The inside of the roof and c-pillars and some areas behind the dash on my 1964 Skylark appear to have been left bare steel from the factory and as such they've got a nice layer of surface rust on them. A lot of the areas are inaccessible and blasting a roof skin is a bad idea. So I'm wondering what some other people have used to paint these areas. POR-15? Rust Mort? Ospho? I know not everyone is having their car tank dipped.
Knowing that it will likely never see real weather or daily use, just knock the boogers off and slather some Eastwood rust encapsulator on it.
If bare steel was good enough for GM and lasted this long, I don't doubt that'd be fine. What kind of sandblasting machine did you use and what type of media? I'm going to do some blasting on a few areas of the car but I'm very nervous about warping the larger flat panels.
Here's what I did.... Wire wheeled to get the loose stuff off. DA sanded what I could get to. Sprayed it down with a metal conditioner (I used Picklex, but it's gotten stupid expensive), and scrubbed with a Scotch Brite pad. Painted with epoxy primer. Finally sprayed the underside of the roof panel with Lizard skin heat insulator, both as heat insulation and a sound deadener. I did sandblast the rest of the interior, but I wouldn't chance it on the roof panel. Picklex is great for treating rust. It's Phosphoric acid based, so you could just get that from Home Depot... concrete cleaner/etch from the paint department. Been meaning to try Rust Kutter. It was well rated by Project Farm. You could use a rust-encapsulating paint, POR, Eastwood, etc. I've used Zero Rust and been happy with it. Heck, if you properly treat the rust, you could just use oil-based Rustoleum.... it should last a few decades.
Preparation is key thing when doing a project like this. First I took a putty knife and scraped all the loose stuff off. Secondly I used an orbital disc sander with 60 or 80 grit sandpaper and sanded as much as possible. Lastly I sandblasted it using a regular portable blasting machine. And I just used the old elcheapo black sandblasting sand that is sold at a local home improvement store. I sandblasted the entire underside and inside including the inside of the doors, back side of the quarter panels EVERYTHING except the exterior. By precleaning it up prior to sandblasting saves a ton. I don't have any warp or damage from sandblasting anywhere. Keith
Painted it with chassis saver (with a paint brush and a VOC mask... that stuff will knock you out without a respirator on), then covered it with that stick-on insulation stuff since mice love to eat that old jute.
Picklex seems like good stuff but you are right about it being expensive. I've used Etch and Prep to clean up surface rust before and it works well but I understand it has to be meticulously neutralized to prevent paint adhesion issues. I plan on blasting the majority of the interior, firewall and jambs. But blasting the inside of the roof skin and quarters is beyond my comfort level. That's whered id like to use something like POR-15. On clean blasted metal, I'll use epoxy primer. When you say portable blasting machine, are you talking something like this? How long did it take you to blast and how much media did you use? I appreciate the help!
The inside roof skin, quarters and such were 80-90% cleaned up before I sandblasted. That way I didn't have to blast them to much. Basically just enough to etch the metal good. The sandblaster picture you posted is exactly what I have/used. I think I spent 3 days sandblasting everything and used like 6-8 bags of sand. Keith
Thanks Keith! I'm not planning on doing the underside of my car as it's in pretty nice shape for a driver, so that should be less work I have to do. My car appears to have some sort of textured, almost bedliner-like material sprayed inside the quarters in the trunk. Looks like it was factory. It's very tough and difficult to chip off, definitely can't sand it off. Anyone have an idea how to remove it? Here's a photo of it, as well as photos of the other areas I want to blast. The car is very solid in general, but everything needs refinished.
Your car looks exactly like mine did that's why I cleaned, sandblasted and por15 coated it all. As for the inside of the quarter panels. What you're dealing with is factory sound deadener, almost like undercoating. It's hard stuck on and brittle. There's a really easy way to remove that stuff. The key answer is heat, you got to heat the metal up that the sound deadener is attached to, NOT the sound deadener itself. What I do is take a halogen work light (cause they get HOT!) and put it up against the metal on the outside and in a couple of minutes take a putty knife and scrape the sound deadener off it'll be nice, soft and pliable. Then just move the work light over to the next area and continue. The metal will heat up fast after you get going. Hope this helps. Keith
OR, you could use dry ice in a bag. Put it/hold it on the panel for a few minutes, on the inside or outside, & the coating will just about fall off with little effort. Just my thoughts. Tom T.
https://www.kbs-coatings.com/?AffId=61">Click here to visit KBS Coatings i used rust seal from them several times and it is basically por15 but with better uv protection at a lower cost. This is what i will use on my 66 as well as some kind of sound deadener.
