Question

[jasmine64too]

Will it cost a lot to have the tub replaced in my Cav 22? The sides are ok, but I noticed today the bottom is starting to rust and has 2 small pin holes.

I'd rather not replace it and i know last year someone here sanded and sprayed the tub of their machine.

Cant remember what was used to spray over the rust.

Please refresh my memory.

[johnieG]

Hey Jasi' I can't recall who sprayed the liner with what, but I think it may have been rust conversion product like P.O.R. chassis paint, ( a urathane enamel) but at this point I'm just guessing, here's what I've tried, I'm always up for experimenting with new ideas to help restore machines! yea, that Cavalier 22 is a lot of metal to work with, here's my 2-cents worth anyhow..

if the holes are truly just pinhole size, powder coating will seal them, but this size of a liner/tub wouldn't be a do it yourself job, I've tried hot dip galvanizing on a pin-hole riddled quick cold standard chest cooler chassis, It filled all if the holes & pitted areas with a beautiful coating of thick galvanized zinc, but there was some warpage of the side panels, I wouldn't recomend it for the thiner sheet metal of a tub/liner, another option which I've had some sucess is taking the liner to a truck-bed spray on liner shop, it comes in quite few colors, ( I used silver of course) it's catalized epoxy, so it dries hard but flexable, & it's fairly inexpensive at about $75 to "line" a  standard size tub,

I've also had liners made at a local sheet metal shop , they charged a minimum of $125 to bend a new liner & seal it so that its able to hold water, you may have seen a custom stainless liner for a G.E. wet cooler I've posted, it's just knock down beautiful, but it layed the owner back a nice $310.00 to fabricate it... lot's of choices...

Lastly I've seen a hot-metal spray that uses a hot gas/M.I.G technique that actually sprays a coating of molten zinc ( just like spray paint) onto metal substrates) this allows for actually building up low areas & dents & even closing tears & gaps with solid zinc
(metal bondo!) I've seen it demo'd on a broken sheet metal die-punch, pretty slick, but I bet it's not cheap

if it were me & it is a dry chest cooler, I'd go for the truck bed liner spray again, I'm in the process of getting a Westinghouse WC-60MD Select-a matic restored and I have the same problem, lots of scale-rust & pinholes, but the liner is to intricate to just have my sheet metal man bend one up ( too many special little nooks & crannies & brackets for attaching the vending racks & mech.) so I'm going to have it bed-linered to seal it and then go over it with hammertone paint for a more "metalic" look...

[MoonDawg]

Pinholes are pretty common and expected in old machines so Jas should be able to treat this rust, then fill and cover it.
         Sometimes a plugged up drain will cause an entire floor to rust through. One time I had the sheet metal shop bend up just a new floor, flanged up 3/4" on all 4 sides and welded in the corners so it would retain water. It slid in tightly in place and looked pretty good.  The only problem I had was the new floor was flat and most tubs have a crease leading water directly to the drain hole.

[kahonwes]

If there is small holes just solder the holes with regular solder as you would plumbing pipes, use a contemporary soldering iron or an old fashion copper one(there on Ebay) wont cause warping from a torch, will fill the hole and solder wont rust.   Thats what I'm doing to fix the side walls of my Vendo 44, cutting small squares out to fix the holes and soldering in new plates, this avoids the warping from welding, and having to hammer all the bumps out and use a ton of bondo, especially on non structural places in the machine.

k - just my 2 cents

[jasmine64too]

Think I'll go with rust inhibitor and filling in the holes.

Possibly getting it sprayed. But first I need to get busy and finish my need to do list and get it primed and painted.

I'm going to check into all the posts and make a decisoin this week.

I'll let ya know how it goes.