Spot Painting

[unckybob]

I just bought a 1991 Chevy G10 van. It was kept in Arizona all its life and it has just a little bit of rust in a few spots.<br /><br />It has rusted very little. It looks like you could get down to the bare metal by just using a wire wheel on the end of a hand drill.<br /><br />I am interested in touching up the paint myself. I am not really interested in matching the paint exactly. I don't think it will look very good when I am done. I am mostly interested in keeping it from rusting further. The body on this van is in such good shape, I think I could get another twenty years out of it if I just watch the paint.<br /><br />I've never done anything like this before. I know that you first remove the rust and get down to bare metal. Then you use some type of primer, let it dry, then use a finishing coat. <br /><br />I am really interested in doing this work myself.<br /><br />I know that the success of a paint job to protect the vehicle from rust depends on getting down to the bare metal. Some of the rust spots are in hard to reach places and I also know that sometimes you really have to work hard to get down to the bare metal. I know that I will probably do a better job than someone else because I know I may be living out of this van.<br /><br />I'm not really sure, but I think the success of the job also depends on the quality of the primer and paint used. I'm wondering if I could just use spray primer and paint to protect the van from rust. If so, is there a particular brand of paint that gets the best results?<br /><br />Does anyone have any experience with this kind of thing and what do you do to get good results?

 

[Willy]

&nbsp;You can buy 'rust converter' primers that will chemically interact with the remaining (minor/shallow) rust after you've mechanically removed whatever you can. Then just blast any ol' enamel over it. Spray on undercoating works well over that stuff too. ..Willy.

 

[Les H]

You have the basic gist of it. For a better finish, sand with progressively finer sandpaper in between coats of primer. Only do small areas at a time, or only as much as you can sand and primer in one shot. Even in dry Arizona, bare metal will rust slightly overnight, and your primer coat will seal it in, virtually guaranteeing the rust's return. I like to use Rustoleum as it's made specially for metal, so I prefer it, but it comes in limited colors.
Good luck!

 

[Ricekila]

Get the color code off the vin - Autozone or where ever for a Dupa color rattle can and fog it on in thin layers through a 6" hole made in cardboard <img src="../images/boards/smilies/thumb.gif" alt="" align="absMiddle" border="0" />

 

[unckybob]

Why use the 6" hole?