Cleaning up surface rust

JohnRBurke2 · Dec 17, 2015

Hi all, I am looking for a good way to clean up surface rust from the body of my truck. There is very little (almost ignorable) rust at the moment but I imagine it will continue to grow so I would like to prevent or slow it down if possible.

Thanks.

dapepper9 · Dec 17, 2015

Sand down to bare metal with 80g, apply rust killer like POR15 or similar, touch up paint. Keep the area small and blend the paint and clear into a little of the surrounding area.

JohnRBurke2 · Dec 17, 2015

dapepper9 said:
Sand down to bare metal with 80g, apply rust killer like POR15 or similar, touch up paint. Keep the area small and blend the paint and clear into a little of the surrounding area.

Sounds easy enough. Can I mess it up pretty badly? What is an average cost for a body shop to do this? Is it worth it to go that route?

dapepper9 · Dec 17, 2015

Not sure on body shop cost. I'd get a quote. Only way to stop rust is kill it at the source and if it's only surface, you can stop it. If there's any hole or anything you have to cut it out. It's a cancer.

Best way to sand it down is DA sander to knock it down quick, feather the edges out with like a 220g, apply your rust killer, after dry sand the surface smooth, prime, 400-500g sanding on primer, area of blend rough up with red scotchbrite, paint, clear.

Youtube it. It can be time consuming and laborious and prob better off going with a shop if you've never done this before and want it to look good lol. Ask me how I know that lol.

JohnRBurke2 · Dec 17, 2015

dapepper9 said:
Not sure on body shop cost. I'd get a quote. Only way to stop rust is kill it at the source and if it's only surface, you can stop it. If there's any hole or anything you have to cut it out. It's a cancer.

Best way to sand it down is DA sander to knock it down quick, feather the edges out with like a 220g, apply your rust killer, after dry sand the surface smooth, prime, 400-500g sanding on primer, area of blend rough up with red scotchbrite, paint, clear.

Youtube it. It can be time consuming and laborious and prob better off going with a shop if you've never done this before and want it to look good lol. Ask me how I know that lol.

I am sure that your story of why you know that is the same reason I am asking if I should just consider a body shop

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dapepper9 · Dec 17, 2015

JohnRBurke2 said:
I am sure that your story of why you know that is the same reason I am asking if I should just consider a body shop

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Here's a quickie of my story. I had 2 dents from a tow hook and a spot of surface rusty about the size of an old flip phone. Got it down to bare metal and feathered out, used s rust killer, added my body filler (forgot, need body filler too), sanded, primed, painted, and cleared. All with touch up touch-up cans. Not the way to do it. I had other imperfections where the black strip had been so i did those too. Where i ran into problems is i didn't want to remove my DODGE 4X4 stickers so i masked around em. Bad idea. Yout can see the masking lines and stuff in the finished product and all my clear peeled up.

JohnRBurke2 · Dec 17, 2015

sounds like I will stick with a body shop on this one.

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Merc225hp · Dec 18, 2015

Where is the surface rust??

CVX20 · Dec 18, 2015

JohnRBurke2 said:
sounds like I will stick with a body shop on this one.

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That's a good idea if you've never done it before.It's a lot harder to make it look factory than it looks.

Sandblasting is best way to make sure you get rid of all the rust.

avantiguy · Dec 18, 2015

JohnRBurke2 said:
sounds like I will stick with a body shop on this one.

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Good idea. If you do it yourself, be careful of using a rust killer on a freshly ground surface. Most are designed to complex with rust and don't adhere well to a clean surface. Read the instructions before use to see if the material can be used over clean steel. I had POR15 peel off a trailer I built in sheets due to poor adhesion to the clean steel.

IIWM, I'd go to clean metal then use a two part epoxy primer under the base and clear coat. I'll bet that's what the body shop will do.

dapepper9 · Dec 18, 2015

avantiguy said:
Good idea. If you do it yourself, be careful of using a rust killer on a freshly ground surface. Most are designed to complex with rust and don't adhere well to a clean surface. Read the instructions before use to see if the material can be used over clean steel. I had POR15 peel off a trailer I built in sheets due to poor adhesion to the clean steel.

IIWM, I'd go to clean metal then use a two part epoxy primer under the base and clear coat. I'll bet that's what the body shop will do.

Didn't know por15 had adhesion problems with clean steel. I used a rust reformer gel that you wash off after 10 minutes lol. Stuffs amazingly effective. Went body filler right over the clean steel.

Cleaning up surface rust

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