Flash Rust. I least I think that is what you call it. To start off, I have had my car in bare metal for over a year now. I have been slowly skim coating the whole thing. I work on it whenever I get both a few minutes and an ounce of motivation. Plus I got burnt out with sanding, so it is taking longer than I had originally planned to get some epoxy primer on it. Even with that in mind, I have never had even a hint of rust anywhere that wasn't there when I bought the car. Well, not anymore! It was crazy foggy yesterday morning and I opened the garage door to empty the trash cans. It didn't even cross my mind that it might be a problem. I had the garage door open for maybe 45 minutes at the most. So I went into the garage this evening and holy crap, I don't believe it. Everything that wasn't covered, chrome, painted, or made out of aluminum is brown. Fortunately most of the car had a thin plastic cover over it. I have had the hood off of the car since I bought it and the engine was uncovered. Every single steel part, bracket, original bolt, grounding location, etc on the engine, suspension, and brakes that wasn't painted or cleared yet is rusted. At first I thought it was some kind of horrible practical joke. But nobody popped out of the walls laughing and candid camera crews were nowhere to be seen. I didn't know what to do.... I Just shut off the lights and locked the door. I feel completely defeated. I am sure this has to have happened to someone else. Tell me... how bad is it? I know that fillers are good at sucking moisture. Could that rust be under that super thin layer of filler? Do I have to start all over again? I can clean up all the bolts and misc. parts, but I do not want to start from the beginning with the body. Also, I have been working really long days lately to keep the bills paid. I don't know when I will get a chance to be able to spend any significant time on the car in the next couple of months. If I cover it completely will it continue to get worse if it is left like that?
Should epoxy prime the bare metal, then do the filler work over the top, also a plastic cover just traps the moisture in. Hope that helps..
The good news is that flash rust is easy to get off....wire wheel or DA will return your original lusterous shine... I live in FL....we deal with flash rust every day of every year.... once you get everything cleaned back up....get some Gibbs and treat it, then you wont have to worry about the rust's return...
flash rust is real easy to clean off with 'Eagle1 chrome wheel cleaner'... just spray on / wipe off and prime. years ago I stripped the paint off a whole car body , back to bare metal, but winter came on fast and as it was too cold to paint , I simply wiped all the panels with diff oil and covered with a thin plastic painting drop sheet. the sheet stuck well to the panels and when spring came around I washed the body down with mineral spirits and primed it... 20 years later the paint is still perfect.
I live in sight of the coast and surface rust is my constant companion.....Gibbs is good! Don't be downhearted about your ride......as suggested above sand/da the worst of it off, soak a rag in Gibbs and apply to the bare metal parts...you really should seal that filler with a sealing primer product tho'. When you are ready to work on it the Gibbs can be removed with a prepsol type of pre painting degreaser although they claim Gibbs can be painted over....haven't tested that part of the sales pitch yet.... I mean, why wouldya?
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