powerTV sales schrub Lloyd Hunt has really done it now…. he tore down this Nova of his with big pie in the sky dreams of making it a really cool daily driver. Since he did not like the look of thirty-four years of grime under the hood and he wanted to start off with a clean slate, he decided to start off with a project that would not be too difficult to do over the weekend. The car is very clean ’74 Nova and it’s cancer-free for the most part, so yes, he does recognize that he is really very lucky. But it still needed some help getting cleaned up, so he turned to Rust Bullet to help get the Novice Nova looking fresh.

What is it?

A few months ago, our Staff Writer Tom Bobolts used Rust Bullet on Project Grandma. She wasn’t super rusty either, but it sounded like a great product to use to help clean her up a bit along with improving the looks and future rust prevention. The folks over at Rust Bullet have a lot of confidence in their product, so let’s talk about what they claim it will do.

“Rust Bullet’s Superior Patented Technology claims to permanently stop rust and corrosion.” Rust Bullet’s website states “does not form a film immediately, but rather it penetrates the porous substrate while dehydrating the rust until reaching the metal underneath. The chemical activity in Rust Bullet’s patented method of protection dehydrates or dries out the rust allowing the resin to solidify into an armor tough coating with phenomenal adhesion.” This sounds good to me! Rust has plagued us all since the Iron Age – we’d love to find a product that can keep the Novice Nova permanently cancer-free.

Little or no surface preparation required

The guys told us that their product can be applied directly to rusted and clean metal requiring very little to no surface preparation prior to application. Perfect! Lloyd is a family guy and he works here at Power TV full-time, so this is a weekend project. Anything that will save him a little bit of time is a good thing.

Brush, Roll, or Spray On

Rust Bullet also claims that “you don’t need special tools or skill to apply it – all you need is a brush or a roller. It can even be sprayed on!” Now Lloyd is not all about cutting corners, but if he can find an edge somewhere, he will take full advantage of it.

UV Resistant / Topcoat paint optional

“Because Rust Bullet is Resistant to Ultraviolet Light, applying a topcoat is not necessary.” This is very important, because if he wants to use it on the sub frame and firewall, he doesn’t have to seal it or worry about it flaking off where the sunbeams reach it.

Rust Bullet is used in several different applications, including automotive, industrial, and marine. If it’s metal, there will eventually be rust, and where there is rust, there will be a need to kill it. Rust Bullet is there to take care of the job!

Hmmm! How shall I apply it?

After researching a bit more, he found out that Rust Bullet is also a great primer. It comes in this really cool silver color, like a speeding bullet, and you can also get their Black Shell, which really dresses things up a little. It is VERY glossy!

For his application, he wanted to apply the silver Rust Bullet, then the Black Shell on top of the silver. The folks at Rust Bullet say this process isn’t necessary, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to keep the silver or make it that clean black.

“You can use the Black Shell as a standalone coating or the Rust Bullet as a stand alone coating,” says Kathline Spring, the Director of Marketing at Rust Bullet. “What a lot of people do for auto applications is coat the trunk area in the black shell and the engine bay with the Rust Bullet.” Well the trunk is currently a storage facility for Lloyd, so that is not an option at this time, but he will gladly follow her lead on this when he gets to moving the car out of the garage and can start cleaning that area of the car. It is not a pretty picture there. Looks like it was an oil rig transport at one time.

The three different Rust Bullet products for my application.

Time to clean!

Speaking of cleaning – it was time to clean his sub frame and front control arms. No way ANY product is going to work when grease and dirt are all over the place. Cleaning the sub frame required several cans of degreaser, a pressure washer, and several bottles of beer. The final step in cleaning all of the parts was a liberal spritzing of Metal Blast. This chemical is included in the Rust Bullet package. Lloyd later found out that he did not need any of the degreaser from the auto parts store. It seems that the Rust Bullet Metal Blast has a detergent in it to specifically degrease and clean the dirt and grime off the surface.

Metal Blast hard at work while I sit back and watch!

Metal Blast is a very unique tool too. We call it a tool because it etches the metal and makes the bonding process of the Rust Bullet to the metal even better. Not that it needs any assistance, it just makes it better. Spring tells me that “Metal Blast is a cleaner and conditioner for metal that will provide superior bonding properties to surfaces with poor adhesive qualities. Metal Blast will remove surface rust and properly etch the metal for better paint adhesion. Metal Blast enhances the adhesive properties of all Rust Bullet Coatings on any surface including aluminum and shiny polished metal surfaces.” If you have ever painted metal, you know that prepping the base is the most crucial step to painting or coating. All this from squeezing the trigger of this non-threatening bottle!

When doing this yourself, you need to watch where you spray this stuff because it is powerful, and gloves are a must. Also, put a drop cloth or something down, as this stuff will etch anything that it touches, including your driveway. By-the-way, our grass didn’t like it either.

Firewall after spraying with Metal Blast

Time to protect my interests!

OK, the sub frame is clean and the firewall is relatively cleared of all the wires and junk that gets attached to it. We are ready to start coating everything. The question is, to brush or spray? Lloyd is not very good at spraying. Lord knows, if he get any over-spray on anything in this garage, his wife will freak. She owns half the garage. Something about California law. When you get married, half of everything belongs to the wife, and usually it is the better half. Anyway, after avoiding another spirited conversation with the wifey-poo, Lloyd decides to brush this stuff on.

See, even a desk jockey like me can do this stuff!

Word from the wise: Do your best to protect your skin and wear clothes that you do not care about getting non-removable, very permanent paint on!

As you can see, it goes on pretty easily. Actually, applying the Rust Bullet with a brush nets you a pretty nice finish. Brush strokes are limited, but are visible. Another thing we noticed is that a little goes a long way, but ultimately you still want to have two or more coats on.

I really like the look of the Rust Bullet. It looks real clean.

Black Shell – The new gloss!

Now that we have finished using the Rust Bullet, Lloyd can turn his attention to the Black Shell. Black Shell is a lustrous and durable black coating that can be applied by itself or on top of the Rust Bullet coating. It is supposed to add a whole new level of chip resistance and protection to the Rust Bullet. We chose to do this coating on all the control arms, sub frame, and firewall. We really liked the look of the Rust Bullet by itself, but we really wanted to take it one step further and create a super tough topcoat so that we will never have to worry about any rust messin’ with our car – well, at least from the top side. We guess if we really wanted to truly protect the entire car we would need to dip the car in a very large paint bucket, but come on! We are going to commit to 50% of living on the edge!

Reminds me of a DQ dipped ice cream.

The Black Shell is different than the Rust Bullet. It has a different consistency than the Rust Bullet and can still be applied with a brush, but from my perspective, it does not hide the brush strokes as well as the Rust Bullet does. As we were applying it, we kept thinking Magic Shell – you know, the chocolate coating you put on your ice cream cone. Yeah! That stuff.

The Sub Frame drying in the Murrieta heat!

At the end of the day, we decided to apply a thin coat of undercoating from the local parts store just to hide the brush strokes. It actually created a very cool and unique look. All in all, we are very happy with what we have here. It is one of a kind.

In the next couple of weeks we’ll get everything put back on the car and try to remember what bolt goes where, so wish us luck!

If you want to look at more pictures of the process we went through with Rust Bullet, Click Here!