The Second-Best Way to Avoid That Junk Yard Look

If you’ve ever watched American Pickers on television, or you’ve driven through small, slow, southern towns, you know to what I am referring. The best way to avoid that junkyard look is to remove all of the rusted vehicles and other debris from the front porch and yard.

The second-best and I must admit the PREFERRED way is to not let those old vehicles disintegrate into a pile of rust is to coat them in Permalac. Of course, you would have to strip them down and grind them down to bare metal. But hey, “yard art” is much preferred to that junkyard look. Mike and Frank of Antiques Archaeology and the History Channel would be amazed.

All joking aside, using Permalac on mild steel, or brushed stainless steel for that matter is a great way to prevent oxidation and degradation. It’s amazing to discover that we’ve had this question come up (no, not how to avoid the junkyard look) about how to protect bare metal on several occasions over the past few years. Each time, it inspired words to paper and we posted our thoughts on our blog. Like in October 2016, when Pete of Oakland California sent us this article on Pembleton Motor Company’s Aluminum Kit Car protection.

“All of the body was handmade out of aluminum cut from a sheet from patterns. This includes flooring, bulkheads, and front wings. I decided to leave the body bright so used Permalac Matte to protect these surfaces.”

What, This Old Thing?

Or, when Mark in Minnesota sent us a picture of his barn find (post blood, sweat, and tears), his 1949 Chevy pickup. I don’t think anyone would mind having this sitting in their front yard, do you?

“After 30 years in the barn, Marks 1949 Chevy 3100 truck needed some love and a lot of time to get back on the road. With that much time in, Mark wanted a truly unique vehicle, so he went bare metal. Mark used Permalac because it maintains the natural look of the steel while providing long-lasting protection.”

Bare Metal and Color Combinations?

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but her bowl is still looking good. The metal bowls seemed like a great science experiment by applying a bit of color to them and then finding out how they would perform. The lab tested out my curious questions from the field and found out some surprising new truths.

“Permalac’s effectiveness as a direct to metal clear is well established. Recently we have been getting more interest from our customers who want Permalac’s adhesion and corrosion resistance with color. I wanted to see how effective Permalac could be when carrying color and would it cover color. These aluminum snack bowls were one of the tests I came up with. I decided to go for this enamel look. I sprayed on a layer of the base color, let it set up for a few minutes, and then airbrushed on the secondary colors. Then three coats of Satin/Gloss Permalac and it was finished”.

The Bronze Age Continues

The blog holds story after story about the use of Permalac on sculptures, everything from Egyptian Sacred Staircases to the Governor of Ohio’s chandelier, and just about everything in between. Because we’re a global supplier, we’re used on a great many projects both here in the US, and abroad. Like this one,

“A recent installation was 27 feet tall and weighed over 6000 pounds. Typically, he works in fabricated bronze. In some cases, it can be shaped cold with presses and rollers, but more often requires heating to 1600oF. John uses Permalac from Peacock labs to protect the delicate patinas and special surface treatments with which he finishes his work. John says Permalac goes on a little thicker than other products he used previously. He added, “So far it seems to provide better protection against UV and other environmental challenges.”

So, as you can see we’re quite proud of some of the projects our clients and customers use Permalac and all of its various formulations protect. Bare metal, patina affected metals, sculptures, statues, old pickup trucks, jewelry and even a bullet. Check our blog for an interesting story about a Marine Sniper and his H.O.G. Tooth.

If you’ve got a project you think might make a great story of what Permalac has helped you with, we’d love to hear all about it. Every month our “panel of judges” selects a noteworthy project submission, to share on our blog and email, and we’ll send the winner a Visa gift card! Click the button below if you completed a project using Permalac and would like to share it.