Help? Painting Galvanized Steel Stock Tank

[frito]

Ok ya'll, what type of paint and/or procedures do you recommend to paint the outside (or inside?) of a galvanized steel stock tank? I am having it totally above ground. I don't MIND the steel look per se, but want to jazz it up, or tone it down as the case may be 8)
I have seen and have directions on how to paint a galvanized steel TRASH CAN with decorative paint, but I want to paint the whole outside of tank, and don't know the durability of the above technique for the entire tank over the long haul.
I even thought of maybe adhering plaster of something on it to make it look like rock or stucco? Suggestions?

 

[koiguy1969]

on the inside i would use pond paint...especially if your gonna keep fish. better safe than sorry.

 

[sissy]

on the outside from my own disaster the only way to paint one is to take it to an auto body shop .Most paints are going to peel over time from the moisture you get from the tank sweating from changes in temps outside .I tried painting one and used primer and a really good quality spray paint and it only last about 6 months before parts of the paint bubbled and blistered .Not sure if they have better paints but 2 years ago it did not work for me .I sanded the galvanized tub and cleaned it well but everytime it would sweat I would see the paint blisters show up .

 

[ididntdoit99]

I was trying to look for the military of federal specification for painting galvanized to see what the procedure for paint preperation was, but I'm having issues finding it, we dont work with a lot of galvanized here, and doubt we've ever painted it when we did.

I did find this though, Obviously you dont want to buy a 5 gallon bucket of paint, but if you call or search more, you may be able to find smaller containers somewhere.
http://www.milspeccoating.com/STIC-KOTE-DTM-Acrylic-Paint-and-Primer-p/stic-kote-dtm-acrylic.htm

 

[j.w]

Navy gray huh, guess it's for painting battleships!

 

[ididntdoit99]

Navy gray huh, guess it's for painting battleships!

Oh you can order it in any Federal standard 595 color. I have a list of around 550 colors, silver, brown, red, yellow, green, blue, gay, black, violet, and white. In gloss, semigloss, flat, in a million (okay, not a million, maybe 550 ) different shades and pigments.

Anywayz.. point being, there are paints that are made to direct spray on galvanized without any special pretreatment process other than wiping down with acohol.

 

[HARO]

When I worked as a purchaser in a factory here we brought in a special primer for galvanized metal. Without it, the paint would start flaking off within a month or two. A paint store should be able to help you; it's often used on old type eavestroughs. John

 

[sissy]

wondering if anyone came up with anything good that would not cost a small fortune .Never thought of that haro and with the older homes with older gutters I should be able to find it around here

 

[Waterbug]

Surface prep is everything. The best case is an acid wash. You need to burn off the zinc oxide, zinc hydroxide and zinc carbonate to get to the actual zinc metal. But acid is not easy to apply as you could also remove the zinc metal too.

Then a proper primer. From there you're painting the primer not the zinc.

If you wanted to go with stucco you can wrap the tank in chicken wire and stucco away. Easier than chicken wire is metal lath, but more expensive. When you apply stucco the wire bounces around and the mud falls off. The trick is to get some mud on and let it set up, over night is good. Then the deal will be stiffer and much easier to apply another coat.

You can mortar rock to the stucco if you like. You can also paint stucco. There are special paints for stucco but I've used regular latex, thinned a bit, and it's held up fine, but I'm in Phoenix.

A lot of DIY people like hypertufa too. Basically the same as stucco but not as strong, but a different look.

 

[Catfishnut]

I had to seal the inside of an old, galvanized stock tank that I captured going down the river in a flood and wanted to use it as a bait tank.

The bottom seam leaked in places and was a little rusty right near the bottom.

I used a very dilute solution of muriatic acid to rinse the inside of the tank and then immediately rinsed it out with fresh water several times to remove the acid wash and neutralize the action of the acid. Then I put it in the direct sun to dry quickly.

Then I used garage floor sealant from Menards, (for concrete). A two part mix epoxy, medium gray in color. It stuck to the tank like heck! Not very easy to apply as it was extremly viscous and sticky. I had bought plenty of it to seal the floor of one of those overseas shipping containers and had a lot leftover, so I tried it out on the tank. I thought it worked great. No primer used, just painted it right on the acid washed walls inside. I didn't do anything with the outside.

Not very aesthic, but it sealed the leaks and stopped the bad areas from rusting further for many years. I nearly lost the tank to another flood in June of 2009. It ended up in the trees down river at a neighbors place. I just let them keep it as it got dented pretty good during that flood.

Gordy