VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Body - Sheet Metal, Paint & Wood Help!!! What should I do on these finishes?

I'm looking for advice on what to do on these finishes. I'm very familiar with show car finishes but these 4 cars are all over the map. My wife and I just pulled them out of her uncle's property. I washed them and SOS pad scrubbed them.....now what. The 41 Special Deluxe and the 66 Bel Air have heavy rust on all the top surfaces. The 60 Impala and the 61 Apache have better paint with no heavy surface rust. Winter is coming here in Minnesota and I want to get something on them. I've read about boiled linseed oil, cleaner wax, clear coat, etc.

My goal for now is to just get something on them while I get them mechanically up and running/driving. Get them all where at least the wife and I can enjoy them and then decided what to do with them as far as further restoration.

My initial thoughts,
The 41 gets the linseed oil treatment. Surface rust not smooth enough for any wax/polishing compound. I would worry about powder residue left behind.
The 60 gets the cleaner wax. Paint is fairly good for what it is and doesn't have the patina rust.
The 61 gets the cleaner wax. Paint is fairly good for what it is but is faded. Only slight area of rust/discoloration of hood, and stepside fenders.
The 66 gets a combination???? Roof rust is not smooth. Other top surfaces are patina. Rest of the paint is faded/discolored.

Thoughts? What would you do?

coat them with an oil or grease.

Where will they be stored? That might be a consideration for a preservative .

Will they be stored outside or in a dry storage building? If outside I might go with Gene's suggestion, if in dry storage I might not do anything to them.

The 41 Special Deluxe, 61 Apache and 66 Bel Air will be parked inside my headed shop. They are in the most complete condition and will take the least time, money and work to get running and driving. I already have the Apache running and the Bel Air running and driving (Even if it was without brakes). I will be working on them over the winter. The Impala has the best paint of the bunch but is without and engine, rear floor, inner and outer rockers. I will be doing my best to protect it as best I can being stored outside. Not that I should worry about it too much. It had been sitting outside in the woods since 1986.

As the story goes, Howard Hughes had manufactured airliners but the contract fell through so the were sitting out on the tarmac. He hired a company to come up with a product that they could spray on the bare aircraft to protect it from the elements until they were sold and painted in the new buyers livery. The company that came up with the product called it a “water displacement” product. It took forty different formulas until they got the correct formulation. That product is called WD-40. Water displacement-40th formula. It would work for your application also.

While WD40 is a good product as a lubricant from experience it doesnt help for long keeping rust at bay. Down here in Aus I have been told a product called "rust buster" works well but have not used it so cannnot verify its effectiveness.
Tony