I am going to put some por15 on my rear axle. It is quite rusted from being out in the yard at the auto wreckers. I didn't buy the marine clean degreaser do I need it or can I just use some acetone? Should I just lightly wire brush axle to remove the bigger flakes and degrease with acetone, metal ready then use por15?

Steelie, as long as you clean it thoroughly and get the scale off, you'll be OK.

I'm not sure the acetone will be compatible with the Metal Ready. Someone here may know. I'd rinse it off really well before the Metal Ready step. Then don't go nuts with the M.R. I used a scrubbing brush to rinse the M.R. off because keeping it wet for 20-30 minutes tends to leave pockets of powdery residue when it dries.

Do not use any petroleum based product on surfaces prior to applying the POR. HSJ is right with the metal ready, cheaper then the marine clean and does the same thing anyway.

If it's got a lot of really caked on crud, I'd get serious with some gunk and a pressure washer first.

You want to clean BEFORE you do any sanding or derusting.

Lately I've gotten to using PPG Acryliclean 330 wax and grease remover. It's sold for prepping body panels, but will clean ANYTHING. Unlike acetone or laquer thinner, it take long enough to evaporate so you can wipe the grunge off. Don't know what it cost, bought a bunch of stuff at the same time and didn't want to even see the itemized bill...

Be real careful with the metal ready. I can't stand the stuff and will never use it again. It gets in everywhere, and if allowed to dry or not crubbed/rinsed off, it leaves a hard white residue that NO coating will stick to, not even por.

Originally posted by foreverlookin:
Do not use any petroleum based product on surfaces prior to applying the POR. HSJ is right with the metal ready, cheaper then the marine clean and does the same thing anyway. That is incorrect. The marine clean is an industrial degreaser whereas the metal ready is an acid based rust neutralizer and etching solution. The metal ready will not properly degrease the suface as needed. You must follow the steps as directed by the manufacturer. Trying to save time and money by skipping steps leads to inferior results with POR. I'd bet many of the negative posts you see on POR are made by people who didn't feel they need to follow all of the steps and ended up with unsatisfactory results.
STEP 1: remove all loose rust and other material with wire brush.
STEP 2: clean with Marine Clean to remove all grease residue and other contaminants.
STEP 3: apply Metal Ready to temporarily neutralize any residual rust and to etch surface for proper adhesion of POR 15. Surface must remain wet for 20 minutes.
STEP 4: rinse surface after Metal Ready has dried to remove any loose scale(Metal Ready residue) from surface.
STEP 5: Thoroughly dry surface.
STEP 6: Apply POR 15 per instructions.

POR has a printed flyer that you can get form their dealers that completely outlines the proper steps for application.

Check out the POR website for further info : http://www.por15.com/faq.asp

[ 02-11-2005, 10:49 AM: Message edited by: sicsD8 ]