Any tips for fixing surface rust & repainting at home?

[thommo]

The Old 93 SR5 Diesel Hilux has paint coming off the leading and trailing edge of the roof which has surface rust (undercoat has gone hard apparently), and also on drivers door (which had a repair before I bought it, then got whacked by a big stick out in the bush = cracked paint & surface rust).

Mechanically, the old banger still does the job fine, but a trip to the panel beaters said at least $1500 to fix paint (have to take out front & rear windows, remove door etc). Anyway, the whole bloody thing is prob only worth $5000, so I started Googling self-repair jobs (the most I've ever sprayed is 1/72 &1/48 scale model aircraft with an airbrush ).

So, from what I can gather the process is:

1. Grind away rusted spots back to bare metal with a wire wheel on angle grinder, or perhaps a sanding attachement (Bunnings seem to have these). Or you can get ones that go on a drill.

2. Paint with rust converter immediately cos it will start to rust again (invisibly) in 15mins

3. Clean with oil & wax remover

4. Hand sand with various grades of progressively finer grit sandpaper on a block, and smooth into remaining paint at edge of bare metal.

5. Mask area to be re-painted (reverse mask to get better blending & avoid a sharp line)

6. Apply several light coats of etch primer leaving at least 20mins between coats. Let dry a few hours.

7. Apply several light coats of top coat (Toyota white in this case) leaving at least 20mins between coats.

I know other areas of paint are likely to eventually flake off due to the issue with the original undercoat (15yrs out in the weather is probably the reason) but at least it should look a bit better than big rusty spots. AutoOne seem to have the right primer and can mix the right colour topcoat in a spraycan if not available off the shelf.

Anything else I should know?

Edited May 24, 2014 by thommo

[Manxman]

My learned Bro says White Knight are the only cans to use-the quality has been excellent over many years, others much worse. NB using silicone waxes usually make it necessary to repaint entire panel, for some reason, so the painters say.