Rust on the wheel wells - should i be concerned?

[kevboost7]

Was doing brakes and noticed the coating was peeling on the wheel wells. I started peeling some off and found this rust. This is my first project car and not sure how to tackle this and if i should be really concerned. Anyone have experience with this? 

[robbo_rb180]

Remove old coating, wire wheel affected areas and treat with product, prep and reseal with your choice of product.

Depends how deep the rust goes  may need to do some patch panels.

Had similar on one of my cars and did the above, used a underbody coating after treating and repairing sections.

[joshuaho96]

7 hours ago, kevboost7 said:

Was doing brakes and noticed the coating was peeling on the wheel wells. I started peeling some off and found this rust. This is my first project car and not sure how to tackle this and if i should be really concerned. Anyone have experience with this? 

Yes, you should be concerned. How concerned? Don't know. Poke a screwdriver and see how deep the rust goes. If it makes a hole you need to weld in new metal.

[Murray_Calavera]

To fix this properly, you'll need to chase the rust and see where it leads you. You can almost guarantee that there is more rust then what is visible at the moment.

[kevboost7]

Alright.. thanks guys. Hate to see it. 

[kevboost7]

 

On 6/26/2023 at 5:14 PM, robbo_rb180 said:

Remove old coating, wire wheel affected areas and treat with product, prep and reseal with your choice of product.

Depends how deep the rust goes  may need to do some patch panels.

Had similar on one of my cars and did the above, used a underbody coating after treating and repairing sections.

1. When and where do i stop peeling back the current coating? Do i remove an entire section? because the wheel well is connected to the underbody and the coating spans the entire bottom side of the car.

2. After i clean the rust area with wire-wheel, how do i prep and reseal the surface? Since the current coating peels in irregular shapes, would i just spray over the existing coating to blend it in? (Not sure if that makes sense. For example, if I'm painting a house, each room is sectioned off so its easy to tell where and when to stop. But in this car, the wheel well, is part of the frame and goes to the underside)

[GTSBoy]

1. When you stop exposing rust, and not before.

2. Any texture left on existing coatings with abrasives will provide a key for the primer (proper primer goes on bare metal first).

[kevboost7]

20 minutes ago, GTSBoy said:

1. When you stop exposing rust, and not before.

2. Any texture left on existing coatings with abrasives will provide a key for the primer (proper primer goes on bare metal first).

What do you mean a key?

[Murray_Calavera]

51 minutes ago, kevboost7 said:

What do you mean a key?

A surface that the primer can bond to and not easily flake/peal off. 

[kevboost7]

Got it. Will be tackling this when it gets cooler. Currently 97 degrees in south carolina. 

[kevboost7]

Update: I started peeling all the undercoating and this stuff was really tough to remove when it was bonded properly with the metal.. The initial top coating (rubber) came off easy, but there was this primer layer, sort of vanilla colored stuff that was extremely stuck on to the bare metal.  

 

This is what it looks like halfway removed. You can see the silver bare metal, then the vanilla colored primer, then the black rubber undercoating. 

[kevboost7]

This is what it looks like when i was done. This took A LOT of elbow grease. Ill upload pictures tomorrow of it painted. I used this stuff from Eastwood called Rust Encapsulater plus. 

[GTSBoy]

Yeah, this shit is the reason dry ice blasting was invented.

[Murray_Calavera]

6 hours ago, kevboost7 said:

Ill upload pictures tomorrow of it painted

So when you say painted, do you mean sealed with something like rhino lining or line-x?

[kevboost7]

4 hours ago, Murray_Calavera said:

So when you say painted, do you mean sealed with something like rhino lining or line-x?

No, i used Rust Encapsulator Plus. 

 

https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-rust-encapsulator-plus-quart.html?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwo8S3BhDeARIsAFRmkONxM27m1gqntP8Uw-ktrfx9g2Eq_UtGGcqlM0Sn3sYdcU1RyivLnNEaAi7LEALw_wcB&wcid=18675710285&wickedid=657100129148&wickedsource=google&wv=4

[kevboost7]

its not really a truck bed liner 

[Murray_Calavera]

38 minutes ago, kevboost7 said:

its not really a truck bed liner 

All of that material you found hard to remove is hard to remove for a reason. If the factory could get away with using paint I'm sure they would. If I was doing the repair, I'd be looking to replace the sealant I had just removed with something equitant or better.  

 

[kevboost7]

6 hours ago, Murray_Calavera said:

All of that material you found hard to remove is hard to remove for a reason. If the factory could get away with using paint I'm sure they would. If I was doing the repair, I'd be looking to replace the sealant I had just removed with something equitant or better.  

 

Did that stuff come from the factory? I wasn't sure if the undercoating was sprayed afterwards to hide the rust. 

[kevboost7]

Does anyone know if the cars came with a factory undercoating? 

[Murray_Calavera]

2 hours ago, kevboost7 said:

Did that stuff come from the factory?

Yes.