Naval Jelly

[T and C]

I have seen, but never used, a product called Naval Jelly. A few years back a fellow up the street was painting it onto spots of rust on his boat trailer. It turned the rust into a black crust, and then he spray painted over it.

Question: Does one need to wire brush or buff off the crust before painting, or can you just paint over it?

Tom

[rvcycleguy]

yes, wire brush it off and then preferably paint it with a rust inhibitor primer, then paint with top coat.

Never used it but I did find these instructions:

Instructions:
1.Scrape the rusted surface with a wire brush to remove any loose rust.
2. Put on your rubber gloves and apply the naval jelly to the rusted surface with an applicator.
3. Allow the naval jelly to penetrate the rust for 5 to 10 minutes but no longer than 15 minutes.
4. Rinse off the naval jelly with fresh water and dry the item with a towel.
5. Paint the newly rust-free item with an oil-based paint within 24 hours.


Tips & Warnings
• If you are removing rust from a painted surface, be aware that naval jelly will remove the paint as well.
• Don't use naval jelly on stainless steel.
• If the jelly is left on for more than 15 minutes, the surface of the product could be damaged.

[Keith Wire]

Tom,

By your description he might have used a product called Extend. It is made by the same company as Naval Jelly.

Naval Jelly removes rust, but you must wash it off completely, (as ottfour says) before priming and painting.

With Extend you just scrape any loose rust off, but don't completely remove all rust, and brush on the Extend. It "neutralizes" the rust and when it drys it becomes a good primer for your finish coat of paint.

Here is a link to it on the Doit Best web site. You can find it at most Hardware Stores, and Home Centers...

HTH, Keith

It is an acidic gel that eats the rust down to the bare metal. Not as harsh as it sounds, but one has to use it with care. You wash it off which then "delutes or deactivates" it.
Usually works quite well.

I have used Naval Jelly many times in marine applications and the only advantage to the more expensive Naval Jelly over generic phosphoric acid is the jelly consistancy. If you paint it on it tends to stick better than a pure liquid but any of the big box do it yourself stores have gallon jugs of phosphoric acid. I prefer a brand called OsPho.
Depending on the thickness of the rust a little scraping or wire brushing may be needed. Also you can let it sit for 24 hours and then chip or scrape and then do it again. I restore antique British cars and have used a lot of this stuff in the past and it does what it says it will and makes a good paintable surface. It also fizzes and cleans rust out of concrete drives but rinse it off well when it cleans what you want or you will have a pitted surface.

[FujiPedaler]

Rust-Oleum makes one of several of these products which I just used on the TM Awuing.

it is called "Rust Reformer".