Prevent more rust, patina it?

[tj62]

Been working on my truck recently and its got 10 year old primer and no paint on it, with a lot of rust and some areas with holes in it. I'll eventually get around to fixing the body work and painting it, but trying to figure out what would be best till then.

I could go all out and sand, primer, paint with rattle can, but am kinda nervous about that or I could just sand it down a bit to get the rust off, then seal it to keep it from getting worse to "patina" it. I like the grayish color and it has some red paint underneath, possibly old primer, I see some black in there too.

What's a good way to prevent rust from getting worse, but improve the finish a little? Is there a clear, non-shiny rustoleum out there to seal it or something?

EDIT: you can see the truck in my profile, not sure how to add pics here yet.

[k1rodeoboater]

patina may look cool...but in the end it's still rust...and rust eats metal.

The only way to fix it is to remove/convert all of the rust by one of many different methods, repair the damage, and put down a good coat of paint.

[62ShortStep]

I saw a car with oil rubbed into the rust patina finish. That was on a 1925 Dodge, and it looked great. I was told that the more times you rub oil into the finish, the deeper the finish gets. I'm not sure how often you have to oil it, I guess it depends on weather and dirt accumulation. Not sure about the oil type either, experimentation may help. It sounds like a high maintenance finish, but really unique.

[tj62]

I'm not sure if my pic is showing up in my profile or not, sorry. The paint on the truck looks like someone just put a dull gray primer on it, its very dark, but is shiny in some spots, so maybe its worn down. If I use CLR and water and wet sand the rust spots and the whole truck, i'm not sure if it'll just go down to the metal from rubbing off the gray paint/primer or what.

Guess I just need to test and area and see what happens. I'm wanting to keep it kind of dull and not shiny, lots of dimples on it and don't want to do body work. I'll probably look around for a sealer to prevent more rust that doesn't add shine, if something like that exists.

Thanks.

Tried to include pic this time.

[boucher racing]

Originally Posted by 62ShortStep

I saw a car with oil rubbed into the rust patina finish. That was on a 1925 Dodge, and it looked great. I was told that the more times you rub oil into the finish, the deeper the finish gets. I'm not sure how often you have to oil it, I guess it depends on weather and dirt accumulation. Not sure about the oil type either, experimentation may help. It sounds like a high maintenance finish, but really unique.

Folks have rubbed down bare metal finish cars with a product called Gibbs. I have 2 bottles and this stuff is awesome.

http://www.roadsters.com/gibbs/#intro

[tj62]

Well, I decided to suck it up and go for it. Got some CLR, light sandpaper and brillo pads and after diluting the CLR in hot water, started on the top of the cab. Only tried to get the surface rust off, but it was amazing how smooth it was after. Got some Rustoleum clear coat sealer and put 1 coat on it, will do a couple more probably.

Turned out to look pretty good I think and hopefully it'll stop the rust until I can do her proper later on.

[tj62]

Trying to post pics of the before and after, having trouble with it uploading them.

[LostMy65]

You could also upload them to tinypic.com and then post the IMG link they give you.

[chevyrestoguy]

I'm REALLY interested in seeing your results, tj62. I'm in the same boat on mine, and I'm anxious to try the CLR method.

[tj62]

Still not working, takes a long time, then just stops and tells me to login again at the pop up screen where you upload. Not sure what's happening. I was going to do more today, but we've got storms, so I only got the roof done yesterday after work.

Guess I should talk the wife into getting a garage, found another reason for one!

I'll try to link in pics on a site.

http://s1088.photobucket.com/albums/i328/tj62/


The last 2 pics with the raindrops on the surface are what I started with, then the first 2 pics are after the cleaning with diluted CLR, green brillo pads and some light sandpaper. It was amazing how smooth and clean the surface was afterward. You can still feel some slight difference where the rust was, but it was overall very smooth like new metal. It put them in backwards from the order I uploaded them.

I just got some Rustoleam clear gloss sealer and sprayed on a coat last night, then of course the rain came today, glad I got it done.

Just be careful. I over did it in a couple spots and could see the sandpaper marks where I was pushing down too hard, was using like 120 grit in the thick rust spots, probably too rough, but with the 400 sandpaper and brillo pads, there were no marks, just got rid of the rust and top layer of grime and dirt. It hadn't been washed in years before this.

You can see part of the hood in one of the pics and how rusted it is. I'm hoping it'll look like the roof with all the different colors under that rust. Its like opening a christmas present!

[61_FL_Apache]

Originally Posted by k1rodeoboater

patina may look cool...but in the end it's still rust...and rust eats metal.

The only way to fix it is to remove/convert all of the rust by one of many different methods, repair the damage, and put down a good coat of paint.

Ah man!! What a buzz kill

NO PAINT!!!!!

[tj62]

Ha, I'm excited! Didn't want to do a shoddy paint job to tide her over and prevent rust till I can afford to do a good one, so thought about a patina, doing multiple coats and sanding down through the paint, but I couldn't have done any better than the way it looks now after just sanding the dirt and rust off.

A few clear coats and I'm calling it quits. I cleaned up the engine with some spray paint too, thought it turned out all right.

[61_FL_Apache]

I saw a guy do a faux-tina paint job and cleared it. The only think I didnt like, it was shiney. Is there a flat or low gloss clear?

[panelrodder81]

I've heard that if you faux-tina stuff knowing that you want to do full paint job later on you have to be aware that you can't paint over your faux-tina job. You have to strip all the panels before you can do a full paint job on it. Again, I've only heard this but I've heard it a few times. If that is truly the case, and it makes sense that if you want a professional paint job later you would want to remove nonprofessional materials first, then it might be better to just hook up a spray gun and reprime the thing. (After a good prep job of course)

I love the faux-tina look and really wanted to do it on my panel truck but I also wanted a pro paint job later so I just bailed and went with a colored primer. If you lay it down evenly and with good coverage you will get all the time you need before you paint it. Plus its just as cheap as faux-tina and takes less time.

IMO

-Panelrodder

[tj62]

I got it autozone and only saw the gloss clear, but I'm sure there's a semi or flat out there somewhere, maybe a paint store or something. Oddly, I did see black and another color sealer with flat look, which didn't make any sense to me.

Panel, I've read that too and thought about cleaning it up, then laying down some red, then black, then gray primer and sanding around it to make the patina look, but I'm not too artistic and I honestly did the roof first to see what it looked like under that rust and just ended up liking it so much, I decided to seal it.

I'll for sure go back in a couple years probably and strip it down, then do it right.

Question: there are some areas of old bondo on there that have flaked and show bare metal underneath in other areas. Do you think it would be wise to finish those areas out and re-bondo, sand it smooth, lay down some touch up primer in those areas and then do the rest of the panel like the roof, just to patch up those chipped bondo areas? Or just feather out the current bondo and seal the metal around it?

[panelrodder81]

Originally Posted by tj62

I got it autozone and only saw the gloss clear, but I'm sure there's a semi or flat out there somewhere, maybe a paint store or something. Oddly, I did see black and another color sealer with flat look, which didn't make any sense to me.

Panel, I've read that too and thought about cleaning it up, then laying down some red, then black, then gray primer and sanding around it to make the patina look, but I'm not too artistic and I honestly did the roof first to see what it looked like under that rust and just ended up liking it so much, I decided to seal it.

I'll for sure go back in a couple years probably and strip it down, then do it right.

Question: there are some areas of old bondo on there that have flaked and show bare metal underneath in other areas. Do you think it would be wise to finish those areas out and re-bondo, sand it smooth, lay down some touch up primer in those areas and then do the rest of the panel like the roof, just to patch up those chipped bondo areas? Or just feather out the current bondo and seal the metal around it?

The best thing is to strip out the old bondo and apply new... but I have to be honest, I didn't do that on the rear doors of my panel truck! You always take a chance by not doing it though. I thought I got away with it but I just noticed some cracking this last fall on mine. (Good things its just primer!) The best way is always the hardest it seems and thus it ultimately comes down to whether you can rationalize taking the chance as I did!

[tj62]

All good points. I'll prob just knock it out and take a few minutes to do it right, will only cost a few bucks for primer and some time.