I want to get alittle more mileage out of the original 50 year old paint on my recent acquired 1960 f-100. I cant get too aggressive because the paint is too damn thin but alittle bit of experimenting shows that the surface rust will go away but my question is , whats the best technique to end up with a decent end product considering the paint is so thin. ... I expect "elbow grease" is gonna be part of the solutions ... I got alot of that! ... and concerning any bare metal, would a rattle-can clear keep it looking sanitary?
I personally think clear over bare metal is a bad idea, looks good for a while but does not hold up. CLR seems to do a decent job of cleaning surface rust off of paint, and I know there are threads on using oil to keep bare steel from rusting (Gibbs seems to be the popular choice, although I've never used it, not my style). I personally would try to touch up paint anywhere that's bare after I had all the rust cleaned off, the very best I can. That and a few good hard rubbed in coats of wax would probably make it shine as much as it's going to and keep it preserved for the time being. Typically, we'd be discussing buffing, but if it's really that thin, I don't think that's a good idea.
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...w-car-finish-antique-single-stage-paints.html This will help where there is paint. Removing the rust stains and such will take time experimenting with the least aggressive solutions.
Squablow Do you have any idea if the CLR would have to be neutralized or would a good douch'ing suffice? I am thinking a light touchup would handle the bare-metal issue and look better than the clear-coat idea , thanks for the input. Slammed .. thanks for the link, dang lenghty but very informative. I had no idea McGeuires has been in business that long.
Slammed nice avatar! Sam we used 3M Perfect-It III, Trizact Machine Glaze on my '66 Fairlane and it came out very presentable. The guy operating the wheel was very, very experienced.
Joe, you gots a "before" pic of the Fairlane? Were you dealing with the surface rust like I am? ... I sorta have two issues here, thin paint and surface rust. I am not thinking going with something mechanical is going to be successful considering I am a rookie.
I would love to see some pics as well. I am going to be acquiring soon a 1950 Chevy with a REAL nice patina, but need to knock down a couple areas where surface rust popped up.
UPDATE: The CLR didnt do much good ... I couldnt see any improvement at all. I did scrub on the bedside and corner of the cab with a green scotchbrite and water .... about two hours of light rubbing made alot of the surface rust disappear .... talk about excersise! By The Way ... the dock bumper?? ... free! Who wants it???
The threads I've read have used a green scotchbrite in conjunction with the CLR, kinda like what you did with the water. Maybe the two together is the key, I've seen some pretty impressive stuff, I know there's some great threads on it somewhere although I did a quick search and couldn't come up with the ones I remember.
This may be a bizarre / stupid idea, but I'd out it would do any harm; how about brushing the areas with surface rust with mol***es and letting it sit for a while then hose and gently scrub it off?
At some point you have to just admit the paint is shot, and move on. You can't save paint if there is no paint, and usually, if there's that much surface rust, it's because the paint has gone away. Buffing ain't gonna help!
The Jalopy Journal
