Stainless steel wall repair

[RecurveArcher]

1) We have an old Clayton Lambert pool with stainless steel walls that have since been painted over, but there are a lot of rust spots coming through, many that bubble up and then disintegrate when touched.

What's the best way to repair these? I'm thinking grind them out somehow, then patch/fill the divots with an epoxy putty, sand it smooth, and then re-paint the pool?

Is that the best option or is there another? Any recommendation on specific tools or materials?


2) It looks like the previous owners sent one of the latter legs through the wall at some point; there's about a 1' diameter patch where the latter leg rests against the side of the pool, the patch itself is flat, but where it attaches to the original wall is all bubbly like what the great-stuff spray-foam looks like. Are there any options to re-do this so that it looks better?


3) The skimmer face plates are stainless steel as well and all rusted; is there anything that can be done to make those look better? I did find a site that sells replacements, but not sure how easy it'd be to get the current ones off. All the weir's are torn off as well. For a whole new set (face plate, weir, & gasket) I'd be looking at $125/skimmer (x3) which is probably more than I want to spend on those. Can I just paint over the face plate? Or is there something cheap that could be mounted on top of them?


Here's a picture showing the patch, a skimmer, and some of the rust spots; sorry for the poor quality.

 

[RecurveArcher]

Or... Rather than trying to repair all the rust spots, which I'm assuming are just going to work their way back through the paint within a couple years... I've heard there's companies that do custom liners, is that an option? Could we not repair the walls and just install an after-market liner?

 

[RecurveArcher]

Bump.

Any suggestions on the repairs? Especially the rust bubbles? I've seen a number of comments now about the putty stuff coming loose over time when used to patch holes, so maybe that's not the best solution since these are only divots and not even a full hole.

 

[LFrankow]

The best way to fix rust is to cut out the offending piece and weld in a new one.
Liner would be a good route to go if you can get your walls fixed up.
Skimmer face plates, you might get lucky and find an exact size plastic replacement, but if you do go the liner route mayswell look at replacing them during the liner install, much easier then after. Your liner guy will be able to tell you more. Find a couple give them a call let them have a close up look see.