[Midmo Joe]

I’ve got back on my 72, after a few years interruption. This is a picture of my spare hood, you can see the Bondo in the front lip covering a poor attempt at rust repair. Also in the pic is my jug of rust prep, phosphorus acid, this stuff is your new best friend on rusty seams. I just slather it on in a thick coat, and let it soak into the area I can’t reach. I will just repair this issue with a coat of Everglass, fiberglass- reinforced filler. It will last forever in car that is garaged and not driven in the winter. Obviously this is just a stock GM hood, not even close to being worth the effort to weld in new metal and repair the inevitable warpage. IMHO.
The third picture is my “good” hood, the one I will put more effort in. Not rusty, but look at the front edge by the wine bottle. This edge should be straight. This will require more time than it first appears.
The second picture shows the “surface” rust that covers most of the roof/ hoods/ and trunk lid of my car, the phosphorus acid does a good job on this issue. And I will follow that up with a thin coat of Rustolium rusty metal primer. Then block that down and proceed with the regular solvent based primers.

 

[Zonie]

If your attempting to repair a rust hole with fiberglass it will start bubbling regardless if its garaged, IMHO you will be dollars ahead by just buying an AM hood.

 

[Midmo Joe]

The original repair was done with Bondo, not fiberglass, before I bought the car. During the 10 years I owned it, it was stored outside. On small, localized areas like this, the fiberglass reinforced products hold up very well IF you are able to rustproof the backside. The other hood, dented orange one, is the original off of this car, and it will be repaired and eventually painted. I need a flat primered hood to stick on the car while I do mostly mechanical work on it this summer.

 

[snolan]

The current best practices is to strip to bare metal spray epoxy let dry then body work (Filler) over epoxy, if you use acid on rust contact your Epoxy MFG for prep before epoxy.

 

[Midmo Joe]

I’ve had good luck sanding an old, thoroughly cured repaint down to the factory paint on some cars. This is the best and most durable coating any car will ever have, and it makes an extremely stable base for new paint. It won’t peel or react with any topcoat. I still hold with idea of treating the metal with acid, let it dry a few hours, and then scrub with soapy water. Then rinse again. Phosphoric acid is water soluble, I don’t think residue is really an issue. Older vehicles that have multiple paint and rust problems, like my car, always have rust in areas that aren’t really accessible. The only other permanent option is to simply remove all rusty metal and weld in multiple panels. Most older cars, with the exception of the special models, are simply not worth this much work and expense. This pic is of the same hood, after I finished sanding and acid treatment

 

[Midmo Joe]

I’m not getting much support on here for my Rustolium Methods, but this is my reasoning; I think these cars in general can be broken down to 3 groups. Group A would include any SS, any high performance package, almost any highly desirable vehicles. 66&67 SS cars and factory BB cars would be at the top of this list. Group B
Would include any gen1-3 Tudor, and other sporty cars a little further down the desirable list. Group C would more or less include anything else. As an example, my 72RS would be a mid-range Group B. As far as restoration methods, all the Group A cars would deserve only new sheet metal and the absolutely best supplies and methods.
Group B cars are a tougher call, probably you could justify a $10k repaint on a car you personally like.
Group C cars, in my OPINION, should be restored to a level that the owner is satisfied, without breaking the bank.
And if it was Grandmas last car, and you like it, what’s a few extra dollars?

 

[Tacocaster]

I’m not getting much support on here for my Rustolium Methods, but this is my reasoning; I think these cars in general can be broken down to 3 groups. Group A would include any SS, any high performance package, almost any highly desirable vehicles. 66&67 SS cars and factory BB cars would be at the top of this list. Group B
Would include any gen1-3 Tudor, and other sporty cars a little further down the desirable list. Group C would more or less include anything else. As an example, my 72RS would be a mid-range Group B. As far as restoration methods, all the Group A cars would deserve only new sheet metal and the absolutely best supplies and methods.
Group B cars are a tougher call, probably you could justify a $10k repaint on a car you personally like.
Group C cars, in my OPINION, should be restored to a level that the owner is satisfied, without breaking the bank.
And if it was Grandmas last car, and you like it, what’s a few extra dollars?

That's your opinion and I happen to align with it while Im sure many others have a different view - and that's good too!
Tim

 

[62 shoebox]

Here was my attempt

 

[62 shoebox]

Just brought it down with a da and use a self etching primer

 

[Midmo Joe]

Your car looks extremely straight, the two tone, black and white, looks good.
Rust is an absolute killer on these older cars, if you have a rust free car, you are way ahead of most of us.

 

[TechNova]

I’ve had good luck sanding an old, thoroughly cured repaint down to the factory paint on some cars. This is the best and most durable coating any car will ever have, and it makes an extremely stable base for new paint. It won’t peel or react with any topcoat. I still hold with idea of treating the metal with acid, let it dry a few hours, and then scrub with soapy water. Then rinse again. Phosphoric acid is water soluble, I don’t think residue is really an issue. Older vehicles that have multiple paint and rust problems, like my car, always have rust in areas that aren’t really accessible. The only other permanent option is to simply remove all rusty metal and weld in multiple panels. Most older cars, with the exception of the special models, are simply not worth this much work and expense. This pic is of the same hood, after I finished sanding and acid treatment

The reality is that the factory paint on these cars is a HORRLE base for any paint job. It was garbage when new and is even worse now. Acids and metal treatments are often NOT recommended with many products.
Do what you want on your car, but for others, read your tech sheets for all products.

 

[Midmo Joe]

My 72 has about 70 percent of the factory paint on it, it is cracked and faded, of course. The remaining two panels were replaced because of collision damage on the left side.
The factory finish was baked on a high temperature at the factory, it is incredibly hard. It and the underlying factory primer, are actually quite hard to remove even with a grinder. The biggest issue with any of these cars is always rust UNDER the paint, not the actual paint itself. The new paint products available today are quite good, no doubt. Probably even superior if there was some way to bake them on, like the factory did. Phosphorus acid is water soluble, just wash it off when you’re done. This is much different than paint stripper, which can cause issues months down the road on a repaint. I’m merely pointing out, that you shouldn’t automatically remove all your factory original coating without thinking about it. And most these cars are now garaged and kept dry; if the original owners had treated these vehicles the same, they would probably look much better.

 

[CAPTAIN18B]

Ive been in the process of stripping, patching, rust removing/converting and epoxy primering my 66 since last year. It appeared to be a pretty solid car with minimal rust. It had a repaint over the original red sometime back in the 80s in lacquer. I too felt that the paint was pretty stable and had a few lacquer pops. Thats why i started to sand with a DA.

As it turned out, the car had alot of rust spots underneath the original primer/paint that i didnt see until I removed the paint. I'm glad i did because I intend to keep the car and never sell it so I want to do the best job i can. Now I feel better that I took care of the rust as best I could so as not to have problems with paint for the next 20 years.

I used SPI epoxy primer, per their tech sheets and tech line, the only rust converter they advise is Ospho. After speaking with them, once the Ospho has converted and dried, spray more Ospho to wet it and reconstitute it. While its wet, wash off with a green pad and water to remove all the phosphoric acid. Dry thoroughly, scratch with 80 grit DA, wipe with wax/grease remover then shoot epoxy.

Its a bit of work but I think its the best I can do in my garage. I couldnt afford having it media blasted since I have more time than money. Ultimately, its your car and you place the value on it that dictates the amount of work and money you want to invest.

Good luck and post pics

 

[g2072]

I know there are products on the market right now that weren't there in the past that deal with rust. With that being said there is one way to properly handle rust. Where you find rust you either blast it until it is gone or you cut it out and replace it with fresh metal. If you blast it and it eats away the metal then you cut it out and replace it. Anything else is just patching and waiting for it to become a problem later on. Fiberglass is not going to stop rust from coming back. All it is going to do is mask the problem so that when it comes back it will be a bigger mess than it was. I don't like sheet metal work or rust repair any more than the average guy but my build is three years old now and i'm certainly not worried about rust showing up.

 

[TechNova]

My 72 has about 70 percent of the factory paint on it, it is cracked and faded, of course. The remaining two panels were replaced because of collision damage on the left side.
The factory finish was baked on a high temperature at the factory, it is incredibly hard. It and the underlying factory primer, are actually quite hard to remove even with a grinder. The biggest issue with any of these cars is always rust UNDER the paint, not the actual paint itself. The new paint products available today are quite good, no doubt. Probably even superior if there was some way to bake them on, like the factory did. Phosphorus acid is water soluble, just wash it off when you’re done. This is much different than paint stripper, which can cause issues months down the road on a repaint. I’m merely pointing out, that you shouldn’t automatically remove all your factory original coating without thinking about it. And most these cars are now garaged and kept dry; if the original owners had treated these vehicles the same, they would probably look much better.

You are fooling yourself but don't try to fool others. The factory paint should automatically be removed and other chemicals like acids should not be used unless called for in the tech sheets.
The factory paint was and is garbage. It is lacquer and is 1K product.
Today's paints are multiple generations better than lacquer. Baking is used to speed up production, the durability is not from baking it is from the chemical crosslinking of a 2K product.
The paint companies have chemists that are likely smarter at their profession than we are and have certainly researched and tested it far more than we have. They went away form lacquer long before it was environmentally friendly to do so.

 

[Midmo Joe]

Everyone needs to make their own decision on how to proceed with their own car. I not trying to influence anybody, just trying to present some cost effective ways of dealing with rust issues, that may work on less expensive vehicles. Especially for owners who don’t have the resources for a total rebuild.

 

[Midmo Joe]

A few ideas. Those Ebay turbos sure are tempting. A quick lettering idea, I drew this out in chalk, of course. There are plenty of videos on Utube outlining the basic procedure. This is my spare hood, if the results looked stupid, I can easily wipe it off.

 

[Midmo Joe]

This is my original hood, original orange paint. It’s main issue is, someone set something heavy in the middle and flattened out the factory contour. I’ll straighten it some, and see how I feel about it in a month or so. The spare black hood will work fine for now. Also need to practice my freehand lettering, I think I’ll start with a RALLY NOVA script across the front.

 

[62 shoebox]

I have two hoods (steel) if you wanted

 

[Midmo Joe]

Well thx, that would be good. How much do you want for them, and where are you located? I live in mid-Missouri.