A forklift that spends two years inside a food plant with brine on the floor, or a plow truck that spends every winter in road salt, comes back looking ten years older than the hour meter says. The mast rusts at the slides, the frame rusts along every weld, the wiring corrodes at the connectors and the resale value goes with it. Most fleet PM schedules cover oil, tires and brakes and say nothing about the metal that is dissolving in between.
Two Cortec case histories, one from a Wisconsin forklift-leasing company and one from a Minnesota township garage, show the same four-part program keeping trucks in service and in resalable condition: convert what has rusted, coat what can be painted, oil what cannot, and protect the electricals. The products come in aerosol cans and gallon jugs, and the work fits inside an ordinary monthly service.
Forklifts leased into a sauerkraut plant
Cortec Case History #737 (2019) describes a Wisconsin fork-truck leasing company that was placing trucks in a sauerkraut plant on one- and two-year leases. The plan was always to sell the trucks at the end of the lease. The plant floor is brine, salt and fermenting cabbage from one end to the other, and by the time the trucks came back their resale value had been cut badly. The leasing company needed a preventive-maintenance program that would preserve the trucks while they were working, not a refurbishment after the fact.
The program it settled on has four steps, applied to new trucks going out and existing trucks already in the plant:
- CorrVerter rust converter primer on any surface that had already rusted, to passivate it and give the topcoat something to hold.
- EcoShield 386, the water-based acrylic direct-to-metal topcoat, over all painted metal.
- CorShield VpCI-369, the oil-based wet-film inhibitor, on moving metal that cannot be painted: mast channels, chains, pins and fasteners.
- ElectriCorr VpCI-239 sprayed on every exposed electrical connection.
The products are touched up as needed during the monthly maintenance visit. The result reported in the case is that the trucks now stay in resalable condition to the end of the lease. A second result is more telling: CorrVerter is rarely needed any more, because the coating program is stopping rust before there is anything to convert. The leasing company has since copied the same program onto trucks it leases into a foundry with a similarly corrosive atmosphere.
A plow truck in Minnesota road salt
Cortec Case History #175 (2003) is older and comes from a municipal garage. A Minnesota township wanted to stop the corrosion on a plow and salt-spreader truck and keep it in service as long as possible. The recipe is a good template because it covers the whole vehicle in one pass:
| Area of the truck | Product | How it was applied |
|---|---|---|
| Whole truck, before anything else | VpCI-415 cleaner | Pressure wash |
| Under the dashboard, near the electrics | VpCI-105 emitters | Placed in the enclosed space |
| External electrical contacts | ElectriCorr VpCI-239 | Aerosol spray |
| Every visibly rusted surface | CorrVerter | Hand painted |
| Undercarriage | VpCI-368 D wax-like temporary coating | Pump sprayer |
| Door hinges and moving parts | VpCI-369 wet-film lubricant | Spray |
| Salt box | VpCI-396 moisture-cure urethane | Roller |
The township reported that the treatment cost considerably less than the alternatives it had looked at, took minimal labor, and gave the truck a longer and more dependable service life with its appearance preserved. Note the split between the two coatings: a wax-like temporary coating under the truck where nobody needs paint and where it can be renewed each fall, and a hard moisture-cure urethane on the salt box, which takes abrasion from the aggregate.
Why the same four products keep showing up
Between the two cases, sixteen years apart, the structure is identical. Rust that already exists gets CorrVerter, because you cannot blast a truck that is in service and the converter needs only hand-tool cleaning. Painted steel gets a water-based acrylic topcoat, either EcoShield 386 for a clear finish that leaves the OEM paint visible or a pigmented VpCI-386. Bare moving metal gets VpCI-369, a film that never dries and heals itself when a chain runs through it. Electrical connections get ElectriCorr VpCI-239, the outdoor-rated electronics cleaner that displaces moisture and leaves an inhibiting film that does not interfere with contact. Food plants matter here: the VpCI-111 emitter that goes inside closed boxes is accepted by the FDA for electrical equipment in food plants, and the 386 family is a water-based, low-VOC coating that does not fill an enclosed shop with solvent.
How to do this in your plant
- Wash the truck first. A VpCI-415 pressure wash removes brine, salt and grease and leaves a flash-rust inhibitor behind. Loose components go through a Build-All or Magido parts washer on the same cleaner family.
- Wire-brush any rust to hand-tool clean and brush or spray CorrVerter over it at 3 to 5 mils dry. Let it cure before topcoating. It is a ferrous-only product; keep it off aluminum and galvanized parts.
- Topcoat painted steel with EcoShield 386 at 1.5 to 3 mils dry, applied between 45 and 90 °F on a surface above the dew point. Our coatings application guides cover the spray tips, pressures and recoat times.
- Spray CorShield VpCI-369 on mast slides, chains, pins, hinges and exposed threads until you see an oily sheen. For undercarriages, a pump sprayer of VpCI-368 D gives a drier wax film that lasts a season.
- Spray ElectriCorr VpCI-239 on connectors, terminals and lamp sockets, and stick a VpCI-105 or VpCI-111 emitter inside any closed electrical box.
- Add a line to the monthly PM sheet: inspect the coating, re-spray 369 and 239, touch up 386 where it has chipped. Once the program is running, the converter step should get shorter every month.
Which Cortec products
- CorrVerter, 1 gallon: one-coat water-based rust converter primer for steel that cannot be blasted; hand-tool prep only.
- EcoShield 386, clear 5-gallon pail: water-based acrylic direct-to-metal topcoat for painted frames, masts and bodies; rated for outside, uncovered service.
- CorShield VpCI-369 aerosol, 6-pack: oil-based wet film for chains, slides, pins and threads; protects and lubricates.
- ElectriCorr VpCI-239 aerosol, 6-pack: outdoor-rated cleaner and protector for connectors, terminals and open electrical boxes.
- VpCI-368 D: pre-diluted wax-like coating for undercarriages and frames, pump-sprayed each fall.
- VpCI-396: moisture-cure urethane for salt boxes, dump beds and other surfaces that take abrasion.
We stock the aerosols, CorrVerter, EcoShield 386 and VpCI-368 D in Elmhurst, Illinois, so a fleet shop can pick up a month’s supply without a lead time. If you run forklifts in a food, chemical or foundry environment, or plow trucks through a Midwest winter, contact us and we will put a starter kit on one truck with you and write the PM line for the rest.
Sources: Cortec Case History #737 (2019), Cortec Case History #175 (2003); Cortec product data sheets for CorrVerter, EcoShield 386, CorShield VpCI-369, ElectriCorr VpCI-239, VpCI-368 D and VpCI-396.
