Thread: How do I keep a rusty car from getting worse

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I'm dragging home another T/A...has alot of surface rust. I'm not asking for a diatribe here on what i'll likely find under the surface rust. I'm fixing this one, don't care how long it takes or what surprises I find under there.

What I do want to know though is what is a practical way for me to keep it from getting worse over the winter other than the obvious...storing it inside (which I am).

It got this way cause some bonehead sanded it down and then didn't ever prime it. Should I resand and then just put a coat of primer on it...should I leave it as is (someone actually told me that at this point that layer of surface rust is acting as a protectant...lol... )

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Jeri

Primer really doesn't protect against rust without good paint over it. I use ' epoxy primer ' over metal if I'm not going to topcoat it anytime soon. You will have to have a compressor and gun to apply real epoxy primer. Contrary to what labels may say, real epoxy primer doesn't come in spray cans, it would ' set up ' in the can. And, epoxys that I am familiar with contain issocyanates, which is deadly. If I get even a slight breath of it I can't spell ( shevy ) and I feel like this>

If it's stored inside, I wouldn't do anything with it until you are ready to paint.

Thanks Guys, That's what I wanted to know...

Sand it back down to the steele and prime it with some ZINK primer becouse zink is water resistant, for the most part it should last through the winter.

Believe it or not hard rust is a kind of barrier to further oxidation. If its inside I wouldnt do anything to it either. The bluing on a gun is a controlled oxidation.

If you decide to prime, be sure to sand thoroughly, and if you aren't using a self-etching primer, be sure to metal prep 30 minutes before spraying. Otherwise you may be taking all of that primer back off later...which is a lot more work than spraying it in the first place!

2-3 coats of Pettit Rust-Lok will stop it from rusting. Just sand off most of the rust and apply. You can paint over rust with it but who wants to do that? It's a one part paint that can be brushed or sprayed so application is simple. Once it is fully cured, it will have to be roughed up before being top coated, but that is true of most modern primers that actually seal out water. The paint is also almost impervious to solvents, even MEK doesn't take it off once dry.