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Surface rust - What should I do?

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Hey guys,

 

I've got an XH which I plan on working on over the coming years, and it has a few patches of surface rust on the body.
I plan to get it painted at some point but that could be years away (It's a project car and I am trying to be realistic), what should I do about the surface rust that is already on the car? Should I treat it and spray primer over it, should I just leave it alone?

 

A few pictures below.

 

Cheers

 

BuQ9QOg.jpg

 

NrTazax.jpg

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definitely DON'T leave it alone.  it will get worse. 

it looks to have been repaired/painted poorly in the past, original paint doesn't fall off like that. 

at minimum, get a wire brush on a drill (or spend a while with a hand one) and treat it with rust converter then primer and some white paint. (looks like Stark white) 


is it only that 1/4 panel? maybe it was replaced, if it's the whole car you will be looking at stripping the whole car back later.. 

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Just now, deankdx said:

definitely DON'T leave it alone.  it will get worse. 

it looks to have been repaired/painted poorly in the past, original paint doesn't fall off like that. 

at minimum, get a wire brush on a drill (or spend a while with a hand one) and treat it with rust converter then primer and some white paint. (looks like Stark white) 


is it only that 1/4 panel? maybe it was replaced, if it's the whole car you will be looking at stripping the whole car back later.. 

 

Thanks mate, appreciate it.

Is there any issues with using a wire brush on an angle grinder or should I look one of those paint stripper disks instead? 

I'm absolutely brand new to anything paint wise, so if you've got any tips on what primers I should look at it would be appreciated. 

 

I kind of figured it'd been badly painted at some point, as there doesn't look to be any primer used under the paint that is flaking off. That and I can remove some of it with my nail.
The whole car will need to be stripped back at some point, so I'm not against that. Just looking to stop the rust in the mean time before I get to that stage.

 

Thanks again.

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i've never used the grinder wire wheels but @2redrovers probably has(not sure how aggressive/overkill they'd be there.

 

i'm a bit bodgy, most of My repairs are good for 12 months to 5yrs(usually as long as i keep a car.. mainly because i've seen rust come back in professional repaired cars i've bought in similar time, so i care a lot less for My work, just redo it again) 

 

so for me, knowing the rest is also about to fall off, i'd be just patching it asap, in a quick and easy repair.  
wire wheel the loose rust off, rust converter.. (i like the ones you brush on after its' been wet with water, then turns black) then spray some primer filler, sand with 400 for a reasonable finish on the white paint.  
 

i think at some point you'll get to clean metal with the wire wheel. if so, stop there. but if you end up wire wheeling the whole panel looking for shiny metal it's probably not a bad thing, depends how much work you want to do RIGHT NOW.. 

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I use these from supercheap
edfd438870abd3a4ca6186e52c18bcf7.jpg
https://www.supercheapauto.com.au/p/toolpro-toolpro-nylon-filament-wheel-brush/550790.html

Use in the power drill it will take the rust off without biting into the metal like a grinder wheel. It will strip paint, filler, primer, rust and clean up metal for welding. I use them the most along with flap wheels and strip discs. You can do the red brush first or you can get some rainex rust buster acid from bunnings (phosphoric acid) and use a bit of steel wool or a scourer /scotchbrite to scrub any rusty metal. The acid is brilliant and will take off all the rust with a little elbow grease, back to clean metal, scrub on, wipe off, it will only react to bare metal (doesn't work through paint). Give it a sand when you are ready to paint it, as if it was just bare steel, sand with 180# start primer, slap some paint over and all good. Assuming you just want to patch it so it doesn't rust to pieces. If you want to respray the whole thing, strip a panel at a time, wash it down with acid, wash it down with metho or thinners, epoxy prime then start the repair/paint process.

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I use brass wire wheels on the angle grinder and also 120 grit flappy disks. these are faily fine and dont bite in too much. etch prime the bare metal, prime and seal it.

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1 hour ago, 2redrovers said:

I use these from supercheap
edfd438870abd3a4ca6186e52c18bcf7.jpg
https://www.supercheapauto.com.au/p/toolpro-toolpro-nylon-filament-wheel-brush/550790.html

Use in the power drill it will take the rust off without biting into the metal like a grinder wheel. It will strip paint, filler, primer, rust and clean up metal for welding. I use them the most along with flap wheels and strip discs. You can do the red brush first or you can get some rainex rust buster acid from bunnings (phosphoric acid) and use a bit of steel wool or a scourer /scotchbrite to scrub any rusty metal. The acid is brilliant and will take off all the rust with a little elbow grease, back to clean metal, scrub on, wipe off, it will only react to bare metal (doesn't work through paint). Give it a sand when you are ready to paint it, as if it was just bare steel, sand with 180# start primer, slap some paint over and all good. Assuming you just want to patch it so it doesn't rust to pieces. If you want to respray the whole thing, strip a panel at a time, wash it down with acid, wash it down with metho or thinners, epoxy prime then start the repair/paint process.

 

Would I be better going straight for the red wheels, or should I go down the acid route? This is knowing that I should (hopefully) be stripping it back and doing it correctly at a later point?

 

48 minutes ago, hendrixhc said:

I use brass wire wheels on the angle grinder and also 120 grit flappy disks. these are faily fine and dont bite in too much. etch prime the bare metal, prime and seal it.

 

Any reasons for going etch over filler? Just trying to make sure I do it correctly

 

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The best method is bare metal then prime with ppg 408 epoxy (in grey-green is the best version), then filler if required, reprime with the 408 epoxy to seal the filler, then start the process for painting (hifill, sanding, colour etc). You can do a panel at a time, the epoxy is 2 pak but does take a long time to dry so be aware of that but it's relatively cheap and the best on the market as far as the resto scene is concerned. I'd strip it with a poly disc for most of it, red brush what I couldn't reach, treat any rust with acid then seal it as above with epoxy. It will be good for a couple of years if done correctly like that and weather proof as well.

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9 hours ago, 2redrovers said:

The best method is bare metal then prime with ppg 408 epoxy (in grey-green is the best version), then filler if required, reprime with the 408 epoxy to seal the filler, then start the process for painting (hifill, sanding, colour etc). You can do a panel at a time, the epoxy is 2 pak but does take a long time to dry so be aware of that but it's relatively cheap and the best on the market as far as the resto scene is concerned. I'd strip it with a poly disc for most of it, red brush what I couldn't reach, treat any rust with acid then seal it as above with epoxy. It will be good for a couple of years if done correctly like that and weather proof as well.

 

Thank you mate, that is really in depth, thanks for spending the time!

Just to confirm, when you mention poly disks, you're talking about this type https://www.supercheapauto.com.au/p/toolpro-toolpro-poly-abrasive-disc-115mm/553770.html?

 

 

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Yeah that's the type, refers to the curly nylon abrasive. I use a large diameter disc without the backing pad. Get them from your local bodyshop / auto paint supplier. It's important to use a variable speed grinder/sander for this type of disc. Don't spin them too fast or they will break apart and fly off at high speed. I usually run at about half speed on mine. That also applies to the type you linked with the backing pad, the glue is often weakened from not being stored properly prior to sale.

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14 hours ago, hendrixhc said:

 

Id be pulling any filler out to make sure the rust isnt in behind it.

 

Thanks mate. At this stage I think we're heading down to fresh metal and starting over. Thanks!

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Thanks mate. At this stage I think we're heading down to fresh metal and starting over. Thanks!

That's the best way to go and in reality, it doesn't take any extra effort when compared to chasing problems later (paint reactions, bubbles, etc)

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On 11/21/2021 at 8:01 PM, deankdx said:

i've never used the grinder wire wheels but @2redrovers probably has(not sure how aggressive/overkill they'd be there.

 

i'm a bit bodgy, most of My repairs are good for 12 months to 5yrs(usually as long as i keep a car.. mainly because i've seen rust come back in professional repaired cars i've bought in similar time, so i care a lot less for My work, just redo it again) 

 

so for me, knowing the rest is also about to fall off, i'd be just patching it asap, in a quick and easy repair.  
wire wheel the loose rust off, rust converter.. (i like the ones you brush on after its' been wet with water, then turns black) then spray some primer filler, sand with 400 for a reasonable finish on the white paint.  
 

i think at some point you'll get to clean metal with the wire wheel. if so, stop there. but if you end up wire wheeling the whole panel looking for shiny metal it's probably not a bad thing, depends how much work you want to do RIGHT NOW.. 

Mate this is some funny serendipitous stuff, I legit just saw your response to my post in 2018, saw this one and was going to ask about the rust converter, from what I understand with it, give it a decent sand, but you don’t have to get all the rust off, pit some solvent onto it, then the rust converter, im guessing it reacts with the iron oxide making heat, I’ve not used it yet, is it worth is? I’ve seen a few brands, there’s one that’s got a primer almost the same Color as my XF, 

 

and as for your 4 year old question and answe, no idea mate, they didn’t say which was a pisser, yeah I’ve gins over it skrn a fine tooth comb, im I expect, but there the bolt release is, behind that there’s a heap of wires and a loom that don’t make sense, there’s legit nothing on that im aware of, I assumed it was pumping the acelersote, is rust converter and the primer with the money and time? I got offered quite a low figure for it, not even close to what I’d feel comfortable parting with j, yeah it need some work but a car I got for $80 transfer, score!! 

B4D58EDA-2DA1-4B84-AA7E-E032D8708123.png

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If you just dry sand it leaving a very light amount of rust and then paint it with Fertan.  https://www.google.com/search?q=fertan+rust+converter+reviews&oq=fertan&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j35i39l2j0i512l4j69i60.13640j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

Once cured it will take primer and top coat and should hold for a couple of years at least. Another one is Feronite. In your situation I think a tannic acid will work better for you than phosphoric.

 

When you get to stripping it back to bare metal a phosphoric wash and wipe off just before priming is what the panel beaters do I believe.

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