Rusty Sky Dish Renovation

[Tony1A]

HI EVERYBODY!

A neighbour of mine has just has a new Sky dish fitted and I got the old one which is rusty. My question is how do I start to renovate please? I have never done anything like this before so any tips or suggestions will be quite welcome.

 

[Terryl]

Just dont use any type of reflective paint, or gloss sheen paint (it would cook the LNB at the right Sun angle) and what ever you use to clean it up should not eat at the metal of the dish.

 

[Satspot]

Unless you’re trying to kill time, if it’s an 80cm or less dish I’d dump it and buy a new one. They’re so cheap these days you’ll probably pay more for the paint and brush and that’s not including your time.

 

[Analoguesat]

As Satspot says its probably not really worth doing it financially. However if you want to have a go just for the heck of it (and why not - we are all enjoy tinkering with dishes).

Paint the rusted areas with some rust converter, let it dry to convert the rust to inert stuff then spray paint it with car body primer. If the nuts are rusted they will need plenty of penetrating oil, and possibly heating / cooling to break the rust bonding

 

[Lazarus]

HI EVERYBODY!

A neighbour of mine has just has a new Sky dish fitted and I got the old one which is rusty. My question is how do I start to renovate please? I have never done anything like this before so any tips or suggestions will be quite welcome.

I inherited a rusty Sky "Analogue" dish fifteen years ago.

It's still rusty. It still performs

 

[Analoguesat]

I inherited a rusty Sky "Analogue" dish fifteen years ago.

It's still rusty. It still performs

Ive got my parents old Rugely Aerials sky analogue dish from 30 years ago in the garage. At some point its going back up to become our Sky digital dish.

Edit - Typos corrected - A/S

 

[william-1]

I inherited a rusty Sky "Analogue" dish fifteen years ago.

It's still rusty. It still performs

If you live near the seaside the mesh dish will eventually corrode & leave it's mounting then fall to the earth,
This is what happended to my friends dish in the East of England.

 

[Satspot]

As Satspot says its probably not really worth doing it financially. However if you want to have a go just for the heck of it (and why not - we are all enjoy tinkering with dishes).

Paint the rusted areas with some rust converter, let it dry to convert the rust to inert stuff then spray paint it with car body primer. If the nuts are rusted they will need plenty of penetrating oil, and possibly heating / cooling to break the rust bonding

 

[Tony1A]

Thanks for the replies! It may best just to buy a new dish!!!

 

[Tony1A]

HI EVERYONE!

I've been thinking what I can do with this rusty Sky dish. Would it be okay to paint it with Hammerite? If I get the rust (and green algae) off it by means of a wire brush, would my tin of black (shiny) Hammerite be fine to use? There may be other ways, but I think this could be the easiest.

What do you think?

 

[Manikm909]

scrub off the rust with some wet and dry - then paint with a water based paint which includes a primer (if you can get one cheap) and see what happens

i suggest a nice green paint like @zorrin and I use.

 

[Tony1A]

Today I took the dish apart without too much trouble. I reckon that if I get all the rust off using my drill and a spinning wire brush which I can do on all parts of the dish, she'll be good to go! I have a tin of smooth black hammerite which will do the job nice. Don't want to paint it green though! The reason why I'm doing this, is I have a brand new Sky dish MTI LNB and that will fit straight on with no hassle. It's purpose will be for a testing dish in my workshop.

 

[Analoguesat]

Use what you have for testing - I picked up an old 80cm dish years ago that had been bent double & dumped in a garden. I spent an afternoon straightening it out& its stll in use today - its my 22W dish

 

[Terryl]

Today I took the dish apart without too much trouble. I reckon that if I get all the rust off using my drill and a spinning wire brush which I can do on all parts of the dish, she'll be good to go! I have a tin of smooth black hammerite which will do the job nice. Don't want to paint it green though! The reason why I'm doing this, is I have a brand new Sky dish MTI LNB and that will fit straight on with no hassle. It's purpose will be for a testing dish in my workshop.

That paint is not a gloss finish is it??? If so when the Sun gets behind the dish it will fry the LNB with the reflected Sun light. A flat sheen paint is the best to keep this from happening.

 

[Tony1A]

I'll bear that in mind!!!!

 

[PaulR]

Tony is based in the NE of England. Hot sun is an alien concept up there!

 

[Tony1A]

It's also illegal to wear coats in winter! .

Anyhoo, back to the dish! If I cover it with two coats of hammerite, then paint it with some matt outdoor paint, would that work?

 

[PaulR]

I see no reason why not although I honestly think the Hammerite by itself will fine.

The most important thing is to remove the rust from the reflecting surface of the dish as this causes scatter in focusing the radio waves. The rust in the perforated holes don't have any effect on the scatter but they do provide the starting point for further rust incursion on the reflecting surface. Your choice on how mad you go with cleaning.

 

[Lazarus]

I'd use a very thin coat of Kurust first - You might find that the rust conversion will cause the dish to appear a nice uniform matt black once again.
I have just treated a rusty steel road wheel this way and it needed no painting once treated,

 

[Tony1A]

I think I'll just use the hammerite. As I said, this dish will be for testing satellite receivers so I'm going to keep the job simple and straightforward!!