Im just curoius. im starting to get rust around my hatch seals, and i was wondering if anyone had any good methods on how to stop it from spreading. Apparently using rust cutter, then spraying it with enamal paint didn't do the job

 

well, Naval Jelly works well, other wise sand off rust and paint. Those are the methods I have used. They work well for me.

 

yep. or replace the panel with a carbn fiber one.

 

Get another car.

Once you see visible rust, the rust beneath the surface is at least 3 times larger. And if the rust is at a seam edge, well, you can count on having most of that panel to be complete trash.

 

"Get another car."

"Once you see visible rust, the rust beneath the surface is at least 3 times larger. And if the rust is at a seam edge, well, you can count on having most of that panel to be complete trash."

I wouldn't give up so easily - maybe that's why there are so few 1st gen's still on the road. I've had some success cleaning up rust and there is no doubt in my mind that I will have to do it again in the future - but I've done too much work to my car to let rust win the battle. Right now it looks clean - if rust rears it's ugly head again, I'm back to work. Be prepard to cut, not just sand / prep - have someone look at it to determine the damage. After all, there is a point of no return when it comes to rust - a professional can tell you if you're there.

 

When you can push your finger through any given panel, you've been there a long time

I'm suprised that "White Trash" didn't just fold up on itself when I dumped the clutch... the only panels that weren't irreparably rusted were the hood, header panel, and the headlight doors... and they had goodly amounts of surface rust too. One nice thing about badly rusted cars... you can mod the snot out of them and not have to worry about passing emissions - the car won't last that long!

 

OtakuRX - Do you know where they sell Naval Jelly? I can't seem to locate some.

 

You can get it at most auto stores like AutoZone. It's a 2 part de oxidizer, makes the rust turn back to metal. The stuff is great using it on my dad's 79.

 

Don't bathe for a few days and dig in your belly button... It's good on toast.

 

You will have to excuse him, he is still triping on Acid

 

I used por 15, below is some information on what and how I used it on my car.
http://www.homestead.com/pittdp/rest.html

 

Stuff looks good. Nice job Pittdp.

 

I have a bottle of something called "Rust Mort" or something like that. I bought it for my VW Beetle, but I never used it (sold the car), so I dont know how well it works. It was fairly expensive as I remember, and I had to special order it from a body shop because its "too hazardous to have on retail shelves in parts stores"...Whatever. I plan on trying it on something sometime, but fortunatly for me, Im one of the few with little or no rust on my car...

~T.J.

 

I am semi in the same boat. Except I hit a deer and got hailed on, thus the rust is another cost. It'd probaly cots $5000 to get the body near sound condition. So the best option for me is to get different body with Very minor rust and fix that one instead.

 

Move down here to the southwest Here in New Mexico the cars in the junkyards don't even have rust. Yep the temperature is about 95 and the humidity is about 0%.

 

"Rust Mort" is excellent. It's puttsy, but excellent. What you ave to do is take a wire brush to the area of the car (My first experience was when I did the underbody of my car) and brush the heck out of the rusty spot(try to catsh it early). Be sure to LEAVE a very small layer/dusting of surface rust, or the Rust Mort will not react. Then, with a small paintbrush (That's what I use on all RUST-oration body work) Apply a THIN layer of rust mort to the brushed, rusty surface (Rust Mort is a clear, watery substance with an extremely distinct smell, and VERY powerful. Try dripping a little on concrete, you'll know what I mean).
Allow this thin layer to dry for an hour or 2, then apply one more extremely thin layer (most of your second layer should not stay on the car, if first layer is applied properly.) Then allow it to dry in an open area, free from precipitation, for 24 hours-it's worth it.
Then, after 24 hours, apply a small coat of paint, prefferably rust inhibitor paint, to the treated area. I spray "Krylon" Rust Tough Enamel (Get it at most any automotive store), and allow that to dry the alloted time. If done right, in a breathable area, it will last unbelieveably long, and you'll get addicted to doing it to every single little rust-peep on every vehicle you may own. Hope this helps-

 

Well from bodyshop experience Rust is like cancer, it will eat a car from the inside out, surface rust is nowhere near as bad as in to out rust... Surface rust will take years to do a ton of damage, in to out will destroy the car in a short time. Well anyways, treat rust like cancer if you try to remove it, get ALL of it, or else it will come back again.

 

I tried Naval Jelly on my sunroof.

Okay back up...

I had a couple small rust holes in my sunroof. So, I figure, OK, I'll sand the area down, cut out the bad metal, zap in some sheet, slap some mud over it, shape it, sand it, prime it, paint it, good as new right?

WRONG. I ended up cutting over 1/4 of the sunroof skin off. The metal "frame" was also slightly rusted from being in contact with the rusted skin. So, I wire-wheeled the majority of it off and got some of the nastiest naval jelly i could find. Followed instructions to the letter. The naval jelly did a wonderful job of bleaching the concrete floor bone-white but it did nothing to the rust. Hmm. I squirted some more on and this time left it on for ovet an hour. Rinsed it off, came back - still no difference. Damn.

So I crossed my fingers, made a patch panel that curled around the "frame" edge (just like OE), sprayed some allegedly rust-converting underprimer over it, then applied Bondo to the topside to get the sunrrof contour back since I did a poor job of lining up the patch and made the corner flat instead of curved, did a half-assed job blending it in, primered it, painted it (with Wimbledon White, which isn't even close to Aurora White), and said "Good enough - now it doesn't rain in".

I like rust 'cos it makes great cars cheap. I hate rust because it's impossible to eradicate.