Quick tips on stopping the rust on the cheap

hello FABO family,

Today is degrease and rust repair day. I am racking my brain because although I have little to no experience with body work/rust repair, I want to stop the cancer from getting any worse. To be clear, I am not trying to paint my car anytime soon, even though, it could use it. Can anyone suggest some specifics for me to sand and rattle can this small section of my engine bay? I was thinking of attaching a simple sandpaper or rough abrasive drill wheel to grind/sand down the rust and spray with some rust preventative. What do u think? It will be years before I get this car resprayed therefore I am merely trying to keep the rust from getting any worse over the next few years.

I really don’t know what direction to go in. The rust does not look to be going all the way through the metal. Preliminary look the metal seems to be pretty solid still underneath the current rust. No holes but a pretty good area of what I’d call more than surface rust. Pictures below....

Thanks in advance!

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Use a roloc disc to get it to bare metal. Wipe with wax/grease Remover. Rattle can with epoxy primer. Rattle can with matching paint from nappa. That's surface rust, not cancer.

Best case sinario.... What I would do. If you are going to pull the engine, I would bead blast the engine compartment, and epoxy primer it, then if you want you could spray it the color you want in the epoxy window, then you wouldn't have to scuff the epoxy before top caote goes on.
You can try to remove the rust with some of those rotary flap type disc' on a electric grinder. I've never had much luck with wire wheels, it seems they just "polish" the rust.
Don't know if you have a air compressor, but they are great tools. If you don't, don't buy a small one buy the biggest you can fit in your work space, and that you can afford. A 60 gal would be the smallest I would get.
I bought a small 20 lbd sandblater from HF, and blasted the whole under side of my 66 Dart, while laying on the ground, epoxy primed it, and sprayed a single stage Urethane Red over the epoxy. Big sandblasters use LARGE quantities of air, that why i only use a 20 pounder.
The rust in you pics is not that bad looking. Thats just surface rust, looks ugly thats all.
Im no pro thats just what I would do.

Dave

This would be an easier call if we knew what sort of tools you have.
Grinders,drills,as mentioned compressor and air tools.

Grinder to aggressive and would leave you a mess to deal with.
Flapwheels and discs would work,in an electric drill,also a variety of wire wheels.
They all leave their own marks behind, how you want to deal with them is a matter of tools.
Could just soak a few rags with evapo-rust and lay them on the panels for a few hours and it will somewhat neutralize the rust.
Clean up,degrease,scuff with scotchbrite and apply a coat of etching primer followed with your favorite flavour topcoat.

Minimal tools. No compressor. I’d love to do the entire engine bay in one shot. But the more likely scenario, one small chunk at a time.

My method from 30 yrs of it. Sandblast is obvios best where you do not distort the metal. It will eat away thinner rusted metal. SO you do not have a blaster. Use right angle grinder ( NOT a drill) and large wire CUP, I am looking at flat surface of inner fender as I talk here of your car. You are trying to get into the rusted pits . An 80 grit flap disc on a GRINDER will heat the metal and distort but will be OK on a surface like that inner fender. NOT OK on basic thin sheetmeatl like doors, fenders, hood, etc UNLESS you are careful not to heat up the metal, There you must use a DA or strip the paint with aircraft stripper. . ALMOST impossible with the flap disc at high rev. Since no blaster. TRY this, go to a true value hardware and get a qt of OSPHO, a phosphoric acid solution. $12 plus tax. Soak this area after using cup and wiping or blowing it clean. Keep it wet for 30 minutes!! IN the edges where the wire cup can't get, them use a wire wheel on your drill, Look at this treated area the next day, If you got it decent , it will have some white residue. That is good.
Use this method and stay away from the "rust killing topcoats". Sand, grind, away rust and treat the remaining metal. Then use a good epoxy primer. then, go to your sanding primers, sealers, topcoats etc...
Now you are at the second day after Osho. Clean this area, Wipe it down with something to get rid of excess of phosphate dust. DISCLIMER: If you screw up, don't blame me!!!!!
Ospho is an acid, and understand you can get a reaction with the treated areas maybe and an acid based epoxy primer. This area you have wire brushed , treated with Ospho, it needs a good primer. epoxy or maybe a self etch primer. Quality auto primers are first chlice, but WE have no idea what you have to work with. Any compressor? If not, I would primer with a rattle can from O Reilly's etc, Their best. I have used a Mar Hype etch primer that works decent. $20 a big can. ( Having any compressor and a cheap gun and BUYING a gal of expoxy primer is the way to go though!!!!!! )...... Also some Rust Oleum, brands.....Be careful with ever going over an etch primer with rattle can tractor type enamels like Ryst Olem. Always test a small area to see if you get a bad reaction.
I understand you are experimenting with making your care better, OT trying to do a resto right now. YOU can do a lot of good with making clean metal , treating the rusted minor pits you will find, using a decent epoxy primer, and sealing that with some sort of topcoat. Something like Rust Oleum is very strong, durable, but realize this type paint will have problems with UV rays and keeping a shine.
Good luck!!!!!!

Chryslerkid said:

Minimal tools. No compressor. I’d love to do the entire engine bay in one shot. But the more likely scenario, one small chunk at a time.

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When i had the engine out of the 59, i crawled in with a spray bottle of simple green and a scotchbrite pad and started scrubbing. It had very little surface rust but it had loose paint and grime to deal with. That was a few rattle cans of paint. I cleaned up nice.
Even by hand you could make a decent job, given enough time...

It looks like you want a temp fix to stop the rust. I used rustoleum rust reformer. Wire brush it and apply the product to stop (convert) kill the rust. You can apply and then spray paint over or apply a second coat to seal it. Just a temp fix until you get to it later.

Skyco works great no grinding on thin metal, just wire brush it as clean as you can, then brush it on.

Yes, hit with some Ospho, good stuff.

30 years ago I used some products from DuPont, they were for cleaning and prepping metal. Like all auto paint products, expensive enough . Seems the Ospho works as well as any thing for me. I am no bodyman but I have done ths stuff on qite a few ars since mid 80's. I always like to ask some questions of REAL bodymen when I wold have the chance.
I have used those " rust killing" products that COAT the rust and supposed seal it off. ALL the body guys I have asked say DO not use this if you will paint that area. OSPHO is not this ytype product. IT does not coat, it kills the rust and leaves a slight phosphate.

Question.... in the process of sanding down first small portion of the engine bay. Obviously the shiny silver I am uncovering is metal. Should. Keep sanding down the blackish non brown rust colored areas until I see metal as well? Is that rust? Just wanna make sure. Get it all before I think about covering it up with anything else. Pics below....

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FYI I’m using my home drill and roloc discs as well as bristle discs.

Personally, when sanding my car I did hit those spots until the surface rust was gone amd I saw clean metal.

I found that a wire wheel on my drill and an electric orbital palm sander with 80 grit provided the best results. I have cleaned about 90% of the paint and rust off my car using these.

I did a lot of rust removal during my restoration and found an angle grinder with a wire wheel worked great.

You can pick up packs of wire wheels cheap at harbor freight

Awesome thanks! I’ll def try that as well

Steves65 said:

I did a lot of rust removal during my restoration and found an angle grinder with a wire wheel worked great.

You can pick up packs of wire wheels cheap at harbor freight

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Try a $35 angle grinder and a big wire CUP also. Yes your pic shows a lot of pitting, rust that is more than just surface,.... I suggest 80 grit for rust removal, but it can leave sand scratches th t need to be hit with something finer like 120 to get rid of scratches, They will show up in finish if not real careful, even heavy sanding primer will have trouble covering those scratches sometimes. . THOSE pitted areas, I will say it for last time, treat those with OSHO. A qt will cost you $12-13 or gal but $30. Just try it especially on pitted areas. Thanks and Done.

barbee6043 said:

Try a $35 angle grinder and a big wire CUP also. Yes your pic shows a lot of pitting, rust that is more than just surface,.... I suggest 80 grit for rust removal, but it can leave sand scratches th t need to be hit with something finer like 120 to get rid of scratches, They will show up in finish if not real careful, even heavy sanding primer will have trouble covering those scratches sometimes. . THOSE pitted areas, I will say it for last time, treat those with OSHO. A qt will cost you $12-13 or gal but $30. Just try it especially on pitted areas. Thanks and Done.

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Thank you, for the last time. I really appreciate the advice. There are several routes to go based on this thread, and I am learning while doing this project. Again, never did body work until yesterday, when I first started sanding down my barracuda. I will buy some OSH and borrow my dads angle grinder. We shall see if that works better.