Treating rust on wheelarch

[MJ]

The previous owner of my car (my granddad) scraped the passenger wing at some stage (between 7 and 16 years ago) and this has had a patch of paint over the area since.

A while back I noticed a rust bubble underneath, and after a power wash a couple weeks back, a bit of paint came off, showing rust.

You can't see it very well in this picture as I waxed the car afterwards and this filled in bits where the paint flaked.


I mentioned this to a guy who does body repair, and he didn't seem to think it was worthwhile doing anything, unless I had the whole panel re-sprayed!

I don't know much about rust, except it spreads and it needs air, and I thought that surly taking off that area of paint and rust with a dremel like tool and painting over with anti-rust primer would be a good idea to protect the panel.

What do you guys think? I don't want to go at the car with power tools if it's a bad idea, but I want to protect it from rust. Sure it won't look great, being pained over with touch up paint, but it should give some protection, won't it?

On that point, is it possible to get any more touch up paint or exactly matching paint from anywhere, except getting some specially mixed?

[5lab]

i'd say its definately worth trying to get something on there before the rust spreads - the panel wont look as good as it used to unless you're really good, but with a bit of filler and time you could stop the rot

[MJ]

Anything in perticular you'd recomend to use?

I've got some Hamerite Anti-rust primer, or it's called something like that, any other suggestions anyone?

[Chris_C]

I've done it on Kar, demel back (past the very dark brown metal.... this is stealth rust, caught me out the first time) till you get to SILVER metal, then fill with P38, and sand down, then that Hammerite Primer kicks ass. And sand down (getting in the realms of sandpaper with lots of '000s now) then topcoat.

[classicswede]

In the welding trade Hammerite is known as instant rust!!!
Your best bet is to clean the rust off use a zink or alu primer and a bit of colour on top.

Dai

[MJ]

Thanks guys

[Chris_C]

In the welding trade Hammerite is known as instant rust!!!
Dai

[classicswede]

Sorry. but hey its got to be better than bare metal

Dai

[Chris_C]

Lol, best to know... will how to re-investigate!

[jtbo]

My door lower corners are getting really bad, I need to deal them next summer, also passenger door is missing 'floor' of door.

Then I do have those wheel arches next to work too.

Whole new area to learn

Well, in the name of truth I must say that I did some repair last summer, 3 hour job it was and passenger door is already same, but door surroundings are ok still, I got cleaned metal much better in there so maybe the reason is that.

[Fuse]

Well the best solution is to use angle grinder and cut out the rusty part and weld in some new metal and then grind the joints flat and put on some filler, sand it smooth and then put on some primer (zink or equal) and then paint it. But then you need welding equipments so you can also sand out all the rust you can get (drill equipped with grinding wheel does a good job) and then put in the filler, base coat etc... Some people prefer to put base coat under the filler and some prefer to put filler first. I don't know which is the better way. I guess you could put the base coat under and top if you want.

I used the last method (I don't own welding equipments yet) at last summer on few minor rust spots and they look perfect. Not even the road salt hasn't gotten in to them. Key word is to sand/grind out as much rust as you can get (try to get all black spots out) and use proper base coat so humidity cannot get in touch with the steel. And you shouldn't hurry when you do rust repairs. If you hurry it'll look same as before at next year.

[MJ]

I think cutting and welding seems a bit extreme for a bit of surface rust

Ignore my ignorance, but why would you use primer for zink or Aluminum on Steel? If you think its better, can you recommend any brands, as I probably wouldn't recognise it if I got hit by a can.

I thought Hammerite was supposed to be good, but if you think otherwise, well...

Finnaly there's no need to use filler, is there? If I put on primer and paint it's gonna get quite thick, and I doubt much metal has gone.

[daffodil]

there are some grommets in the inner wing you can take these out and spray waxoyl in there
this will help to stop further corrosion

[bodejodel]

I think cutting and welding seems a bit extreme for a bit of surface rust

Ignore my ignorance, but why would you use primer for zink or Aluminum on Steel? If you think its better, can you recommend any brands, as I probably wouldn't recognise it if I got hit by a can.

I thought Hammerite was supposed to be good, but if you think otherwise, well...

Finnaly there's no need to use filler, is there? If I put on primer and paint it's gonna get quite thick, and I doubt much metal has gone.

I think it's a primer wich contains zink or aluminium.
Hammerite only covers rust it does not treat it. It's great for your castiron fence but not for you sheetmetal car.

[Fuse]

Well I think that welding is the best solution for rust problems because in here the surface rust, if not fixed properly, will turn in to a hole in a metal very quickly in a one winter because of the road salt etc... And you can never get out everything with sanding so welding is the best solution if you wan't it to look like new. Of course if it is only some small rust spot which is just on the surface then the sanding does the job. But if it has eaten the metal badly then welding would be better because if you just put on some filler on to the corroded metal it will look bad in few years. Yeah I mean't zink spray which is used for to protect welding joints etc... It is a primer which contains zink. Of course there are other primers too which are good.

http://www.finikor.fi/Kuva-galleria.pbs

There's some pics of very new cars which only have had the stock factory rust treatment. So you can imagine what the road salt does to a older car which doesn't have zinc metal sheets etc... if not protected properly That's a company which does rust protection treatments.