Over it.

[thriller]

So the last few months I have been focusing on bodywork, learning how to knock out little dents where possible, and a little filler where I can't knock things out. And a lot of sanding.

 

Was getting quite close too, was starting to see some pretty nice reflections just in the primer and it was actually reasonably straight. Has been just in primer for probably two months now, but it's been a very hot and dry Adelaide summer so far so I thought that would be OK.

 

 

 

Then the heavens broke & over the last two days we've had probably 200mm of rain & very high humidity. Was away from home, so couldn't really do anything about the car. Obviously those aren't good numbers, so I ride home today & am greeted by this...

 

 

Needless to say I'm a feeling a bit over it at the moment, the prospect of doing that all again isn't a nice one. On the bright side, better this happen now than 6 months after some color goes on.

 

 

 

Anyone else been through similar? Think my options are pretty limited.... in that the only options are grit my teeth & do it again, have someone else do it, or throw in the towel until I've got a house & shed of my own to play cars in. Unsurprisingly, none of those three options sound awesome...

[JDSM]

Yep, been there. I didn't go to the extent you have with your car, but still doing what I needed to do body-wise at home was near impossible. Looks like your car is quite exposed to the elements up there too. I ended up making.friends with a panel beater coincidentally about 4 years ago and I still use his workshop space to this day. It's much more civilised if you don't have worry about storage, but more importantly the many, many different tools and supplies you'll need. And, yes, it's way easier with a place of your own. My friend and I moved to our new place a few months back. Big, well. Sealed shed with a full length inspection pit, it's pretty much heaven, haha. I'm on holidays now and the worst I have to worry about is my room mate attempting to drive my car.

 

Have patience, there's a light at the end of the tunnel, once the hard part is over and you'll actually be able to drive the thing again, it'll be worth it.

[gav240z]

You have my sympathy, nobody wants to do the same thing twice. I guess you just gotta grit your teeth and start again. Or possibly work on something else until your ready to do it again.

[DOOM]

Thriller, that really sucks. Just keep grinding till you get your dream I guess.

[nizm0zed]

Its probably not really the correct way to do it, but could you use a rattle can to cover each section as you do it? Just to seal the weather out?

 

Sucks to hear, just keep plugging away at it, you'll get there in the end.

Dont loose motivation at this stage though, if you let it sit it'll be worse later.

[gav240z]

Yeah you can't loose motivation now, looks like you have more than 1 Z that needs work.

[AussieZed]

Yup been there. Bought my car already media blasted and it had bad surface rust. Took a bunch of it off and then life intervened. Got back to it 6mo later... back to square one.

 

I found treating it with rust killer and then sanding it back worked really well... did that fwice. Seemed to make the rusted spots sand off easier and some of the rust killers seal the panel while you get to them. So you can do a panel at a time. I hit each section with primer sealer as I finished them.

 

Dunno if that helps, hope it does.

 

Cheers, Ross

[DreamZproject]

Wow, really bad luck there! This is making me really paranoid about leaving my freshly stripped car out in the elements...

 

Perhaps a car port and cover isn't enough???

[thriller]

Wow, really bad luck there! This is making me really paranoid about leaving my freshly stripped car out in the elements...

 

Perhaps a car port and cover isn't enough???

 

I honestly think a 'standard' car cover is worse than nothing in the case of a carport, as the car will end up 'sweating' under there if there's any humidity in the air. Thanks for the suggestions too guys, really do appreciate it.

 

At the moment I am I leaning towards selling off one, maybe two of my cars, strip the 260z back to metal and spend the $$ getting it done from the bare metal stage. Uni is starting again soon, will still be trying to fit in 25+ hours a week at work, a good 10 hours a week bike riding & racing means that I will end up completely rushing the primer & paint stage if I do it myself trying to finish before winter comes back for real here.

 

On that note; anyone want an S13? Well cared for, old lady owner most of it's life, has never even seen a guard rail shopping trolley dings 

[d3c0y]

So is it just a bit of surface rust that you are worried about here or is there something i am missing?

[C.A.R.]

Fark me...

So much drama over nothing. OP needs to remove his tamp...

[Sirpent]

Looking at your pic's, this was going to happen even if it wasnt left outside.

 

Note 1 - There is rub down scum on the scutle which means that you rubbed it down wet and then cut through in places, unless you dry and prepsol down these rub throughs as they say rust never sleeps.

Note 2 - Insufficient primer used, you should never have rubbed throuh especially if its acrylic which is what it looks like

Note 3 - Looks like you were using the open hand and finger technique by the finger lines in the pics showing the rub scum, always use a soft block and guide coat, if you hit metal STOP and build the material up again.

 

The rust spots will be isolated to a small area around the spot, take 240 dry sand paper, rub out each indiviually, spot etch prime the exposed metal, prepsol the whole car then apply about 3 times the amount of material you did first time arond, guide coat with acrylic black, block dry with 400 odd grit sand paper, then guide coat again and soft block down with 800 wet.

 

Cheers

 

John

[thriller]

The rust spots will be isolated to a small area around the spot, take 240 dry sand paper, rub out each indiviually, spot etch prime the exposed metal, prepsol the whole car then apply about 3 times the amount of material you did first time arond, guide coat with acrylic black, block dry with 400 odd grit sand paper, then guide coat again and soft block down with 800 wet.

 

Thanks John. Was hand sanding on the smaller curves like the windscreen cowl, everything else with a long block. I'll do as you've mentioned first thing on Saturday morning when I'm back home. Should I be concerned at all about anything that has not yet shown up, or will it suffice to just do the bits that have started to show some orange spotting?

[Sirpent]

Buddy

 

I assume you are using acrylic primer, it will naturally isolate steel from water.

 

The only reasons I think of the you have had isolated spots appear apart from the rub through sections is that you were not running a moisture trap in the line, and if you are using a small volume compressor that is screaming its head off and cycling hard with the humidity you guys have had in Adelaide in weeks past, then those spots may actually be water that was spat out with the material when you sprayed it.

 

I wrote a prep article for the forum a few years back, I stronly suggest that if you are using a set up that was designed to run small air tools rather than high volume spray equipment that you run an extremely good water trap or ditch using a compressor and spray gun and use a unit like the one this link points to.

 

http://www.bunnings.com.au/ozito-300w-power-paint-spray-gun_p1661264

 

No moisture issues, no overspray / waste and lays the perfect layer of undercoat / hi-fill for wet surfacing back.

 

All you need to do is experiment with the thinner / material ratio as it doesnt need to be as fluid as a compressed air gun set up.

 

Cheers

 

John