Rust Removal and Paint

[Kayaker53087]

I have a '99 4 DR Tahoe, reside in Northern Michigan. I knew it was going to happen sooner or later, but here it is. Looking to remove some rust on the back barn doors at the very bottom. Was thinking about taking it down from the crease and around the back edge of the doors, and finishing with some 3M Rubberized Coating Compound (the spry-on kind).

Anyone do this and have any tips, hints, or tricks?

Also thinking about doing the 3M coating from the molding down, wheel-wells, and basically all around the truck.

Thanks

[tbplus10]

How much corrosion are we talking?

For surface corrosion run a tape line where you want the paint removal/corrosion removal to stop then use a good paint stripper, follow it up with a soap and water wash, water rinse, then fine sandpaper to remove the corrosion.
Probably best to use a long board or block with the sand paper so you dont produce irregularities in the body panel.

If you've got pitting or rust through I'd recommend tape the line then sand blast or media blast (media or baking soda would be prefered materials).

To repair surface corrosion on lower body panels I'd probably have the panels sprayed with bed liner, it goes on rough and will hide any imperfections and slight pitting in the panels.

To repair pitting or rust through the best way would be replacing the panels, or an alternate route would be leading in the panels if the rust through areas arent to large.

Plastic filler (Bondo) would not be a good choice for any corrosion repair as it has a bad habit of forming more corrosion around the filler and creating a bigger mess to clean up next time.

[hunky]

Get some rust converter at the auto parts store,wire wheel the" flakey" stuff off and brush on the converter prime with self etching primer then chip coat. Should last a long time.

[s5belford]

as another heads up, after you sand or media blast the area you have have have to use a sealer after the primer and before the paint, there may be a sealing and priming paint I'm not sure, but if there isn't primer does not seal the paint, it's for smoothing out imperfections, and if sealer isn't used it will just rust though again. hope this helps!