VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Body - Sheet Metal, Paint & Wood Preparing '31 fenders but "not" sand blasting

The fenders for my '31 Coach are in very decent shape all considered, and when I stripped all the old paint and repaints, got down to very good bare metal in about 80% of top surface, and minor surface rust in other 20%. Don't have S/B gear, and don't want to pay others to do it. My thinking is to sand off as much rust as possible (100 grit, then 180, 220) and following this, apply some spray on "Rust Converter" to the rusted areas. Plan would then be to apply a good coat of epoxy primer over whole fender.

Of course my painter (with 50 years experience) likes to strip everything to bare metal (sand blasting etc) and then epoxy. Has anyone tried what I propose and had any luck? The spray on "rust converter" goes on very thin, transparent and seem to cure to a very hard finish. I'm trying to do as much as I can myself on this old car, and hope to have a nice summer driver whan finished.

As long as the rust pits are not too deep a conversion coating will work okay. To test it put it on, let it dry and then sand it. If you get red rust under the coating, it didn't work well enough. The rust under the coating should be dark. I would use a self etching primer on the bare metal, then a sealing epoxy or urethane on top of it. Then you can apply a sanding primer to work out the minor imperfections and pits. Make sure that you spray the primers "wet" so they will sink into the bottom of the pits. Any gaps between metal and paint will eventually produce a bubble.

The only places I would use a rust converter would be where it does not show such as floor or trunk panels. Sanding will get a lot of surface rust off but if you have deep pits my opinion is they should be treated to remove the rust. Recently I used a molasses bath treatment for rust removal and it did a good job. I did like the fact that there was no hazardous waste disposal issues and no intense labor processes. You can check it out on line as there are several demos on you-tube.

Thanks for the advice guys, I'll check out the molasses bath suggestion, intriguing!

The best way to strip fenders is using ---enviro tech--- system in brampton. they dip the fender into a chemical solution thats heated to 180 degrees that removes all tar, paint, bondo, lead....anything not iron.

Then they dip it again into another tank where the alkaline solution and a negative electrical charge is applied completely removing absolutely any remaining rust. Formerly the USA based process was known as REDI STRIP in canada and usa. They power wash the parts before returning them too you.

Complete bodies..: porsche..jag xke, .fords , mini's and what ever else you can think of are dipped in their 10 foot wide by 20 foot long tanks.

I am taking my roadster cowl there very soon to undergo the process and also my roadster rumble seat foot area floor piece. Its not cheap, but better than soda or any other material blasting. Liquid gets in where blasting cannot.

mike