I used the galvilite in spray cans, but next time I'll try Captain's aproach, he's the one that mentioned the product in a thread I started a year or so ago when I did my tanks. I used more than an entire can on each tank, probably 4 coats, each very thin, and here's the important part, plenty of drying time between each coat. Then I let them sit for a week so the zinc could harden. It seems to take a long time for the zinc to react with the existing surface.
My tanks were painted over galvanizing, so I removed the paint and scuffed up the old galvanizing. They've held up pretty well, some scratches/marks/chips, but nothing down to bare metal. The beauty of the galvilite is that you can just retouch areas that need it.
I don't think the stuff is as durable as the current worthington hot dipped galvanizing, but it's probably the best you can do with old tanks. I did investigate having the tanks sprayed with some very expensive paint over the galvilite, and if you're looking to restore vintage tanks so that they look new, that would be the way to go. ZRC makes a straight zinc primer that would probably be the best for that. It was way too expensive for me, though, I don't really care what the tanks look like.
Maybe someday I'll do that for my bump-bottom kidde 72; it's kind of an unusual tank.
