Rust Removal and Paint Touch Up

This is how I get rid of small annoying spot of rust.

I had a small spot of rust on the edge of the roof where it met the rear window seal. Looks like the lacquer had lifted and corrosion set in. Small spot no bigger than a penny, but need to get rid.

The rust spot:



Simply speaking, remove rust, and repaint.

Peal back the seal so the area can be seen and cleaned up, the rust may well have spread under the seal.:



Rub down the actual corrosion \"bubble\" til no more appears to be hiding under any paint, down to nice shiny bare metal if possible,like so:


Also rub a generous surrounding area down with about 600 wet n dry, til a matt finish is achieve for new paint to adhere to. As you can see above quite a large area around was allowed. This area must be big enough to contain all overspray.

No new paint is intended to be laid onto untouched old lacquer. All new paint/lacquer to be contained within 600grit area.

If corrosion is still there, albeit surface only, just treat it with Kurust or similar. and leave dry.

Mask off areas to avoid getting paint on, in this example, the rear window and adjacent door. Do not mask of a small square area on the panel you want to paint as it will never blend, the idea is to finish the edge of the new paint/lacquer by fading out alone.



Then a quick coat or two of primer, after a wipe with degreaser. After dry, gently rub over spray with 2000grit:


The get on with 2-3 coats of top coat, taking it easy not expecting to cover it all with the first pass. Let it go tacky for 10 mins then get the next coat on and so on.

Again after 10-15 mins once the top coat is touch dry get the lacquer on the go...getting the paint on top of each other so quickly will allow the next layer to adhere better to the still \'wet\' laeyr beneath, as opposed to letting it go solid dry and havign to key it with wet n dry again.

So 2-3 nice coats of lacquer 10-15 mins inbetween will get you to this stage:


You can see here where the new clear coat fades into the old rubbed down paintwork. This needs to be left to go off for a good few days before finishing.

After this time, gently flat the area with 2000 wet n dry with lots of water, to gently blend the new into the old. Don\'t go too hard as not to lift your new finish.

Rinse and dry the area and then give the area (if not the whole panels) a good t-cut and polish and wax.