The roof of Beavis has some deep scratches and surface rust caused by (I think) running the car through the woods under some tree branches. The paint needs to be removed, and I have a couple of methods to test:
1.) Chemical paint stripper, and some elbow grease with a metal scraper.
2.) A ‘flap’ disc attached to an angle grinder
3.) A coating removal disc like the ones from 3M
4.) Palm sander with coarse sand paper
Roof scratches and surface rust
Roof surface after paint stripper
Flap disc used for paint removal
Flap disc grinds a little too much metal
3M Coating Removal Disc
The chemical paint stripper works reasonably well, but there’s a lot of manual work with the scraper, and it’s not a pleasant chemical. The flap disc removes the paint and primer very well, but also scuffs up the metal a bit much and leaves lots of scratches in the surface.
I thought this would be a better product than the usual plastic body filler (like the Bondo brand). I’ve read that the plastic fillers are moisture magnets. Plus, I think that sticking some more metal on the car has to be a stronger repair than plastic.
Kit includes two paddles for spreading the lead, a body file and file handle, 1 lb. of tinning butter, 1 lb. tin of tallow (to keep the wood paddles from igniting, I guess), five acid brushes to spread the butter, eight sticks of lead (30/70 solder, actually), and an instructional DVD. Of course, you also need some kind of torch (think I will get an inexpensive propane torch.)
Restoration of vehicle comes down to three things, it seems: 1) Repair 2) Replace 3) Protect. You have parts to repair, or parts to replace. Then you want to protect all of the parts. The biggest enemy of an old car is rust, I think. So when I repair or replace a part, I want to make sure it’s protected and will last as long as possible. There are a number of product offerings designed to remove rust or retard the rusting process. I’m not sure it can be stopped completely. But, then again, I’m not a chemist.
I’ve looked at some of the products, and scoured over the forum postings at theSamba.com to find out what others are using and which ones seem to work best. There’s always a trade-off. You can have a great product that’s expensive but works well, or one that’s cheap but not as good, or one’s that mid-priced but involved more installation steps. I want something that will work reasonably-well, but I want to minimize the number of steps needed to use it. And I need to establish a methodology for working on the car, so that the steps I take are clearly defined depending on the repair needs of any given part. I don’t want to take the entire car down to bare metal, but some of it definitely will be. So I need a process for both painted surfaces and bare metal. Since I’m going to try to spray primer and color, I want to spray a lot of area each time and not be repeatedly mixing and cleaning paint supplies. This means there will be some parts that are prepped, and then set aside for future priming.
A couple of the heavy-hitters in the rust-protection world are POR-15 and MasterSeries by PM Industries. I have chosen to go with the MasterSeries Silver, and another product that PM Industries sells called Captain Lee’s Metal Prep. POR-15 has a lot of fans in the rust world, but the MasterSeries seemed to be more flexible and simpler in its application. MasterSeries Silver
After emailing the nice people at PM Industries, I have concocted the following workflow:
IF I GO TO THE BARE METAL
1. Use Capt. Lee’s Metal Prep, and the panel can sit for a while (months, let say.)
2. Then, when I’m close to primer time, use the MasterSeries Silver. Body filler can be used before or after this step.
3. Spray primer. (it can then sit for a while longer, if I’m not ready to paint, and the primer doesn’t have any time requirements.)
4. Color paint.
If I don’t go to bare metal, of course, start with step 3.
There are some areas like the back/inside of a chrome bumper, for example, where I can just clean it up and use MasterSeries Silver on it. If MasterSeries Silver sits for more than a week, then primer/paint has a harder time sticking to it. But if it’s not going to be painted (like the bumper back), it doesn’t matter.
I think this method will work for me. I still need information on selecting the correct primer. Don’t want one that requires painting soon after applying it. I don’t have the time to do all the repairs, then all the priming, then all the painting. Some parts will be finished and have to sit for a little while. MasterSeries is supposed to be able to work with any kind of primer/paint.
Ok. Let’s order it. Three quarts of MasterSeries Silver ($78), 1 gallon of Captain Lee’s Metal Prep ($29.95). $15 Shipping. Total — add $122.95 to the Beevis Bill ™.
