newbie q's about rust

[jpc]

The wagon has rust around the wheel well edges, and the passenger side front fender is pretty rusty underneath. Elsewhere it's clean.

I'd like to get like 5+ years from the car including Mass. winters and so it's time to treat the rust.

Is it necessary to remove body panels to paint them or can it be done "good enough" in place? I'm lazy and have no experience with body work.
What tools would you use -- sandpaper, wire wheel, sandblasting?
What paint would you use?
Are there good resources, like books or online?

I don't really care what it looks like... primer's cool, the car looks sorta mean already...

[86VickyLX]

The only true way to stop rust is to cut it out, and weld in new material, and coat it well in some sort of paint to make sure it never rusts again.

[pantera77]

The only true way to stop rust is to cut it out, and weld in new material, and coat it well in some sort of paint to make sure it never rusts again.

Pretty much. If you plan on driving the car in the winter, the present rust will get much worse very quickly.

[Lincolnmania]

it's better to burn out cause rust never sleeps



seriously you gotta cut out the bad metal and weld new in and rustproof the crap out of it......check out my boulevard cruiser thread in scott's automotive

[sdc71]

I have recently used a product called "Rust Guy" on some surface rust on my car. But I have to warn you it pretty expensive about $50 for a spray can. Clean were you want to spray, spray a good coat on it. This product will not harm paint, just wipe off were it got on the paint really well. It will turn the rust dark black in about a week to 10 days.

Just Google "Rust Guy" and good luck.

[CheeseSteakJim]

you could always just have me do it since you're so close by

[gadget73]

Nick should be good at rust repair after dealing with my car.

[jpc]

As it happens, I got around to this just last weekend. Ground out the rust and did a quick amateur paint job around the wheel wells and lower door edges with almost the right color blue over two coats of rustoleum primer.

The paint job looks OK.

The crazy thing is how much of the rust came out and how shallow it all was. The car has lived in Mass. for 27 years, it's been someone's DD the whole time, it should not be that clean.