FlexSeal


 
Brian O’Donnell

Brian O’Donnell

TVWBB Member
I'm currently rebuilding a Genesis Silver C with the enclosed cabinet. the bottom shelf is in pretty good shape with a couple of rust spots in corners and various other locations. I was rooting thru my garage and came across a rattle can of Flex Seal I had used for another project. Has anyone tried this on a grill rehab? Does it do anything to help seal the rust? I would only be using it on the bottom shelf, so I'm sure it's plenty far enough away from the heat. Just curious...
 
I would use a rust encapsulator. Unless you take it all the way down to bare metal (ie, no rust at all) you will simply be putting a band aid on skin cancer. And I dont know about flexseal and it will adhear to bare steel, but you might want to drop a coating of primer on the bare metal before you apply the flexseal. If you just want to hold things off for a while, then that will probably due, but a good rust encapsulator would be better IMO.
 
I believe they are essentially the same thing. Someone may want to describe the differences if there are any.
 
Bruce said:
I would use a rust encapsulator. Unless you take it all the way down to bare metal (ie, no rust at all) you will simply be putting a band aid on skin cancer. And I dont know about flexseal and it will adhear to bare steel, but you might want to drop a coating of primer on the bare metal before you apply the flexseal. If you just want to hold things off for a while, then that will probably due, but a good rust encapsulator would be better IMO.
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After my original post, I was out running errands and had to stop at ACE Hardware for tomorrow's yard work and I found Rust-oleum Rust Reformer, so I grabbed a can. Is this what you were referring to?
 
Yah, that is a cheaper version. A couple of the top brands of Rust Encapsulators are POR15 and Eastwood Rust Encapsulator. If you want the best solution, use one of those, but they are somewhat expensive. Otherwise, use the rustoleum like a primer and then either paint over it with paint of you could try the flex seal.

When I rehab my grills, much of the time, I have to grind spots on the frames where there is some rust. I get as much of the rust as I can with an angle grinder and wire brush, but like on corners of the frame, it is hard to get it 100% clean. I spray some of the Rustoleum rust converter on all the spots like I would a primer and then paint over that. I have been doing that for about three years and time will tell, but I haven't had anyone call back and complain yet.
 
POR15 and the Eastwood product Rust Encapsulator are the top dogs in this field. Nothing comes even remotely close to the performance of these products
 
And then you have Rust "Reformer".


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LMichaels said:
POR15 and the Eastwood product Rust Encapsulator are the top dogs in this field. Nothing comes even remotely close to the performance of these products
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I agree, but I have had terrible luck with the spray nozzles gumming up no matter how carefully I clean out. I turn the can upside down and spray until clear, but to no avail. I currently have two 3/4 full cans of this expensive stuff and no way to use them. I have also tried to clean the nozzles
with a fine pin, but again no luck. This stuff adheres really well and hardens almost like ceramic which is what makes it so good. But that also makes it extremely hard to keep the nozzles clean.

Any suggestions what I can do to not have so many nozzle failures?

At this point I am planning on going back to using POR-15 in the paint can using cheap chip brushes. You can't reach into a frame tube like you can with spray, though.
 
Not sure why it would be such an issue for you Jon. I have used the product (Eastwood) extensively doing rust treatment on my old Infiniti QX4 I had. Not one clog. Either with the can top spray or the extension wand/hose
 
I had 4 cans, two cans each from two completely different lots of Stovebright paint. 3 cans clogged before I could use up 1/4 of the can, the other can, I got down to about 1/2 used. If I fiddled with the nozzles, I could get them to work a little longer sometimes. My solution was to grab the nozzle off an old $10 can of spray paint I had laying around and jam that in there. It was a very tight fit, but I got it in and it worked fine on the rest of the Stove bright paint.
I would have thought it was just a bad batch of paint or bad nozzles if I had bought all the cans at once from the same source, but I bought two last year and two this spring so they had to be different lots and the date codes were a year apart as well. It kind of soured me on stove bright paint for future uses as it is about $20 a can.

And yes, I did shake them very well before using them and none of the cans were stored outside over the winter.
 
Jon Tofte said:
I agree, but I have had terrible luck with the spray nozzles gumming up no matter how carefully I clean out. I turn the can upside down and spray until clear, but to no avail. I currently have two 3/4 full cans of this expensive stuff and no way to use them. I have also tried to clean the nozzles
with a fine pin, but again no luck. This stuff adheres really well and hardens almost like ceramic which is what makes it so good. But that also makes it extremely hard to keep the nozzles clean.

Any suggestions what I can do to not have so many nozzle failures?

At this point I am planning on going back to using POR-15 in the paint can using cheap chip brushes. You can't reach into a frame tube like you can with spray, though.
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Jon, I have done this for years and its been a very long time since I had a nozzle clog including the east wood product.

After I turn the can upside down to clear it, I then get a small rag with Acetone and wipe the face of the nozzle so there is no remaining paint on the face.
 
Hey Brian, thanks! I will try that. I may order another can from Eastwood and do an old fashioned phone order. Maybe I can get them to send me a couple extra nozzles. I also tried swapping in some other nozzles I already had but they didn’t fit.
 
Bruce said:
I had 4 cans, two cans each from two completely different lots of Stovebright paint. 3 cans clogged before I could use up 1/4 of the can, the other can, I got down to about 1/2 used. If I fiddled with the nozzles, I could get them to work a little longer sometimes. My solution was to grab the nozzle off an old $10 can of spray paint I had laying around and jam that in there. It was a very tight fit, but I got it in and it worked fine on the rest of the Stove bright paint.
I would have thought it was just a bad batch of paint or bad nozzles if I had bought all the cans at once from the same source, but I bought two last year and two this spring so they had to be different lots and the date codes were a year apart as well. It kind of soured me on stove bright paint for future uses as it is about $20 a can.

And yes, I did shake them very well before using them and none of the cans were stored outside over the winter.
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Are you positive that they are clogged and did not run out of propellant? Try a fresh nozzle and see. If it is propellant then you can check youtube and there are videos of people refilling them with compressed air from a regular compressor.
 
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