Trim, Rust, & Paint

[nitroracer]

Did some more work on the tudor today. I took off all of the chromed trim along the bottom of the car, and found some rust in the lower quarter panels. Two medium sized spots on the driverside, one on the passenger side. Is there anything I can do now to keep it from getting worse while the car is sitting?





I worked on the paint too, mostly experimenting with the trunk lid. I'm not worried about its condition because it is rusty and needs replacement. I have faded paint and white streaks all over the place from a bad wash or wax job years ago. I've tried a few things but so far nothing was rough enough to remove the blemishes. This time I tried some 1500 grit wet sanding and meguiars medium cut paint cleaner on one section and just the meguiars on another section. Meguiars alone did take up most of the junk but the surface was wavy. The sanded section still had some light scratches but all of the blemishes were gone and the surface was flat. I think the best combination will be 2000 grit sanding and the megiuars.

(Most of the paint looks like the area under my hand)

[monterey1962]

Updated rear end looks good. As for the rust, maybe grind it down as much as possible. I had quite a few rust spots on S.U. that were quickly growing, so I went and took as much of the rust out as possible and patched it up with rust converter, body filler, primer, and paint. My '88 will get the full job done eventually, but crappy patch work is a little easier to view than rust.

Does your trunk lid feel smooth or rough. On the '91 I used Turtle Wax rubbing compound followed by Turtle Wax polishing compound. A lot of arm work, but it made it smooth as new and removed the faded look.

[85crownHPP]

by "in" do you mean through the quarter panel? if its just surface Id just sand it to metal, dab some POR on it and then something with a close color match. If its really small and light you can rub chrome polish on it that removes rust. the stuff leaves a waxy surface just touch it up every couple weeks it will keep the rust away.

[p71towny]

Hah! Yours looks like mine without the trim. Cept mine has everything off. looks hoopty, but I don't care.

[nitroracer]

I like the trim-less look. I don't think it would be too hard to remove the studs either. Then add a shelby style stripe at the bottom?

[boXman]

You can cut off the rivets, but there's holes left after. Just look at my '89 close sometime lol.

[nitroracer]

When I was looking around for ways to clean up my paint I saw a guide for filling trim holes in one of primedia's automotive magazines. They were using a torch an lead.

[Nathan in MI]

That's old school body work. Before Bondo came along.

[zwack88]

You don't bondo over holes it won't hold up. Weld then SMOOTH with bodyfiller.

[Nathan in MI]

I'm not so sure lead would hold up either...

Well, that and I didn't read his post very carefully. Oops.

[85crownHPP]

you cant see the holes and pegs left in mine from the trim untill you get close. doesnt show up in most of the pics either lol. Less noticable on a dark car for sure

lets see...

[zwack88]

Yeah I didn't respond to the lead post, I don't know if that would work or not, no one does that anymore. I would just be easier to use a mig welder and weld them up.

[boXman]

People still do leadwork, of course. One thing I wanna learn in my lifetime...

[nitroracer]

I was interested in the lead because I have a torch and I don't think lead is too expensive in the quantity I would need. I know body filler holds moisture which could rust out the holes and I don't have acess to a welder.

[p71towny]

JB Weld.