repairing rusted areas

2

2000firebird

New member
whats a good do it yourself fix for this? the car is old enough that I'm not going to have the whole engine bay repainted not worth the trouble. If I paint it it's probably not going to match either and thats probably fine.

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First thing to do is take a stiff wire brush to it and remove as much rust as possible and then evaluate from there. Those two larger spots worry me. What part is this on? Is it (easily) removable? Definitely want to get it before it does any more damage.
 
Was thinking from the trim restoration thread that's probably what it was but was hopeful. Definitely want to get the rust out of there on that section before you get a shock through the hood.
 
Looks like the rust may be pretty bad under the stock paint, may be about to go all the way through. If that's the case, the only right way to fix a structural part of the car like that would be to cut out the rust and weld in new steel. If you are lucky enough that that's not the case, take a wire brush, one that you could attach to a drill would prob be best. Get all the loose rust off there, take the entire area down to bare steel and go pick up some Naval Jelly or some other kind of rust converter and give it a good coat. Wait 24 hours and then hit it with some good primer, then paint.



Also, since that's right on a seam, best to check from underneath as well. You may also need to get some seam sealer on there before primer to make sure the seam is water tight.
 
Don't waste time trying to "cover" it up as some may suggest.

Get agressive and "remove all the corossion/rust" that you see by grinding or a wire bristle wheel on a drill/grinder.

If the metal is not completely gone when you get the rust off, you can "fill" in a bit with some autobody bondo, work it down even to the surrounding surface.

Then sand the surronding areas with 180 to 220 grit and apply a "acid or self etching" primer, as plain "surface primer" will not stop future corossion.

After that has drived, scuff with 220 and apply the surface primer.

Let it dry and scuff it, then you can rattle can the satin or flat black that GM used under the hood to the repaired area.

I don't recall ever seeing a GM product of that age where they used a gloss black on those panels.

Grumpy
 
2000firebird- You've already received enough good advice here, but I'll add my 2₵ anyhow.



As you grind away on that, you may very well find that it *is* rusted through. In that case you'd better consult a pro.



IF that doesn't happen, I'd use a "paint over rust" product for the primer. I've had some pretty incredible results with these products...results that stayed nice too, not just some temporary cover-up. The "big name" in such stuff is POR-15, but I get better results with Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator (the black version looks enough like GM's flat/satin black that I've left it like that, untopped and it looked fine), and the *best* results with a product called Rust Bullet, which will need topped since it dries to a "nonmetallic silver" look.



Seriously, you're not gonna get all the rust, it just doesn't work out that way. Use one of those products for your primer and you'll probably get away with it just fine, whereas regular primers require absolutely perfect, not just 99.999%, prep...the kind of prep that I consider pretty unlikely if you're anything like I am (and it's sure not like I'm sloppy about this stuff).
 
whoops!

looks like I have more metal layers under there. perhaps the top one is just cosmetic. I'll try a little bondo/sanding and report back.



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2000firebird said:
whoops!

looks like I have more metal layers under there. perhaps the top one is just cosmetic. I'll try a little bondo/sanding and report back...
Click to expand...



Is that an overlapped area/seam?



Don't Bondo it, it won't last. Sealing it up with Rust Bullet *might* last if you do a really thorough job and also get lucky.



Can you get to the back side? What's it like back there?
 
@welding, terrible !

yeah it does seem like a seam/overlap area. I'd have to take the wheel well cover/panels off to look at it, and even then i'm not sure i'd see anything, as there is that layer under it.
 
Probably best to go to a firebird forum and see if anybody has tackled/encountered this before. Rust areas on particular models are generally somewhat consistent.
 
i have to say i'm pleased with the results, good call on flat black it matches almost perfectly. I also wire brushed the crap out of the shock tower areas and those look brand new too.. it was just a really thick layer of grease that was making it look so bad. i'll tackle the other half tomorrow. The flash exaggerated the contrast it looks very uniform. what's a good dressing for the stuff left, i bet I can get it looking pretty nice. The hoses, wire wraps and airbox/radiator support all could use it.



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I use Hyper Dressing (4:1 or 3:1, depending on what bottle I grab) for engine bays. But really any water-based dressing works for engine bays, I avoid the silicone based dressings due to the heat that area sees.
 
SpoolinNoMore said:
I use Hyper Dressing (4:1 or 3:1, depending on what bottle I grab) for engine bays. But really any water-based dressing works for engine bays, I avoid the silicone based dressings due to the heat that area sees.
Click to expand...

One major concern when using dimethal silicone (oily/greasy) dressings is the O2 sensor of the engine. One molecule of dimethal silicone, gets to that component and it is, to use the words of some Ford, GM and Chrysler engineers, "it is posioned" and it is not cheap to diagnois nor replace, as it can not be "cleaned".

The engine will start to run rough, will misfire, etc.

Stay away from dimethal silicone dressings under the hood!

Grumpy
 
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