you can blast the tank then buy some ZRC and apply that instead. It's a better option than paint and will be easier to touch up and will look better to boot.

Mr.Pitbull · 03-17-2005, 11:14 PM,

ZRC? Help out the uninformed? What is the preferred process?

LKunze · 03-18-2005, 06:28 AM,

ZRC is a galvanizing compound that needs to be applied to bare metal so you need a sandblasted or stripped tank if you want to use it. You can use it for touch up but if you are just going to touch up a painted tank I'd just save the money and get the Rustoleum cold galvanizing spray. The Rustoleum stuff is available at hardware stores. While not as good as ZRC it's what I used on one of my Faber 85's on the bottom of the tank and it's held up for two years now with no recurring rust. The ZRC is available in an aerosol spray or in a can that you can apply it with a brush or roller. The ZRC protects the tank with galvanic action. It's a dull silver color and looks like the finish on PST galvanized tanks. Again here is the website for ZRC. They have a dealer listing on there where you can buy it. If my tanks were all bare metal I'd definately go the ZRC route. Hope this helps.