[Rizzah]

All:

OK so my lil' silver '98 Civic beater has a few dings in her. The deepest ones are rusting. One is a circle smaller than a dime and the others are these bizarre, perfectly straight scratches no longer than 3-4inches each on the roof (looks like Wolverine gave it a brush with his claws).

A friend once told me to use clear regular nail polish on them just to prevent further rusting, which I have done. I'm still on the fence about keeping this car past one more year. If I do, a full paint job is in her future (among many other things).

In the meantime, is there anything MORE I can about the rust?

Thanks!

 

[Kooldino]

IMO, sand down the rusted area, and the area right around it.

Mask off the area around the "scar"

Hit it with some primer. Let it dry.

Throw a coat or two of a closely matching silver spray paint over it. 2-3 coats.

Remove mask, wet sand the edges.

Maybe clear coat that area

Buff

 

[SpicyMchaggis]

Sanding is the order of the day.

 

[Rizzah]

sounds like i have a project ahead of me! rookie question: is there one specific type of sandpaper? grit?

thanks!

 

[SpicyMchaggis]

It depends on the severity of your rust.

 

[Kooldino]

Off the top of my head, for rust, I want to say to go with the lowest grit of wet sandpaper possible (which is somewhere around 220). Make sure it's WET sandpaper. I think you can get it at wal-mart. The wet stuff is normally black.

Take a bucket of water with you, and keep dipping the sandpaper into it to keep it wet. This prevents the sandpaper from filling up with paint, so it lasts a lot longer and is more effective.

Make sure you primer it as SOON as you get all of the rust off and dry it.