- Is this going to be a rolling restoration or maintenance project. Will it be off the road for some time or do I need it as my daily driver or weekend leisure vehicle?
- How well can you do the job with the facilities you have available to you?
- Do you want to strip down to a bare nut and bolt restoration, or will you be happy to maintain the vehicle in a good usable condition?
- The answers to these questions will determine which way you will want to go in your choice of rust proofing.
- The following system has been tried and tested over many years of auto restoration to give superb protection.
- By clicking on the Orange coloured product name, you can find out more or make a purchase.
- Be sure to check out our value packs.
Before you do anything the surface must be clean and free from any salts, grease and dirt contamination.
Failure to do this will lead to system failure, poor adhesion, with corrosion and an early breakdown of the coating system.
Vehicle underside showing signs of rust with flaking paint and underseal. Restoring with Epoxy coating
- Wash down the vehicle underside using Rustbuster SP10 de greaser and Rustbuster Chlor-X salt remover. The salt remover can be added to the SP10 degreaser up to 10%. Or each stage can be performed separately.
- Wire brush and scrape away the old rust and failing coatings from the vehicle underside to remove back to a sound steel surface.
- Remove as much loose rust as possible using pore tool wire brushes or MBX metal blasting tool, back to clean grey rust pitted steel.
- Apply one light coat of Rustbuster Fe-123 converter to the steels surface working well into the steel with a half dry brush, do not apply a second coat, unless there are some obvious misses.
- When the Fe-123 has fully reacted on the cleaned steel it will turn a blue black, if it does not react but turns a toffee brown wire brush again and repeat the degreasing procedure. Do not apply a second coat. Apply by brush or spray two coats of Rustbuster EM121 Epoxy Mastic direct to prepared steel or over the Fe-123 converted steel. Paying particular attention to the chassis edges, bracket supports etc.
- Rustbuster Epoxy Mastic can be left as a finish or over painted with car finish colours, stone chip or wax.
- Value pack
Vital products you just must have for successful preparation and restoration of a vehicle underside.
Vehicle body work spot rust repairs, blistered paint bubbling wheel arches etc.
- Wash down vehicle paint work using Rustbuster Safer de-greaser and Rustbuster Chlor-X salt remover. The salt remover can be added to the Safer degreaser up to 10%. Or each stage can be performed separately.
- Open up the paint blister with a paint scraper or similar tool being careful not to damage too much of the good surrounding paint. This will reveal the extent of the rust.
- If the steels surface has been perforated, then you may need top consider welding in a patch or replacing the part. (See welding below)
- Remove all rust and old failed paint back to a sound grey steel surface the edges of the good paint should be feather edge sanded to assure good metal is beneath and correct application of the primer.
- If there is still some rust pitting deep in the steel you may want to consider the use of Rustbuster Fe-123 rust converter. Apply the Fe-123 to the steels surface very lightly with a dry brush working the solution deep into the steel, over lap the edges of good paint by only a millimetre or so.
- The steel should now be a blue black colour. If the Fe-123 has not turned blue black but a toffee brown, sand back and repeat the de greasing process and re apply. Do not be tempted to apply a second coat it will not dry black but a toffee brown.
- When fully cured (hard black) lightly sand to remove and knibs, and apply a coat of Rustbuster Custom 421 Epoxy body primer. This can be rubbed down when dry to the level of the existing system, this section is now ready to take a spray coat of your body colour or can be touched up with aerosol.
- Fillers can be applied over the Custom 421 primer.
Corrosion free engineering to metal that requires weld repairs
- Follow all of cleaning and prep above to reveal the state of the corrosion.
- Cut out all of the corroded steel.
- Sand back the area surrounding the hole you have cut out to bright clean steel.
- Prepare a patch the size of the hole by sanding both sides of the patch.
- Apply a coat of Rustbuster Weld-Thru primer to all of the prepared surfaces on the cut hole in the body work and both sides of the patch.
- Weld in place.
- Either paint the inside of the patch if accessible with Rustbuster EM121 Epoxy Mastic or if a hidden cavity spray a coat of cavity wax behind the weld repair.
- The front of the repair can either be painted with Rustbuster Custom 421 if on the bodywork or Rustbuster EM121 Epoxy mastic if on the underside of the vehicle.
- After painting weld repairs to the vehicle underside should also be seam sealed.
