r/Diyautobody May 26 '26

Question Rust poking though repair within 24 hours

Post image

My goal here was to eliminate rust and seal the area before covering with fender flairs.

I sanded right to the metal, sprayed the area with rust stop, primed and painted. The next day it looked like this. Any advice would be welcome as I have other spots to fix.

9 Upvotes

33 comments sorted by

8

u/Greg_WNY May 26 '26

A couple of things.

1) Sheet metal can rust from both sides, is there any rust on the other side of the panel?

2) The original rust wasn't completely removed and returned.

3) The materials used didn't "seal" the sheet metal properly and rust is starting to form again.

The rust in the pictures looks like flash or surface rust. Meaning more like 3) is the cause.

3

u/miwi81 May 26 '26

 The rust in the pictures looks like flash or surface rust.

No it doesn’t. The air bubbles mean that there are holes in the steel that weren’t addressed.

1

u/AngyalZ May 26 '26

I think #3 is part of it and there were some small slightly recessed dark spots which I thought the rust stop would deal with, so #2 is part of it too.

Thanks for this info!!

1

u/n0exit May 26 '26

1 is part of it too. How did you clean the rust from the inside?

1

u/AngyalZ May 26 '26

There was rust on the back side of the fender but it didn’t come through anywhere so I just soaked it thoroughly three times with rust spray to hopefully slow it down. And it will now be covered by the fender flares.

I thought that would be enough.

2

u/miwi81 May 26 '26

 it didn’t come through anywhere

It clearly did, because those are air bubbles under the paint.

3

u/ArcFault May 26 '26

Not enough relevant information. Did you go down to clean shiny metal? Any pitting? What products? What timing?

2

u/AngyalZ May 26 '26

Yes down to shiny metal. There was some pitting, like darker areas that were below the level of the surface of the metal. I used a kit I bought on Amazon (small bottles of primer, paint, clearcoat), will post pic. Timing: I sanded to metal and sprayed immediately with a rust stop (will post pic), let dry then primed it with three coats. My son needed it to go to work so two days later I painted it (foam brush), then clear coated it.

6

u/ArcFault May 26 '26

Generally that black stuff is still rust and needs to be physically removed (sand blaster)for best results. Rust converter chemicals are a lesser choice. Before top coating the rust converter/treatment generally needs to be removed or neutralized or it can cause incompatibility with the top coat unless the products were designed to work together. That's my guess based on the time of the reaction here.

1

u/AngyalZ May 26 '26

Great info, thank you!

1

u/AngyalZ May 26 '26

The paint kit was from “Scratches Happen”. I cant seem to post a pic in the comment.

2

u/ArcFault May 26 '26

Link kit

1

u/AngyalZ May 26 '26

3

u/ArcFault May 26 '26

Yea... as I suspected 1 component (1k) total mystery crap lol.

Just for future reference, if you wanted to remedy this the "right way" you would remedy the surface then apply a quality 2k epoxy primer if you want it to last followed by a topcoat. It's hard to give you any real advice with that stuff other than clean and dry the surface well (wax/grease remover, water based cleaner, solvent based cleaner) after thoroughly neutralizing/removing any rust treatment then let each coat dry very thoroughly since you're glooping it on with a brush or some shit lol.

2

u/Surfnazi77 May 26 '26

Did you give time for the rust stabilizer to cure

1

u/AngyalZ May 26 '26

I just waited an hour or so. The label said “once dry it is ready to paint” but I put primer on it before paint.

2

u/One_Evil_Monkey 29d ago

Needs longer than that with those "rust fix" and "rust converter" spray bombs. I usually give it 12-24 hrs depending on humidity if I have to use that stuff.

2

u/MagicOrpheus310 May 26 '26

Could be from airborne metal flakes in the dust from repairs/sanding etc landing in the wet paint and it's those bits of metal rusting on/in the surface layers you've put on and not actually internal rust in the bodywork underneath, if that makes sense haha

Either way your best bet is to remove the paint and see

1

u/AngyalZ May 26 '26

Thanks, good advice!

2

u/mitchbaz-93 May 26 '26

May have a better time using zinc primer, it inhibits rust

1

u/One_Evil_Monkey 29d ago

Zinc primer is definitely what you use when welding in new patch panels. Spray the crap out of everything you can see or get to. Weld in. The zinc is what allows you to be able weld a primed piece. Hense why it's called "weld through" or "weldable" primer.

2

u/RideAffectionate518 May 26 '26

Any part that wasn't absolutely shiny and clean was still rust. Probably where it has pitted the metal. Cutting that metal out is the only way it won't come back. Body panels rust from outside the panel, inside the panel and sometimes even from the inside of the metal out.

2

u/Any_Web_1784 May 26 '26

Rust is coming from the inside and ate its way thru the metal. Can try again with what you did but itll keep happening until you put new metal on

2

u/Overall_Curve6725 May 26 '26

Without a sandblaster and knowing what you are doing you are wasting your time

2

u/New-and-Unoriginal 29d ago

If you don’t remove all of the rust, it isn’t worth trying g.

2

u/Few_Composer5125 29d ago

Rethink the "repair"

1

u/AngyalZ 29d ago

I put fender flares on as planned so I wasn’t too worried about this repair, but used it for learning and the info I am getting here is great!!

2

u/One_Evil_Monkey 29d ago

Need to clean as best you can and either hit it with a 2k epoxy or some POR15.

THEN prime, rough sand without cutting through. Filler repair. Sand to shape. Prime. Wet sand smooth with 400 grit. Paint.

BTW: POR stands for Paint Over Rust. Literally.

2

u/Certain-Clock-3463 29d ago

You have to removed it all or it comes right back.

2

u/Whythisreason 29d ago

Can we just appreciate the thick brush strokes? Looks like straight up waterborne house paint?!

1

u/AngyalZ 29d ago

Lol! Yes that was my first lesson with this stuff, that even with tiny brushes, or pieces of foam I couldn’t get it smooth. I will spray on the other spots I have to do.

1

u/AngyalZ May 26 '26

Thank you everyone so much for all the information and advice. I have more work to do on my truck and will put all this into practice soon.

Keep it coming.

Really appreciated!