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Fri Sep 30, 2011 11:50 am

Has anyone ever used boiled linseed oil on primer or faded paint?
If so what did it do.
I know linseed oil is pretty ghetto and not a legit clear coat but I can't help wondering if it would work. Brush it on with a foam brush / roller, let it harden and then buff it out. I know some of the rat style guys use it to preserve rust.

Sun Oct 02, 2011 9:23 am

ragtopbaja wrote: Has anyone ever used boiled linseed oil on primer or faded paint?
If so what did it do.
I know linseed oil is pretty ghetto and not a legit clear coat but I can't help wondering if it would work. Brush it on with a foam brush / roller, let it harden and then buff it out. I know some of the rat style guys use it to preserve rust.

BLO (Boiled Linseed Oil) belongs on furniture, not cars.

On the other hand, I guess if you want your paint job to look kinda shitty and not last it might be the cat's ass.

Sun Oct 02, 2011 9:30 am

From Rat Fest: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1...;start=440

delux68 wrote: here's my brothers 62 before and after linseed oiling

Sun Oct 02, 2011 11:24 pm

Wow it looks like it gave that rust some great shine!

Mon Oct 03, 2011 3:30 pm

I have used Linseed Oil as a Bare Metal protectant when painting Auto
Panels on a vehicle which I was using Daily, leaving the Bare Metal to the Elements for 2- 4 days. Re-apply a light spray of Linseed Oil daily until I was able to Primer. As a Temporary Protectant - I believe it works well !

Mon Oct 03, 2011 7:17 pm

I know some of the antique steam engine guys use it to bring back faded paint logos. I wonder if it would work for some of the old bus logos.

Tue Oct 04, 2011 3:23 am

I mixed equal parts of BLO, engine oil and grease to get a mixture that hardens at the surface but is still soft against the metal. A sample plate is hanging outside to see how well it protects against rust.
However I think that the commercial products are better and not that expensive... But it is always fun to try ;)

Tue Oct 04, 2011 7:16 am

On that note here is a homemade undercoating I came across. It's not mine but here's a quote.

"I've found a homemade rust preventive that I use down here on the gulf coast (salt water 10 feet from my back door) that works really good.

Get a gallon of mineral spirits in a bucket. Throw in 1lb ground up paraffin wax or you can buy a couple of toilet bowl wax rings. Grind up the wax and mix it with the mineral spirits.

It will take several weeks to dissolve on its own, or you can do like I do and use a cheap aquarium heater to heat the solution up to dissolve the wax. Once the wax is dissolved you add about a quart of light non-detergent oil like SAE 30.

The way the stuff works is the wax and oil stay in solution (mineral spirits) which makes it easy to spray in every nook and cranny. Once sprayed the mineral spirits evaporates and leaves a oily/waxy covering over the surface.

If you scratch the wax, the oil from the wax around it will creep into the crack and protect it.

I tested this stuff by taking a foot long piece of bare steel and sanding nice and smooth. I sprayed it with the mineral spirits/wax/oil mix and hung it off my dock so it would be under water at high tide and exposed at low tide.

After a month there isn't a speck of rust on it. I even took a nail and gouged the wax off to see what would happen. In the spot where I gauged it down there is still no rust.

From what I understand the recipe has been around for a long time and is regarded as homemade waxoyl.

FOG"

Tue Oct 04, 2011 8:40 am

I've rubbed Gibbs lubricant into oxidized bare metal on a few beetles I've owned with lots of patina with excellent results. It's not kerosene based, so you don't have to deal with issues down the road when you or someone else decides to do body/paint work. Has lots of other uses too, just hard to find locally.

http://www.gibbsbrandlubricant.com/

Mon Oct 10, 2011 10:20 am

My hood and fenders were pretty faded/oxodized

Before:

After:

Mon Oct 10, 2011 11:16 am

Nice!

Sat Apr 07, 2012 7:12 pm

worked so well the fog light even switched sides!

Sun Apr 08, 2012 8:53 am

JoelH wrote: worked so well the fog light even switched sides!
Would that be an optical "delusion?" :wink:

Wed Jun 13, 2012 12:12 pm

A few questions.
How do you guys apply the boiled linseed oil? Just a rag? A brush? Does it harden or stay tacky? Do you buff it out after finished? I've heard it gets tacky/sticky. It seems something that would make the body of the car sticky would attract dust, bugs and bird poop. Can it be removed later if you needed to paint a section?
Thanks guys.

Wed Jun 13, 2012 9:18 pm

AndrewM wrote: A few questions.
How do you guys apply the boiled linseed oil? Just a rag? A brush? Does it harden or stay tacky? Do you buff it out after finished? I've heard it gets tacky/sticky. It seems something that would make the body of the car sticky would attract dust, bugs and bird poop. Can it be removed later if you needed to paint a section?
Thanks guys.
I just use a rag and pretty much pour it out of the can right on the car, then spread it around and rub it in.
I make sure that there's going to be a few sunny days to let the oil kind of "bake on". This removes most of the tackiness, makes it last longer and you can wipe dust and dirt off. Here's a few pics of my car:
During application:

After:

I'll probably end up clearing it eventually.

Thu Jun 14, 2012 5:14 pm

Thanks for the reply. I might try to do some before and after pics of my 61 kombi.

Fri Jul 11, 2014 10:44 am

hmmmm... I might try this on Sunday and post before/after results. Sounds cool to do for that matted sheen on a patina car.

Sun Dec 27, 2015 2:03 pm

I have used boiled linseed and another trick ...
Floor Polish the brand we get in South Africa is Cobra after I got the truck to bare metal we put the BLO on with a rag wait for it to dry and then put the floor polish on and buff it lasted for a year in a garage then when I had to put the truck outside its taken a year to start bad surface rust

I want to do it again this summer (Southern Hemisphere)
Do you think I can clear it after doing this treatment ?

Kind regards
Dylan

Fri Jul 15, 2022 1:39 pm

I made the mistake (in hindsight) of applying BLO to my car's paint (not a patina or rust car).

Before it completely dried it attracted enough dirt to make it a complete mess. I guess on patina you don't see the mess.

How can I get it off? Chemicals? Abrasion? I don't want to repaint the car. Ideally, once the BLO is removed (with as little of the paint removed as possible) I'd like to treat the paint with Meguiar's No.7 and then wax or seal it.

Sat Jul 16, 2022 4:13 pm

Most solvents won't remove BLO. You need something alkaline like a heavy duty degreaser cleaner which contains caustic soda.

Whatever you use you need to test in a hidden place first.

Caution: When using alkaline materials wear your PPE. Caustic is particularly dangerous to your eyes.

Most people do not know that when you touch caustic containing material that they immediately comment on how "soapy" it feels. This isn't soap. This is the reaction between the fat in your skin and caustic soda producing soap (read your skin is dissolving). Same reaction as your great grandma used to make soap using fat from the kitchen and lye (caustic soda).