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Any suggestions for dealing with surface rust on the floor pan? For example, wire brush or wire wheel? Is rust converter a must? Has anyone had success with other treatments?
I’ve seen much worse on the message boards but would still like to get this taken care of before applying sound deadener (HushMat) and installing new jute insulation and vinyl flooring.
I Hope it is just surface rust and maybe it’s just how the picture looks but I wouldn’t be surprised to find pinholes under the larger spots. I’d start by wire wheeling it good and thoroughly check for through rust/pinholes.
If it is only a surface rust with solid metal underneath a converter such as Ospho scrubbed into the surface with a scotch brite pad would work.
Yes and then a good quality epoxy primer (2 part epoxy primer not the rattle can stuff) on top, followed by good paint (i.e. not rattle can use the same brand as the epoxy primer. You can apply it all with a paint brush, unless you're doing a full respray it's not really practical to set up for spraying small areas. I've had really good success with that, when done right I've seen 10+ years on repairs and nothing coming through.
Even if you do have some pinholes, the pan overall looks solid, personally I'd just cut out and weld in patches on the affected areas in that case. Good luck
That doesn't look too bad. I'd use 80 grit flap wheels on an angle grinder and take all the rust down to bare metal. If there were any pinholes, I'd just use some panel adhesive and glue patches in on top. Larger holes I'd want to weld in some replacement panel sections. You can buy 2 part epoxy primer in spray cans that have a button you press to activate it, it isn't cheap but it's worth it. I like to use spray can bed liner on floorboards, it's more durable than paint. Even with vinyl flooring, dirt/grit eventually gets under it and start wearing down paint. I've replaced a ton of carpets in cars over my life and under the drivers feet was always heavily worn, sometimes right down to bare metal.
I would first use a wire wheel (a lot of the flapper wheels will start removing material pretty fast) and then get some muriatic acid to treat the bare metal with before primering and painting it.
