Body work advice

[Mavawreck]

I'll start by stating my goals, which are to preserve and protect the truck till I can afford to make it pretty. Hoping to end up with a presentable finish that lasts for 5 years or so. Would like to avoid doing anything to encourage rust or trap moisture. I'm going to do all the prep and primer work and have a pro do a partial budget respray.

Sides and woodgrain are ok for now, want to focus on having the hood, roof, and front fascia repainted.

I sanded down the rust bubbles today in the front fascia and coated the bare metal with napa rust converter.

There is one area where the rust goes all the way through. I sanded and put converter on that as well.

There is one dent in the hood. It had been fixed sometime in the past but the bondo was exposed and I know it was wicking water. So I sanded all the bondo out and hit that with converter as well.

I'm giving the converter 48hrs to dry out, then I am going to spray it with Rustoleum 2k primer from a can.

Then block sand it out with 320 grit by hand, I don't have air tools and I'm not going anywhere near it with an electric sander.

Then putty/bondo as needed. I have heard that it is not a good idea to use filler on top of bare metal. Thoughts?

Once everything is filled as needed, prime and block again.

Then send it over to the body shop to get the top, hood, and fascia resprayed.

Sound like a plan?

 

[ZRX61]

Filler needs to either go over epoxy primer or bare metal. It doesn't stick to rust convertors etc.... so theoretically.. ya should be ok as far as the dent is concerned..... I usually prep the metal with 36grit to give it some bite for filler.

However.. it's NOT for filling holes that go through the panel... Those holes need to be welded up first.

 

[spoolgarage]

You can use fiberglass filler like gorilla hair for small holes. That one area with all the holes should be cut out and a new piece welded on.

 

[Slaman37]

X2 on cutting out and welding in the new metal to fix it right. The fiberglass is a band-aid. It may get you your 5 years, yet it may not and may get it worse. Eventually it will need to be cut out and new metal welded in.
The 2k epoxy is a good plan. I have been putting my filler over the epoxy then respraying with epoxy to seal it in. Then use a 2k filler primer and block sand. Depending on the recoat window of the epoxy you may not need to sand it first. The epoxy I'm using has a 4 day recout window but check the info on the brand you are using.
Once you get to the block sanding sand to 400 grit for solid colors and 600 for pearls/metallics, at least that is what I have found in my research. Good luck.

Steve

 

[Mavawreck]

Great advice guys, thank you. Steve, in particular I had never heard that about solids versus metallics but it makes sense. I'll be going to 600.

I think I am going to go the epoxy and glass fiber route for filling in the holes. Truth be told, none of the front sheet metal is original or particularly nice and straight. I guess I could probably replace the front fascia with a nicer one for the cost of fixing the holes with metal in this one. Which I should consider.

 

[Mavawreck]

Quick question on the rust converter, should that be sanded before applying primer? My gut says it should but there was no mention of it on the bottle.

 

[Kevin54]

A lot of the rust converter products use the rust for bonding by neutralizing the rust. Other products say that it converts and encapsulates.

World English Dictionary encapsulate or incapsulate (ɪnˈkæpsjʊˌleɪt)

— vb
1. to enclose or be enclosed in or as if in a capsule

Personally I don't like it. People swear by POR15 as it is supposed to convert and encapsulate rust. What it does is cover the rust up and supposingly seals it from the enviroment. But where the rust contacts the metal, is still rust.

What you are using neutralizes the rust, but I would sand first as you did. Now the bad thing is....you are only taking care of the top surface. What you are seeing with the holes did not rust from the outside in, but it rusted from the inside out. The only proper way to fix it is to have it cut out and new metal put in. Tiger hair, bondo, or any filler like that, is just a short term bandaid.

 

[Di Trut]

Check the directions of use on the label of your rust converter. Most of them are supposed to convert for 24 hours or so and then be washed down with water to remove the excess converter that may be left behind. If it is still there you can have a loss of adhesion with your primers.

Also, those converters really should only be used on serious cancer spots. They don't work well with just bare sheet metal.