ohh no. rust :(

[mbaoo]

So I did the final polishing of my 2005 Altima with my griots polisher today. Looks fantastic.



In the process I noticed a very tiny and very new (wasnt there when I last washed my car) rockchip on my roof, I looked closely at it and the center is brown. I am assuming rust.



Its strange looking, as if someone took a nail and tapped a gouge in the paint. Its just a pit. What should I do? I do have some touch up. But I am sure its best to remove the ruster before putting paint over it.



Ill try and get a picture tomorrow. Thoughts?

 

[Accumulator]

So I did the final polishing of my 2005 Altima with my griots polisher today. Looks fantastic.



In the process I noticed a very tiny and very new (wasnt there when I last washed my car) rockchip on my roof, I looked closely at it and the center is brown. I am assuming rust.



Its strange looking, as if someone took a nail and tapped a gouge in the paint. Its just a pit. What should I do? I do have some touch up. But I am sure its best to remove the ruster before putting paint over it.



Ill try and get a picture tomorrow. Thoughts?

Some of my beaters have those, surface-rusted chips. And I had two to-the-metal chips on the hood of the Jag that would surface-rust. I left those there for over twenty years.



Awful as it might sound, I often just let 'em be Yep...I do a light polishing and then just wax over 'em and don't worry about it. Never gets serious, never spreads, no "rust out", no problems.



Of course you could always do it right: Wash with acidic decontamination stuff (e.g., AutoInt/ValuGard "B"), clay while that's dwelling, use additional abrasive if necessary to make the chip very smooth, apply rust converter, apply touchup paint.



Yeah, you gotta do something about the rust if you want the touchup paint to work out right. Just dabbing on some rust converter can work OK, but it depends on the rust and the converter (my fave stuff is off the market).



But just keeping things polished/waxed/clean can work out better than one might think. On an otherwise well-detailed car I've never had minor surface rust like that turn into anything awful. I would sure keep an eye on 'em if you decide to go that route though.

 

[mbaoo]

Yeah, the chip is very small. Im not all that familier with how rusts spreads. Can it get under the paint? Will it get any worse? Its really not that bad at all. I just dont want it to get worse.

I took a picture. You can see thr brown in the center Thoughts?

 

[Accumulator]

Yeah, the chip is very small. Im not all that familier with how rusts spreads. Can it get under the paint? Will it get any worse? Its really not that bad at all. I just dont want it to get worse...

Yeah, those things can happen, even if they're not all *that* likely to happen in a severe way on a well maintained vehicle.

I took a picture. You can see thr brown in the center Thoughts?

Good pix! I'd treat that with rust converter and then add a tiny dab of touchup paint.

You could polish/compound the spot first, that'll remove the loose rust. Then a tiny drop of rust converter, just think of it as primer. Then the paint. Oughta be pretty easy to stop that one right in its tracks.



Heh heh, how involved you want to get with the touchup (wetsand? Langka?) is up to you, but getting the basic issue sorted out so nothing serious develops oughta go smoothly.

 

[mbaoo]

It already did get compounded. I noticed it when I was polishing my roof. Hit it with a few passes of UC and swirlX.



Rust converter is a good idea. Then just a dab of my touchup paint? As you can see from how big the camera lense is to the spot. I was very close when I took the pic. So from a foot away its hardly noticeable.



I wont attempt wetsanding. Not worth it in my mind. I dont want to learn on my freshly polished roof.

 

[Accumulator]

It already did get compounded. I noticed it when I was polishing my roof. Hit it with a few passes of UC and swirlX...

OK, then I'd say it's smooth enough for you to just go ahead and rust convert and touch up.

Rust converter is a good idea. Then just a dab of my touchup paint? As you can see from how big the camera lense is to the spot. I was very close when I took the pic. So from a foot away its hardly noticeable.

The rust converter will fill the chip a little bit. Then a tiny amount of touchup basecoat, just enough to put down a nice layer of paint, will fill it more. Then some touchup clear to finish filling the chip, trying to *not* apply so much that you get a nasty blob of paint above the surface of the surrounding, original, paint.



Tiny artist's brushes work well for this, though many people do OK with a toothpick or paper match, oftne cut/trimmed to the right size. Eh, I do so much better with nice brushes that I consider them money well spent. Maybe a size 0 ("size oh") or maybe a 00 ("double oh"). A size 1 would be a bit big and if you go really, *really* small it can be tricky to get the metallic basecoat to turn out decent as the tiny brushes just don't hold enough paint IME. Heh heh, not that metallic touchups turn out very swell anyhow!

I wont attempt wetsanding. Not worth it in my mind. I dont want to learn on my freshly polished roof.

That's smart IMO :xyxthumbs I sometimes worry that people jump in too readily on jobs like that and open a can of worms they don't really want to deal with. I didn't bother leveling the last two touchups I did on the S8 and now that it's been a while the little raised blobs don't bother me.