Paint/rust question

[hudson]

Guys need some advice: one of my tanks recently got dinged pretty bad (never ask the uninitiated to transport your tanks for you) and since the galvanized layer beneath looks intact (to my untrained eyes anyway), I was going to put some epoxy & paint on it and be done with it.

But there is a teeny little bit of oxidation on the edge (top left, see the thumbnail below).. is this from the zinc, and can be ignored, or would it be the steel, in which case I should strip it and put some fresh ZRC on it?

Just don't want to unnecessarily remove the factory galvanized coating...

 

[rcpalmer1]

I don't think the rust is the problem. Depending on the size of ding it will probly fail a vip. I would check with you LDS before you spend alot of time trying to fix the tank.

 

[Luis H]

The picture looks like a magnified shot of the neck area right below the valve. If that is the case, this is not a problem. The ding as you call it, looks much smaller than the indentations placed by the hydro stamp numbers and therefore, no one should care.

Do not try to remove any factory galvanize coating. Even if the zinc is ding (as it often happens with the hydro stamps) the zinc is sacrificial and will not allow any rust to progress. If you are concern you can touch up the spot with some ZRC or any touch up paint (as many hydro stations do on top of the numbers).

I would not go through the trouble of using epoxy paint. You will have plenty of more small dings soon enough.

 

[Scared Silly]

If you want to touch it up get some white appliance epoxy paint. Just tape the value with masking tape before hand and give it a few light coats.

 

[hudson]

The picture looks like a magnified shot of the neck area right below the valve. If that is the case, this is not a problem.

Yup, about 1/5 of the circumference. Thanks for clearing it up.. yeah, you can tell it hasn't been anywhere near caves/wrecks yet but hopefully I'll rectify that soon enough

 

[Stu S.]

Happened to one of mine three years ago. Easily fixed. Scrape anything that looks like rust with a little knife until it is clean and shiny. You can leave the black stuff alone. Mask as required. After that, the little bottle of appliance touch-up paint works well. I used two coats.

Still looking good. The whole job did not consume five minutes.