Rust prevention

[Jez 356]

Morning all

Whilst my car was being transformed into something that drives properly at PRS. Paul highlighted some areas of rust on the inner valances etc.... I am now thinking about trying to prevent further rusting as I now plan to drive the car alot more as it is running so well !!

Could anyone give me a simple sequence of what I need to do and what products would be best for our 356s ??

I presume :
1 remove all previous surface rust or old cracked protection then
2 apply a rust proofer - any good products? then
3 coating with some sort of protective coating. - any good products ?

Thanks for any help you may be able to give.

[Rustbucket]

If you use the hammerite rust prevention-looks like milk but goes purple on rust- this seems the best quick 'cure', there is an american product you can get - POR15 or something, which is expensive but very good.
The best prevention is to stop the source dont forget

Id be interested to know what is recommended as an underbody sealer- and also any cavity sprays which are good too - Id like to do my inner sills ?

[swapped]

I can tell you what I've been using lately, but while I researched it as best I could, I can't personally vouch for the long-term protection offered, as I'll have to wait a few years for that, and I was offered a couple of products for free (with recommendations), that made the decision to use them pretty easy.

The hammerite stuff sounds like the vactan I used, which is popular with metal-hulled canal boaters - it's water-thinnable and very economical to use, and you can therefore spray it around with gay abandon, converting surface rust to some other, more stable compound - the name of which escapes me now.

I looked into POR15, but while it is reported as very tough and effective, it needs careful preparation of surfaces, and I went in the end for rustbullet, which is a broadly similar product that can be painted onto non-rusted bare-metal (which POR15 cannot), meaning I could spread it liberally around, covering old metal, welds and new metal alike. For £40 I got 6 small tins (so reduced potential wastage as it can quickly dry and spoil once opened). It destroys paint brushes because it drys so fast and sets so hard, and stays a week on your skin. I bought a dozen cheap brushes and binned them instead of trying to clean them, and wore latex gloves, plus paper sleeve/gauntlet things. In areas (such as the interior floorpans) where there had been areas of rust that I had cut out and replaced, but which were largely unaffected and the paint was still intact, I used zinc 'cold-galv' spray just to neaten things up, as it was free (see engineer friend below), and gives a very similar final finish to 2 coats of dried rustbullet.

A engineer neighbour contributed a waxoyl 'type' aerosol based product that he was given 'samples' of at work, that I emptied at high pressure into cavities, sills, box sections etc as the opportunities presented themselves, and which dripped satifyingly out of drainage holes for a while before setting into the stretchy, gloopy skin that is it's final form.

My final layer under the car was aerosol underseal schultz (?), which I possibly wouldn't have chosen to use on a new underbelly, but matched what was there previously and adds another layer of resistance.

Something I notice now that it's done is that drips and runs of vactan, rustbullet, wax(oyl) and schultz all adhere to concrete very strongly and if my car's metal is as keen to stick to the products as my floor is I can consider the job well done.

Carl

[Jez 356]

Great thanks for that

I have now placed an order for a starter pack and some small cans. It looks as if you just clean the surface leave to dry and then apply whilst making sure you are totally protected from drips etc.......

Great thanks for your input

[swapped]

In that case, I have a couple more tips about using rustbullet, from personal experience:

1. the tin contents will need stirring, but you don't want to do it with any item that you don't wish to be rustbulleted for ever more - I found that plastic drinking straws, bent in half were the right combination of stiff enough to stir the gloop, small enough to move around in the small tin, and cheap enough to throw in the bin afterwards.

2. after stirring, decant the paint you are going to use into a different container, and get the lid back on the tin so the contents don't spend time exposed to air. We happened to have just replaced a set of espresso cups, and the old ones were perfect - small, clean and with a handle on.

3. the 2nd coat is supposed to go on up to 4 hours after the first, so on a small area, you have some waiting to do, and while you wait, the rustbullet on your brush is setting and making itself un-usable. Solution? the disposable latex gloves you've got on - hold the paint brush in one hand and grab the bristle-end with the other, grab the glove of the bristle-holding hand at the wrist and unpeel it from your hand so that it ends up inside-out over the brush bristles, and with a bit of a twist, no air can get in to cure the paint for a couple of hours.

4. it really is a b******d to get off your skin once it's dry - the orange-scented hand-cleaner with gritty bits in worked well if used within 20 minutes or so, but if you wait until the end of the day to get any off, the only way is to take the skin it's on, off.

[Jez 356]

Thanks for that !

Sounds very straight forward

Plus a trip to the £1 shop for brushes etc........ !!

Thanks for your help

Hopefully this will keep the car on the road and out of the body shop for a few more years !