Faber tank paint repair

[Grounded]

I've used the searrch function and now have instructions for completely refinishing a tank.

I'm wondering, however, if any one has any insight on this: I have a rather small scratch in the crown of my faber tank. Maybe half an inch long by about a 16th of an inch thick. I can see that it got through to the bare steel, because it turns a rust color after a salt water dive. I can scrub the rust off the exposed steel with a spray of wd-40 and a paper towel.

My question: should I be sanding out an area of about an inch around the scratch and priming/repainting that whole area? Or should I just keep doing what I'm doing until there's enough gouges to justify refinishing the whole thing?

Obviously, I want to avoid a situation where the rust grows under the adjacent paint and slowly destroys the whole tank.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Personally I would remove any visible rust, then treat the scratch with a rust converter (found in most parts stores and auto body stores), then apply paint in the scratch. A two part epoxy paint like Imron is best, but a suitable color auto body touchup paint will work fine.

I would not feather the scratch out before repainting. That technique is designed to make the scratch dissappear when cosmetcis count. It is problematic with a scratch on a Faber tank as Faber's paint process is a 3 part process that is better than anything you could do on your own. The end result of feathering out the scratch would be a larger area of compromised paint protection. Also, white is the world's most difficult color to match so the smaller the repair. the less obvious it will be.

In light of that I'd just fill the scratch with paint after removing/converting the rust. Plus the sides and additional surface area of the unfeathered scratch will help paint adhesion.

To get the paint to adhere, you will also need to clean away any wd-40 residue first. I'd be careful with solvents and would probably just give it a good scrubbing with soap and water, remove/displace/absorb the water with alcohol, let it dry and then treat it with the rust converter before painting.

 

[Scared Silly]

When I touched up my Fabers I used Appliance white epoxy spray paint. This is what Faber recommended to me. As was mentioned, just clean it up good before repainting.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Appliance paint is usually the cheapest way to get a small quantity of epoxy paint. If you want to apply it with a brush, just spray some in the cap and collect it with the brush there.