The weather in Maryland was beautiful today! Since I got a break from the cold, I've been putting in some work on 1837. It has been down pretty much since I got it, and I'm dying to get it back on the road.
After assessing the rust issue, I decided to correct it using Rust Bullet. I removed all the rust down to bare metal, and then cleaned the surface with another Rust Bullet product called Metal Blast. Metal Blast slightly etches the surface while also removing remaining rust, grease and contaminates. It worked great.
Then, I applied the Rust Bullet grey rust inhibitor over the entire front clip. I applied it using a HVLP gravity spray gun, and ran into a slight issue during application. Rust Bullet is supposed to be ready to spray right out of the can. The problem is, it is really thick. Rust Bullet recommends a 1.7-2.0 fluid tip for application. I was using a 1.7, which I thought would be good, but wasn't quite cutting it. The application wasn't as smooth as I would have liked, so make sure you have a 2.0 fluid tip if you ever plan to spray this stuff and get a real professional looking job. I let the car sit 24 hours, and then coated the wheel wells with BlackShell. It is basically Rust Bullet's black top coat. Despite my inadequate 1.7 tip, it still covered well, and got the job done.
At first, I was just going use the BlackShell to top coat the whole front clip, but then thought it would look much better factory white. In addition, the core support looked horrible, and could stand to be freshened up with a new coat of paint. I decided to order some summit white (WO9) from automotivetouchup.com and give it a try. I ordered a pint of summit white urethane base coat, and a quart of their 2 part urethane clear. Let me just say, for the money, this is pretty good paint. In my experience, pre-reduced ready to spray paint typically sucks. I was really impressed with this stuff though, and to my surprise it matched the rest of the car perfectly. I usually only use PPG products, and I can honestly say this stuff finishes almost just as well. The color and clear both covered really well, and the finish looked great even before buffing/sanding. Bottom line, I'd recommend the paint from automotivetouchup.com to anyone.
Everything I used:
Rust inhibitor applied:
BlackShell Applied:
I made sure to get as much inside the frame rail as possible:
After the W09 base and clear:
The core support was one of the few areas I spent time sanding and smoothing before shooting the base and clear coats. In comparison to the other areas I just shot without much sanding, it looks glassy smooth.
Lastly, I thought I'd put a few shots of the overall progression.
Driver side rust area:
Lower front window support.
Front view of the clip:
Driver side of the clip:
Driver fender well:
Now, I just have to throw everything back together. I feel confident that my rust issues are taken care of, at least in the front of the car. The rear area near the doglegs seem to be rust free. As soon as I get some more time, I'd like to do the same thing to the entire undercarriage, much like Charles (bobdole) did.
