How to stop steel chassis from rusting

[fossilshark]

Got a Traynor YVM-1 I am going to fully restore for a buddy. Its looking rough. I am going to gut the chassis and have him sandblast it to get the rust off.

What's the best way to stop it from rusting again but also keep it looking fairly original? Clear coat? Oil it down?

I know to most people this is a lost cause but its a sentimental piece for both of us.

[kagliostro]

know to most people this is a lost cause

Absolutely not

Which look do you mean when you say

.... keep it looking fairly original

,,If you want to maintain the actual rusty aspect but don't want rust gonna damaging the chassis, don't sandblast the chassis, use a bronze hand brush to remove the excess of rust, then rub with a wool cloth with a bit of gun oil (or Svitol or WD40) the more you can (always by hand)

Wash with acetone and paint with a matte clear coat spray paint without exceed in thickness

If the rust is really not in excess, you can avoid the use of the bronze brush and proceed with the wool cloth and oil directly

Franco

[tubenit]

I've used Penetrol many times to seal rusty spots after wire brushing or sanding rust away and then coated the areas with Rustoleum. I've been super happy with the results!  It's an amazing product, IMO.


My understanding is Penetrol was originally developed to seal the flakey rust areas on the ships on the Great Lakes. Yrs ago, I've used it on some super rusty areas of an old 64 GMC  pick em up truck with great success.



Amazon.com: FLOOD/PPG FLD4-04 Penetrol Additive (1, Single Pack) : Tools & Home Improvement


With respect, Tubenit

[scstill]

I just went through this with the Prew42 build
I typically love chassis patina and just leave it
But in this build I decided to build a cabinet which seemed to clash with the old chassis patina.

So I restored the chassis: Removed most parts, taped the riveted sockets, wet-sand by hand with progressively finer grits (sanding sponges worked really well), then hand polished with mothers polish. Did not add any other protection (maybe I should). Hoping that the chassis and cabinet age well together. I left the inside as it was. Some before and after pics here https://stillampd.com/prew42

My thought is sandblasting will not give you a shiny finish
so you'll likely have to wet-sand and polish anyway but with far less elbow grease...

[fossilshark]

Ok thats some good ideas.

I am not a fan of the patina for this build so I think after sandblasting I am going to mat clear coat it. I'll see what the finish looks like when I get there.

Does anyone have any idea about these transformers? I always thought they were original but these janky mounting brackets someone had to make for the OT leads me to believe they either are not original or someone dropped this unit and the transformer mounting brackets fell clean off. They are hammond for sure and if they werent all fully functional this rebuild would definitely not be worth it.