How to Repair Auto Body Rust

Corrosion is one of the primary and widespread problems related to old cars. Metal, as it reacts to oxygen and comes across moisture, starts to rust, which results in the eating away of body panels. It is essential to know how to treat rust spots and holes outside your car to avoid worsening the condition and enhance the looks of the car’s exterior. It’s time to deal with auto body rust repair like this.

Assessing the Damage

Take your time to assess the degree of rusting before you repair that area.

Look for:

• Is it a localized spot or section or a typical large area? Take measurements.
• People involved – self, parent/sibling, friend, significant other – Just skin level or through multiple panels?
• The accessibility of the area of the vehicle body where a particular type of panel is used – complicated areas such as wheel arching are time-consuming.
• Remember all the hidden rust that may lie beneath the seeming sound metal – needs to be opened up to see how deep it has penetrated.
• Cautiously running a nail, an awl, over any visible rust will tell how deep the decay has penetrated.

Prepping the Area

When performing a permanent rust repair job, it is essential to get set for the best results possible.

Removing Rust

The repair area should have all the rust removed by using a wire brush, scraper, sandpaper, grinding wheel, or sandblaster. Go right down to the metallic layer if you want the best adhesion with body filler and similar materials. Wipe clean.

Treating Exposed Metal

All joints and other forms of bare metal surfaces must be treated with a zinc-rich primer or metal etching primer to help prevent rust from coming back. Allow to dry completely.

Shaping Patch Areas

For hole and depression damages, it is necessary to form the missing “parts” of the metal with sheet steel or fiberglass filler to re-establish the surface profile. Do cut patches large enough to be trimmed to body lines and curves.

It is then necessary to use body hammers, dollies, and sanding blocks to form filler patches, and the areas that have been repaired are polished until all one can notice only the outer body shape. Try not to get irritated – this only takes time!

Applying Body Fillers & Putty

After patch panels are fitted and if edges are feathered out, apply polyester filler, bond, or metal glaze putty over the entire repair area to smoothen the raised area and match the surface shape. When filling all these areas, press firmly into cavities and gaps to ensure that there are no air pockets.

Somebody should allow a proper drying/curing time before sanding body fillers to attain the appropriate contour. You want to get as thin a coat as possible but thick enough to fill in any pits or low-lying land that may be on the surface.

Priming & Sealing

To avoid dampness waste reoccurrence, enamor the sanded filler with misting primer for auto body works. As you check for surface irregularities to apply an intermediate coat, observe for pinholes and then spot-fill. Perform additional priming coats until a smooth film is also obtained over the whole area of repair.

Later on, sand those final primer layers with ultra-fine paper in order to distinguish between high and low areas. Sweep these as necessary with thin skim coats of the primer or glazing putty to establish a straight surface.

Painting the Repair Area

You have to make sure you’ve sprayed your filler primer the best you can; you have to clean and mask off the repair zone, and then it is now time for you to spray your car back to its original paint color. Using the proper flow technique, spray the color-matched base coat with 2-3 wet coats with a separator in between.

Then, whenever it is clearcoat, apply 2-3 coats with the proper time between. Pull the tape off and marvel at your ‘new’ surface that no one would guess has had any rust work done to it.

Maintenance Tips

A good, detailed, DIY rust repair job should enable the car owner to wait for years before rust sets in again.

Here are some maintenance tips to gain maximum longevity from your efforts:

• It will attain better results to work on the car by washing it as often as possible so that salt does not accumulate.
• Wax painted areas primarily for extra color and for protection.
• Patrol from time to time the previously rusty part
• Always, at the first indication of new rust, you should adequately sand and reapply the primer.

When you prepare properly, patch the areas affected by rust correctly, and paint the surfaces correctly, you can repair auto body rust damage on your own.