What is the best way to deal with a patch of rust.

[Wagger]

My Vitesse was found after several years standing in a garage. It had two rust patches exceeding 2 inches in diameter. One on the Blue Stripe, the other on a White section. Checking the other side of the panels showed all ok, so I simply sanded it and coated these with Blue Hammerite smooth, and their Smooth Cream as that was such a close match that it hardly shows. The blue is rather obvious and will need over painting with something that will not react. (Even more experimentation).

I do not intend to do anything else with these patches until next Easter, when the paint should be really hard. As with my other post, I have polished fully cured ' Smoothrite' successfully. However, I am not sure that this was the best solution. I just wanted to stop eyes being dragged to the obvious blemishes. If nothing else, I achieved that with the 'White'.

Some of you folks must have done this sort of thing rather than full re-sprays. I do not have the funds or the time for that. Just wanna use it now. Any comments welcome.

[Colin Lindsay]

What draws the eye? Something that stands out.... so make it blend in. Kill the rust or take it down to bare metal and prime, smooth it out at any rate to beneath the level of the top coat, then apply thin coats of paint and sand each one. The paint is the thing to cover the imperfection, so smooth it out, repeatedly, until it's invisible. Avoid damaging the good paint round the repair and a final polish, when all is dry, will blend it in.

 

[Wagger]

Thanks Colin. The doors are where the problems are, and new skins are still available. I will experiment with different products on the 'Expendable ' bits. Keeping it dry will prolong its life. Eastbourne is drier than many areas of the UK, but it is near the sea. However, the wind is predominantly from the North East due to the shape of the North & South downs. They turn all gentle Westerlies into this. It is a dry wind. I will get caught out occasionally, but do not intend using  he car in poor weather.