RUST!

[RockstarMentality]

Got snowed in today, thought id spend the day working on my car. :smiley:
I already had the interior completely stripped down so i thought i'd pull out the carpet vacuum out 13 years worth of dust, sand, and... hair clips?
Anyway, for the most part the floor pan was pretty clean, until i got to the trunk and found a bunch of rust just behind the wheel well. :angry: . I took pics but my camera is being a female dog so just use ur imagination lol. Its mostly on the surface, about 3 small holes total and a couple of cracks. Its not terrible, but its there. Trouble areas are about 6" long by 3" wide on each side, and the trunk is otherwise clean and rust free
So how do i clean the rust, seal the holes, and protect the metal from more rusting?
My first thought is sandpaper, but i have no idea where to go from there

 

[daves94vert]

I would sand all the rust down, Use a paint prep to clean all the oils and dirt from the area, then prime and paint. Since it's in the trunk, rattle cans should work fine.

 

[RockstarMentality]

What about filling in the holes? bondo?

 

[duff daddy]

What about filling in the holes? bondo?

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Remove effected area,grind and make patch panels, weld in place seal and then paint and prep. DO NOT USE PUDDY/FILLER/BONDO as a sealer, it wont work and will just fall off over time.

 

[RockstarMentality]

It doesnt need to be perfect. Its not rusted through and its hidden by the trunk mat anyway. It just needs to be stopped before it gets worse.

 

[duff daddy]

It doesnt need to be perfect. Its not rusted through and its hidden by the trunk mat anyway. It just needs to be stopped before it gets worse.

Rust is a cancer, you dont put a band-aid on a tumer.... Take care of it right and then you wont have to fix it late or pay more money then. You could get something to "freeze" the rust, something liek Por15 works well

 

[SRT Handz]

What Duff Daddy Said

 

[dafizuck]

may want to think about duplicolor rubberized undercoating/sound deadening after you fix the patch.

 

[lrall]

if its not bad you may be able to use the real metal filler to smooth it up. But i agree, use patch panels and weld it in

 

[pmot]

Duff Daddy is right. That stuff eats rust. When I had my last car it had minor rust in the trunk and I didn't want to use that stuff because I was nervous about it. I used apple cider vinegar instead it took a lot of time. I wish I would have used the other stuff instead. Anyways I would:

soak the rust in the apple cider vinegar
let it sit for about 5-10 mins
scrub with a durable rag
repeat steps until satisfied

every time you did this a noticeable amount of rust would come off.
I chose apple cider vinegar because it dissolves rust and coats the metal to make it rust resistant.
Im sure products like Por15 work better and faster so just use them but apple cider vinegar does work and you don't have to paint it afterwords (you probably should but you don't have to).