I have a Mk5 car and read recently on another forum that the later model cars are even more prone to rust. I guess they weren't as careful about priming areas that couldn't be seen.

My car isn't bad except for one door skin. I see a few bubbles coming up in other places. I'm not opposed to having the car dipped as it's not super expensive and there is a place in Ft. Worth but I think it sometimes aggravates areas that were undisturbed and will be impossible to re-prime.

What do you guys do with new project cars to prevent rust so your new paint jobs won't start bubbling a few years down the road?

How have you rustproofed the unseen areas such as inside the a-pillars, the doors, etc?

Has anyone here had a car dipped?

Thanks,
Jeff

 

there is prob a million different ways to get rid of rust, but keep in mind, not a single body shop/painter, or what not will warrenty against rusting, there is so many variables that can cause rust, that it would be hard to point the finger and say it happened because of this or that......make sure you really try to eliminate as much as possible from the begining, and hopefully it will alst you a long time........i know of some people who have had there mini's dipped, and damn near came back with nothing, so be preparred for anything if you get it dipped, i've heard a few people chatting about water blasting, but not sure about details about it....good luck and hit me up if you ever need anything

 

We did a restoration on a '68 cougar and some good ole sanding to get it down to metal to see what you're really working with is the best. Second step for me is Media blasting. Dipping is good, but be careful. If you've got some hidden rust that you don't know about... like Norm said, you'll come back to see a whole bunch of swiss cheese, and some panels that should just flat out be replaced.

 

I can't remember the name of the product but the Navy uses some liquid chemical that stops rust dead in it's tracks. You sand/grind off the flaky, loose rust and then paint this stuff on and it turns a dark brown. Almost black in fact and it will not rust from that side again. You can paint right over the stuff too. I don't know how it would fare on a car but it works miracles on a ship!

 

You should try to get your hands on some of that stuff... I'd start the opening bid on the black market.....

 

You can buy POR 15 easily, it's available all over and works exactly the same way.

POR means Paint Over Rust, incidentally........

But, I thought he was talking about places you couldn't necessarily see or touch, in that case Waxoil is your best bet. It's a product made to be sprayed into cracks and crevises and permanently will stop rust in those areas, plus it flows nicely.......

Are you doing a total restoration, or just some touch up and prevention?

 

there is a product called Osfo....(not sure if thats the right spelling) but it stops the spread of rust

 

Yeah. I've used that paint-over-rust type stuff on off road vehicles before. It works like a charm, but for me.... I'd rather just make sure there wasn't any rust to begin with.

 

POR 15 sometimes peels on areas not affected by rust so be careful about using it. A friend of mine used their metal ready to prep and topcoated it and it still peeled. I can't vouch for how well he prepped the metal but theres alot of talk on the net about the peeling.

I have been using a scotch brite pad on a die grinder and it will polish the rusted spots and get alot of the brown stain out of the metal thats left after you remove the loose rust.

The one concern I have is that I have removed a few panels and between the seams theres a good bit of rust. You can't physically separate every seam and remove the rust without trashing the body. I'm not sure how I'm going to treat the seams yet.

One final note, if you dip your car and a panel looks like swiss cheese you really needed to replace that panel anyway so I wouldn't be turned away because of that.

 

Agreed. Patch work is effective sometimes too though. I'm sure Norm has done plenty of that. But I'm learning that a lot of the time the panels for these cars actually cost less than patching.

 

I've patched some holes as well. Theres nothing wrong with patching. The point is cut out the rust and replace with new metal. Just do the patch right. I cut out a patch from mine that looked like it was cut out of an old trunk lid and was welded right though the old paint.

Sheet metal is cheap but some of the panels are hard to fabricate yourself. I tried to make panels for the front of the floor pans and they just didn't fit up right. I finally gave up and spend the 40 bucks on the repair panel.

 

The product is: Ospho, short for osphoric acid. It etches the metal surface and pretty much gobbles up any rust. Surface should be wire brushed first, wash with ospho (it's VERY watery), and after the ospho dries, the surface should be painted. I just used it on a trailer and it worked just fine.

 

Can't speak for any of these products or techniques personally. Just some links that I found interesting enough to keep. I'm sure others will throw out some actual knowledge...

http://www.zero-rust.com/
http://www.corrosionx.com/hd.html
http://autorestorationdepot.com/index.html

 

And a few more links...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJeXw...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5I5WBG5HPw

 

Try "Rust Bullet" works great. You just paint it on.

http://www.rustbullet.com/

 

Not sure if anyone heard about electronic rust protection. Do you have any idea on this? here's their website: http://www.ruststopnorthamerica.com/

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the whole point of this type of device is to tie up the energy that is released when the chemical reaction with iron, water and oxygen occurs. Since the energy can't be released the rust chemical reaction won't naturally occur.

In theory it should work but somehow I doubt it works like they claim.

 

So you have to leave your car "plugged in" 24/7? I'm confused. They sure don't do much to explain the process.

 

Yeah your car has an electrical charge running through it all of the time. I think it's a high voltage/low amperage sort of thing so you will never notice it exists.

They don't explain it because you probably can make the device with a high school science book and 20 bucks in parts from radio shack.