Treating Underside Surfaces

[pschlosser]

How should I go about soaking the rusty underside of my Barracuda roof with a liquid rust treatment product?

In a thread by @don selleck he is showing us his AAR restoration project where he turned me on to a rust treatment product called Eastwood After Blast. I've used a similar product many times. I get the best results soaking the rusty item(s) in a tub of the product until the rust is gone. Now, you can paint it or spray it on areas that are too large or impractical to soak, but it takes much longer, and requires repeated application to get good results.

It's impractical for me to rotisserie this car at this time. But I would sure like to treat the rust that's up there. I can use a paint brush and/or spray bottle, but I have a couple of concerns:

1. In my experience, I will have to reapply the product many times, before the job is through. By many, we may be talking 30 applications or more.
2. If I apply too much product, it may run down the metal, and behind the outer support structures at the edge of the roof, and attack the factory primer, and also pose a challenge to later rinse and neutralize.

There's gotta be an easier way. One thought I have is to use paper towels, soaked in solution, and then pressed flat onto the roof where I presume it will stick for a while. I may be able to use a sprayer to remoisten the towels as the job progresses. But it may still run and ooze down behind the edge supports.

So what do you guys think? Y'all got any idears?

 

[don selleck]

you need to sand and remove as much as possible, afterblast is a metal etching for adhesion promotion and leave a zinc coating. you got alot of sanding to do first. then use a spray bottle to apply it, a little goes a long way, and remember its acid is will f---k you and other things up. eastwood sells it. there site has directions and reviews. then I would get a rattle can of primer.

 

[gran coupe john]

You probably won't like this, but I used this on the underside of roof. Used this on the 61 f100 frame. Has held up well.

 

[pschlosser]

You probably won't like this, but I used this on the underside of roof. Used this on the 61 f100 frame. Has held up well.

I hear ya. If it bothers me so much, why not just hide it? I've looked at those Rust Reformer products and I'm just not so sure I want to go there. The rust on the roof in the picture is not at all severe. Over the last 5 years, I've been using rust removal products on many things around the shop. So I think I know which product I want to use and how good the results might be.

I recently bought a headliner, and it got me thinking, "I'd sure like to get that rust treated before throwing a headliner back up there." But as I said in the OP, I'm not sure how to pull it off. At least, I have in mind to soak it, for several hours or days. Until I let go of that, I'm trying to work it out. Flipping the car over would sure do the trick, though!

 

[gran coupe john]

Better drain all the fluids lol. Sure you will figure it out.

 

[don selleck]

I would just scrap it back and use some etching primer, if you wanted you could spray bottle some of the after blast first, lightly and put some rags etc. on the floor to catch it. let it dry good maybe warm it up slightly with a heat gun to dry it thoroughly. but i would physically remove as much as possible prior to any coating.

 

[Xcudame]

Zooming in on your photo, it really doesn't look too bad. I say sand it well and spray the Rust Reformer on it. That acid from Eastwood would be pretty unsafe applying overhead I would think.

 

[don selleck]

I agree