After hearing about Gibbs Brand metal protector used on bare metal cars for years, I decided to get some to try on Hawkeye and Hot Rod Pat's bare metal '53 Chevy. They'd been using WD-40 on it, but it doesn't last all that long, and dust sticks to it. Since they're off at college, I decided to do a head to head comparison with the WD-40 and the Gibbs. I welded a hoop to a piece of sheetmetal, sanded the whole thing with a DA, cleaned it with brake cleaner, then sprayed half with WD-40, and half with Gibbs. To accelorate my test, I hung it in my shower. Once a day, I'd briefly run it under the water and hang it back up. After only a week, I had rust starting to form. To my utter shock, the GIBBS SIDE started rusting first. What the heck? I thought this stuff was supposed to be the best stuff ever, and fully expected it to far outlast the WD-40?!? And yet, it started rusting before even lowley WD-40. What are your thoughts on this? *note: In the pic, the left side is WD-40, the right is Gibbs. You can see the bright newly formed rust spots on the metal.
Regardless of which one holds up better, WD40 has silicone in it. Silicone makes paint bubble and fisheye and is almost impossible to get rid of once you have saturated the metal with it.
did you spray the metal hoop too? looks like rusty water from the hoop that has beeded up on the sheetmetal and dried.
Unlike many lubricants, WD-40 does NOT contain silicone, so with a proper cleaning/degreasing it can be painted over with no issues. Just today I painted an old foundry mold cart that had been sandblasted and drenched in WD-40. Brake cleaner, followed by Wax and Grease remover, and I didn't get a single fisheye. I did not spray the hoop, it's still covered in mill scale and is not yet rusting. Also, water doesn't run/drip off that in a way that it lands on the sheetmetal. I've been watching the rust spots grow daily too.
Nice experiment Bug! The hoop is not cast though is it? I would be afraid of said hoop breaking and causing the sheetmetal to go flying across the yard and cutting the neighbors cat................or cow in half!?!?!?
WD-40 is supposed to be a water displacement if I remember correctly. As Far as Gibbs advertising, I don't think it says it will protect under conditions where the object is washed with water, am not sure about the displacement factor. I think the test should be coating the object and then leaving it out (but not outside subject to rain) to see what happens. In a rain situation, I doubt anything will stay unrusted for very long. I bet the WD-40 side will eventually get just as bad as the Gibbs side as the water washes it off.
1: You have too much time on your hands. 2: You are single, because as tollerable as my wife is with car parts everywhere, hanging sheet metal in the shower,,,,,,well,,,, you must be single. 3: My father thinks WD-40 is liquid gold. So that side should NEVER rust according to his lifelong rantings. 4: Dave is going to pucker up after seeing this and won't crap for a week (following the INSTANT crap he has once he sees it,lol).
Interesting test, thanks for passing it along For what it's worth the foundry probably exposed that mold cart to more silicone than you ever could. Them boys love all forms of silicone release agents.
The hoop is some grade of spring steel. It's mild enough that it's got some spring to it, but can still be bent and formed. No chance of it breaking, it's pre bent into the U and there's no tension on it. My original intent was to just let the humidity in the bathroom do the rusting on it's own, but I'm sometimes impatient, and I know the car gets caught in the rain so I figured hitting it directly with water would be more realistic. I will say that the water beads up MUCH better on the Gibbs. Water on the WD spreads out flat like water on an unwaxed and neglected hood, where as the Gibbs beads up like freshly waxed paint. 1, yes, I do have to much time on my hands, and 2, yes, I'm single, but even if I werent...um...ok, i see your point
Very interesting thread and worth proving a point. Would like to see you do it again and let time in the outdoors do it's thing with the rusting. CRUISER MAD SCIENTIST AT WORK - BUGMAN
And it works damned well at getting the condensation out of front mount Ford distributor caps after it rains.
nice tasters choice, but what are you doing? keeping a car in bare outside in the rain? Gibbs has proven to me without a dought to be way better about keeping a car outside in the elements with some sprinkle but not fully drenched in rain. I swear by it. I've had Watcha II outside for two years now and it needs a coat of Gibb's every 3 to 4 months and no rust.
Thats the front fender of my very patina'd '65 Nova wagon, slathered in a mist of WD-40, to help bring back a glorious shine.You can actually see reflection, which blows me away as the poriginal paint is so shot. The $3.50 can was a great investment, as the BBQ I attended had magazine editors aplenty, and they took quite a few of mine to plug into some type of story, no doubt about how crappy it looked amonst the show rides. They laughed when I told them what I used for "wax", and warned them to not rub up against the car for fear they might "remove" my pristine shine!!!
Round here in the spring, when the ground is still cold and the air warms up- if your garage isn't climate controlled you're likely to find a layer of condensate on everything metal if the weather turns warm & humid in the afternoon.
The WD 40 may prevent rust better than the Gibbs, but, 9 out of 10 people prefer the taste of GIbbs in a double blind taste test.
That's the plan a few weeks into the exparament I'll be sure to post those results too, although I don't expect either side to cause any problems.
This thread made me laugh. A couple of weeks ago, a small rag covered in WD40 landed on the cowl of my T. I instantly took it off and wiped the remaining WD-40 off. I couldn't believe how good it looked......so I WD-40'd all the blue paint on my T. It does look good now. The gloss tones down after about 24 hours and leaves a really nice sheen. One more use for WD-40!!
Here's a little trick that i've been doing for the last 20 years. After I'm done airbrushing for the day i clean it out and then blast some WD 40 through it!. It keeps any paint i missed in the airbrush from drying and keeps the seals in good shape. The best part is when people see me do it, they freak out! The next day I run a little thinner through the brush and it's good to go, have never had a problem with paint not sticking, fish eyes etc. TRY IT! I LOVE WD40
Perhaps we have overlooked the chlorine. If your water is chlorinated, it might be corrosive and more easily wash off the lube? A straight real world humidity only test would be good.
That's cause you can actually thin old school Lacquer with Kerosene and shoot it... Some guys even used gasolene I've heard... It just thins the top layer and spreads it around... I don't think I'd try Kerosene on modern paint though.
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