Found a lot of rust underneath my 89 on the bottom of the car right below the spare tire. Not sure if this is common or just due to poor maintenance and storage of previous owner.

 

Rust happens.

I noticed you have a convertible in your avatar. If this is the trunk area of said convertible, water that runs down the top goes into a channel or gutter and then down around the wheel well area. If the channel has even a small rust hole, you can expect a significant amount of water to end up in the trunk area - I know this from experience as I had this same issue.

Is there rust on the inside of the trunk as well?

 

Yes there is. There is a lot of surface rust under the spare tire. It definitely looks like water was getting in and sat for a while. I am going to remove the gas tank this winter and wire wheel all the rust off that I can and repaint with some rust inhibitor. I am also going to do the inside of the trunk.

 

You are going to have to repair that gutter / channel first or it will happen all over again. Also, you will have to follow it all the way down which will be a PITA, but unless you address it, your rust problem will get *real* bad in other areas.

Unfortunately, this is the nature of convertibles - the water has to run inside to get out.

 

Nothing is easy is it! Ha ha. Thanks for the info.

 

I suggest the use of this in a drill:

http://www.google.com/products/catal...ed=0CFoQ8gIwAw#

It worked well for me removing my surface rust before the primer went on my 89. Good Luck cleaning up the rust and finding the leak.

 

if youve never dealt with rust before, Phosphoric acid is your friend...buy a quart of 'ospho' metalprep at ace hardware, and after cleaning/wire wheeling, brush on right away.
the acid converts rust into inert iron phosphate, and even a second after sanding, humidity in the air is already is seeding rust...ospho neutralizes/stops rust in its tracks. it gives great 'bite' for any paint too.

 

How much time do I have to wait to paint after the acid? Can I wait a week or two? Or do I have to paint right away?

 

I would coat it, let it dry, coat again and water rinse while still wet(washes some of the powdery stuff away), dry it thoroughly (hair dryer helps inside any panel cutouts) prime with weld thru primer, weld in your patches, wipe over the welds with ospho, force dry, prime, let dry/fill and finish...

you can treat bare metal with it, and sit it outside, treated wont show much if any rust a week later, but untreated will rust overnight...guess you could scotchbrite and retreat again, but I think it would be best to get a sealer over it soon as its dry...can always grind/weld/retreat just the ground areas later, but treating/sealing the hidden away areas before closing them up, then again if possible after welding would be my choice.

any undercarriage/inner hidden areas I like POR-15 over after etching- that stuff over etched/rusty metal is indestructible- but it dont stick to paint, will shrink/peel off...roll-on bedliner over etched/primed is less messy for undercarriage stuff.

if youve got surface pitting only to deal with, what I did on my first paintjob in '95 was just wirewheel it clean(dont push too hard as heat will warp the metal) then etch it, and shoot with PPG K36 'prima' fast build epoxy primer- its like spray on bondo
seriously, it fills minor pitting with just a few spray coats, block sand it flat, recoat, scuff and topcoat...just last week a guy told me he saw my old camaro recently and that paint was still in great shape - that car had nasty surface rust all over, none of it ever popped back up...only bad thing is K36 costs like 100.00 a quart by the time you get the additives...but its awesome stuff to workwith, you can block it like a half hour after spraying, and holds up great longterm from what ive seen.


on the 'under the spare' area- on our 65 galaxie, I patched a lot of the floor, but there was a couple areas pitted enough they were thin- after cleaning/etching it was thin enough to push and see it flex with your thumb...due to bracing, cutting out woulda been a bear, so I just etched/coated with POR15, and immediately soaked some paper towel with POR15 and put that on the wet paint and brushed out the bubbles...hard as a rock and the extra thickness really firmed it up...got the idea from spilling some POR15 and the paper towels I cleaned it up with set up hard as 'glass...seriously think you could soak cloth/papertowel/anything with POR to just stiffen up a panel- would form easier than fiberglass and soak up the POR more completely. wont be as strong as 'glass, but just to add some thickness and seal rust permanently, I wouldnt be afraid to try it again...if worried about strength, use thin glass matting or cloth...POR15 ius not a paint, its a moisture cured urethane, and if you put it over treated metal, as it cures it draws any moisture away from the metal as it cures, dries hard as a rock, and long as not over painted surfaces, it wont come off without a grinder...bad thing is its so shiny that paint wont stick to it either- you have to overcoat with their primer(brush on) before any other painting...so its more suited for underbody areas mostly.

heres some of my favorite galaxie pics- it was a mess...

if you want to see more rusty pics, they are all here:
http://s301.photobucket.com/albums/n...cpZZ1QQtppZZ24

and the old cars 'story' I posted here:
http://www.fordmuscleforums.com/gala...ong-story.html

 

Thank you so much for all of your information! I am a beginner and bought this car more for my wife and bit off more than I can chew. I have never done body work or engine work before. I am a fast learner and usually learn by diving right in, making mistakes and taking twice the time as the average person to do something.

Again, thank you do much for your feed back and I will be reading lots of your posts!!!!

 

I heard that POR15 is good for rust problems also

 

Eastwood also has something that might be great to build up thin/but not perforated areas- its a reddish epoxy paint with glass chop in it, have read good things about it too...think they call it 'rust encapsulator' or something like that. dunno if it has the moisture drawing advantage of PORs mix though.

both POR and Eastwood have some pretty neat stuff for dealing with rust, or simply preventing it in the first place. I'd found a cool website that goes into various stuff, www.rustdoctors.com I think... gives good explanation of why metals rust, how sacrifial anodes are used on ships/pipelines to electrically prevent the steel from rusting(and why it cant work on cars), neat stuff...

well, its not rust doctors...think the old site is gone, heres closest thing I could find: http://corrosion-doctors.org/Car/Rust-Prevention.htm

 

ford4v429,

That Galaxie is frikin' awesome - I can't believe that frame was salvaged - or was it replaced outright? I hope the body wasn't as bad! Pulling a car back that far is *dedication* - kudos.

 

You're not alone, I am the same way.

 

Nice! Glad to see I m not the only one.