Not sure if that's the right term but there's some orange rust discoloration in various spots on my El Camino. What's the most effective way of cleaning these up a bit? At some point a repaint is probably in order but not yet, and I'd just like to tidy it up a bit for now. I’ve tried rubbing compound but it didn’t make much difference. Any suggestions?
The rust on your vehicle includes heavy pitting in the metal ..... you can see the divots in the metal. I have same issue. What I'm using is to sand the areas down to bare metal then using a rust convertor on the metal .... then prime & paint over it .... Actually I used acids to remove the rust myself. High build primer will fill in a lot of the divots and get you closer ..... Basically you have a lot of rust under your paint that is active yet. .... There is no simple answer to stopping it without bringing it to bare metal. Nothing you can put over the existing paint to stop it .... Just a dirty job that someone before you did not do. Sad to say, just looks like a car flipper painted it.
Nothing is going to fix that rust without killing what is left of the paint (including the naval jelly). The rust you see is under the paint, and once the paint is gone, there probably will be a lot more rust then what is showing now.
You could use CLR to remove the surface coloration on the paint, but it’ll return unless you address the rust.
Soak a rag or paper towel in Evaporust, wrap it around the rusty parts, and cover with some kitchen cling wrap to keep it from drying out before it has a chance to work.
Normal car polish and a bit of elbow grease, won’t fix the issue but it’ll make it look better. I think that’s the question you were asking.
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