This started as a paint bubble and grew to about 2" in diameter than it cracked and opened up.

I decided to open up the wound and see if it was terminal.

The paint peeled off like the icing on a cake...

Finally I get down to the real problem, 3rd degree rust...

I clean it up with a wire brush on a grinder and get the rusted area down to clean metal...

Bummer.

Wow!!!! You are adding a LOT Of bondo... that sucker is gonna double the weight of your car!!!!

Now I have a open wound that is about 12" x 6". Bondo, primer and paint at the edges.

So now for the expert advice:

How do I treat this???

Etching primer?

Rust neutralizer?

Strip the entire lid?

Its for my daily driver so weight is not a factor.

Strip, inhibit, prime and "paint the mother PINK"!!!!

"strip" and "pink" in the same reply......go figure.

...strip...pink...



Kinda reminds me of the movie "Alien".

If you find more areas like this it may be easier to get a new lid that is
in better shape. I don't think you want to get metal ready or ospho on
the exposed bondo edges.

John

I vote new lid.

New lid?
Think GREEN! Recycle, don't throw away.

Grind to clean metal, treat, prime with epoxy paint primer, coat with sanding primer and then finish color ....

yah see now why ya can't bondo over rust? It keeps on rusting...

Fiberglass lid option.....

I'm going to Gary's tomorrow, I'll see which extra lid I gave them to use on my car. I'll let you know.

T.C.

Wait.... I mean weight...
Is that a METAL lid???
You could lose at least 10-15 pounds by going to fiberglass!
And we all know fiberglass doesn't rust!
I would have figured that to have been one of the very first things you would have done...

It looks like the filler was spread over rust or the filler cracked at one point allowing moisture to creep under the filler. Because it's an outer skin and a large panel I would suggest stripping all the filler and paint off the panel and starting over. If the work over the top of the rust was done that poorly it's likely there is other work on that panel that will come back to haunt you..

The other reason for stripping off all the old work is a problem with the new filler blending into the old fill without causing bridging when the paint is applied. What is likely to take place is a swelling of the edge around the new filler that will be visible after painting. You end up with a bunch of islands and bannanas all over the panel. For the little extra time you will spend stripping the old work off it will be worth it.

Then any place that has that old pitted rust I would hit it with a spot blaster. Here's a link to the tool I'm refering to. There are some very affordable ones out there. Try Harbor Freight and other places if you don't already own one.

http://www.eastwood.com/spot-blaster-with-...pot_sandblaster


Use a good metal conditioner, Bump some of that old damage out before just trowling all that filler back on....

The rest is basic bodywork 101.

BONDORAMA!

I've seen that before. It would be alot easier to by a used, straight lid that try to get that one down to bare metal, then get it straight.

Thank you Rick and a few others for a real answer to my questions. As for another lid, I have another one but it has rust along the bottom edge and is worst than this one. Most good lids in Florida are on cars already. Shipping a lid in from out West would not be cost effective. I will probably go ahead and strip it myself.

Fiberglass on a true daily driver is not a smart thing to do IMHO. I need all the steel I can get driving around here.

ditto on the rusty lid thing. I have a couple of those swiss cheese ones myself. Have you ever cut one open? They have foam inside the trailing edge. The latch end.... Like that's not going to speed rust.

Yep, and you can't get to the back side at the bottom edge. If I were to cut it out and weld it back in I wouldn't be able to get behind it to clean up my welds.

The red lid pictured is the best one to fix.

Sorry Paul, I didn't have a spare rear lid at Gary's

T.C.

No problem. I'll work with what I have. Thanks

I promise you that lid even after you clean the whole top surface and prep it and spend 150.00 easy on just the epoxy primer, sandable primer, filler and sealer coat, it will not ever be a pleasant thought in your mind cause it will have more problems later. Of course if it's just something to sell to someone else sooner than a year or so, it's done all the time.

Charlie's dropped some good painting advice on me, too and he's been right so far. BTW Charlie, I ended up sanding that por15 off the hood and sanding down to good metal. Should have done that in the first place. In my case; the shortcut was the longcut.

Replace it . you will never be satisfied with ,or completely happy with any repair. what could a good replacement , rust free , possably cost? not much I think.

I trust Rick's advice and ScottyB....two guys that make/made a living doing paint and body work.

I dont use rust treatment..tried all of them, none of them work with the current formulations of paint etc.
Never use POR 15 under topcoat paint surfaces...its made for frames...not hoods.

Just go back old school. Sand blast it, and start from there.

I use a sandblaster to ensure that all the pits are rust free....a wire brush does not do it, it just cleans the high spots.

Rent/buy/borrow a sand blaster...( I have a speedblaster...its awesome)

Clean all the rust, then put either a decent etching primer down, or an epoxy primer. Etching works easier and its alot cheaper...its sold by the rattle can at most decent paint stores.

Buy the skim coat bondo...its sprayable...so its really thin.
You dont need to spray it....but you can put it on really thin..use it like an off color coat to find the high spots by sanding till you expose all the high spots and low spots...keep repeating and ensure you have etching primer on any newly exposed bare metal.

Then spray a sealer on it..again, sold in rattle can form.
then paint it...otherwise the paint can look kinda splotchy in the sunlight if you have bondo in one place and not in another...
Its just a primer/sealer...goes over all the bodywork...then gets sanded to 400-600 grit wet....

Should last longer than the rest of the paint on the car...lol

One more thing...go find a decent auto paint store.
Talk to them about the product lines they use with your long term plans in mind.
This painting stuff is very complex chemistry and you really need to stick with one vendor from primer to clear coat...
Pro guys can probably swap certain favorite products, but guys like us, who are not trained in multiple brands are much wiser to stick with one brand (and one product line within that brand)

Base coat/clear coat is more forgiving and easier to fix than single stage systems.

Rich

Thanks Rich,

I've been using rattle can etching primer on other areas of the car. Got it at a large paint and body supplys store.

Paul

Hate to piss on your parade Paul, but that bondo where you featherd it does not appear to be bonded to the lid AT ALL. Look specifically at the upper right side, looks like you can get a fingernail right undser it. That WILL come up on it's own !! That thing needs a complete strip job. Then what Rich and Rick said. If you can't get hold of a sandblaster ( be careful of your pressure and DO NOT shoot directly at the panel, get some angle on it or you will warp the metal ) You can use a higher quality etching product. Some paint manufacturers have an etch primer that also neutralizes SMALL quantities of rust like that left in deep pits.

I had mine dipped and derusted for about $50 bucks at the local metal dip and strip metal refinisher- American Metal Refinishers. They use the dip electrical rust removal process that only attacks the rust without removing metal. They showed me an engine block that had been derusted and the cylinder bores were not enlarged.

For my trunk, I carefully pried open the fold under the lid where you lift to open the trunk so that they had access to the rust bubbles in the fold.

Came back with the foam gone, and all the rust eliminated.

I did have to bang on the lid for awhile (gently) as the rust was turned to a black crunchy stuff that was either stuck to the lid or rattling around. Poured POR into the seams, and refolded the flap. I do have a coupla small pin holes on the underside support structure near the latch that need cutting and patching but the lid is rust free.

I've been using them for other difficult jobs such as removing rust from inside of that double walled area in the front fender and if they know exactly what you want, they do a really great job.

It looks like the original purpose of the bondo was to fill depression made in the lid by pushing on the non-reinforced area to close the lid, most of the used rear lids I see have concave sheet metal in this area. In my experience if you re-bondo the area it will again delaminate from the metal when the sheet metal (of the lid) is flexed. You probably need to fix the "oil can" sheet metal then finish.

It's all stripped, Come & get her

T.C.

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I picked it up from TC on the way home and got some paint on it.

I used flat black Rustolum and a foam roller.

That foam roller will give it a cool texture

If done right, this kind of paint can look really good. Has to be thinned out, lots of coats, lots of sanding though.

Zach

I read the whole story about the guy that did it that way. It was on another forum. It took him forever to finish it. Roll-dry-wait-wet sand-repete 20 times. That is not what I plan to do here. I painted it as just a temporary fix.