How To Get Rid Of Rust On Car: Save It From The Junkyard!
Keeping rust away from any iron-based material is quite impossible. Automobiles also catch rust despite having advanced coatings and alloys. Vehicles that stay idle in garages for a long time are under greater risks. However, this does not mean that you cannot have a collection or keep the regular car idle for months. But how to remove rust from car once it sets in? Well, steel will always succumb to rust in a natural environment, but you can still save your car from the doom.
What Is Rust?
Before knowing how to remove rust from car, you should know what this material is.
Rust is an iron oxide, a usually reddish brown oxide formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the presence of water or air moisture. Several forms of rust are distinguishable both visually and by spectroscopy, and form under different circumstances. Rust consists of hydrated iron(III) oxides Fe2O3·nH2O and iron(III) oxide-hydroxide (FeO(OH), Fe(OH)3). More briefly, when iron interacts with the oxygen in the air, a chemical reaction occurs and rust forms.
Rust is extremely corrosive and can spread in no time. It forms when the metal parts of a vehicle are exposed to air and saltwater and winter road treatments quicken this process.
So before learning how to treat rust on a car, let’s talk about the types of rust. When you have enough knowledge about the rust, the process of removing the rust is more quickly and effectively.
Types Of Rust
1. Surface Rust
The surface rust is easy to recognize. The first sign of rust is pop up in paint nicks, cracks and the scratches. Rust preys on the structure and chemical impurities in the metal alloys at the microscopic and molecular level. So actually, the pure iron is not oxidized. You can see a thin layer of the rust on the surface of the metal and it a bit into the metal. The manufacturers prefer to use steel than the iron since the iron is easily oxidized. It is more flexible, tensile, strong, fomable.
2. Scale Rust
The second type of rust is scale rust. Scale rust is the chemical process that corrupts the surface and reduces the metal strength. Scale rust is more serious than the surface rust since the damage caused by the scale rust is deeper. It is also difficult to tell how quickly scale rust progresses because the two different cars all have scale rust but the ratio is different due to the materials, the components, the thickness of the metal…
If you see the paint deterioration revels pitting and etching on the steel itself, for sure you have scale rust. It will be easy to see when you clean your car. The scale rust is more serious than surface rust so how to get rust off a car is more difficult.
3. Penetration Rust
The third type of rust is penetrating rust. Penetrating rust happens after prolonged exposure, steel is converted to brittle iron oxide and holes form. For this type of rust, it already penetrates deeply into the metal. The manufacturers there try to reduce the chance of penetrating rust by changing the material of the car.
Aluminum and magnesium components are becoming popular because of their light weight, but they also corrode at rates that are unnoticeable within a human lifetime. Nowadays, many car makers use modern sheet steel and come off the roll with highly durable coatings.
You are now able to recognize 3 types of the rust. Let’s find out how to stop rust on a truck.
How To Get Rid Of Rust On Car At Any Stage
A bubble in the paint. A brown smudge on the fender. Soaked floors after driving in rain or hitting a puddle. All these menacing signs indicate one thing—rust. Often the otherwise-good cars go to the junkyard because of rust corrosion.
So, how to remove rust from car before it is too late? Follow these steps:
1. Removing Surface Rust
Due to mechanical or UV damage, rust develops on the surface in the form of paint breakdown. It’s not a dangerous issue as the damage may stop on its own depending on the thickness of the metal and alloy composition. However, you still should not take a chance and fix this as soon as possible.
The process starts from rubbing the spot with sandpaper or an abrasive wheel to cut through the paint and the corrosion until cleaning the rust, the metal is bright and visible. Then you can apply the primer, and paint the car and the last is the coat to protect the paint layer. Buff to blend the finishes..
2. Fixing The Scale
If you don’t deal with the rust when it is on the surface, it will cut through and start damaging the metal base. You have to use a wire brush to remove the flakes, a grinding wheel to clear the rest of the rust, and sandpaper to smooth the surface. After that, apply the primer, paint, and clear coat one after another.
The scale rust is more dangerous than the surface rust. And because you do not clean it when it is still surface rust, so it takes more time to deal with the rust.
3. How To Fix Rust Penetration
If you are not careful, the rust will eventually eat up the metal base and leave holes. It is really serious now and how to remove rust from car is more difficult to deal with. The repair will take more time and money when this happens. You can completely replace the affected panel, or you can cut the rotten parts out and weld “patch panels” into place.
Since the penetrating rust is difficult to solve. Only a professional mechanic should do this task given the complexity of the repair. You should definitely bring your car to the mechanic for repair and maintain the vehicle’s structural integrity.
So you are really worried about the rust and do not want it to come back even if you know how to remove rust from car. Let’s talk about how to rust proof and undercoat to protect your car.
SEE MORE
How To Rust Proof And Undercoat Your Car
There are several products and methods that will help you to undercoat the car to prevent the rust. Even if you know how to remove rust from car, it is important for you to know how to prevent it from coming back usually. These methods below will help you to do that. Check it out!
Apply seam sealant
Seam sealants are chemical coating compositions which were already performed manually successfully for preventing perforation corrosion in the 1980s. Cars leave the factory with plenty of seam sealers already applied but after 20 years or more, the seam sealer gives up even if it is the best seam sealer. You can scrape out the old and lay in some new seam sealer over welds, seams, and crimps. Poor OEM quality control may have resulted in sloppy factory seam sealer application. Seam sealant is one useful method for how to remove rust from car.
You can really do it by yourself at home or choosing a good service at the garage, repairmen will help you to do it at a reasonable price. For someone who would like to do it at home you can go to google to find the good seam sealant for your car as there are a thousand of seam sealers are sold on the website or even in the grocery.
Rubbery
Rubbery undercoat falls somewhere in between paint and bedliner. This stuff is best applied overpaint and seam sealer where metal gets blasted with salt spray from winter driving. How to use it? You just need to apply the rubbery directly to the front wheels and underpan or under the car.
This product helps to prevent the rust but it also has the drawback. The rubbery spray dries to form a protective layer. But if the hard rock hits, it will break the layer and the salty water can creep in behind a layer of rubber unseen, it can also trap salt and moisture inside. You should check the car frequently to avoid ugly surprises that reveal the only thing left of that kick panel is the undercoating.
Wash the car
Wash your car – a correct answer for question how to remove rust from car. It sounds strange right? But actually you can do it to prevent the rust. The regular washing will help you to clean the salt water out of the car, reject the bad potential things by clean water. Head through a touchless wash with the undercarriage sprayers or just wash things down towards the end of each storm-induced road salt slush fest .
Keeping washing the car frequently will help you reduce the chance to meet the rust and give your car a bright look.
Facts About Rust
As you know, rust is really dangerous for your car body. They expose the metal surface of the car. However, there are always some ways to help you stop rust on cars as we mention above. Now let’s talk about some facts about the rust you may not know.
1: Rust travels through the body of the car.Rust can occur anywhere on the body of the car starting from door handles to the engine bay. When the rust on car frame is formed as a dot on the surface of the car, it starts to spread quickly and unstoppably. That is why we often wonder what to do about rust on a car.
2: There are few parts of the car which are easy to rust. The under parts of the car are actually easy to rust such as the enders, the wheels, the area below the carpeting… If you are going to buy an old car, remember to check these parts first if they are okay or be rusted.
3: Many manufacturers are applying galvanization. So what is galvanization? Galvanization is the process of preventing iron oxide. The iron in the car reacts with oxygen to form rust. Manufacturers will coat the iron with suitable non reactive elements. When this element is zinc, the process is called galvanization.
Sum Up
These are the most straightforward ways regarding how to remove rust from car. Remember to do the repair job on a day having good weather. Do it in the garage or a shaded place because direct sunlight can deteriorate the paint job. The fixing may take an entire day and even more for the paint and primer to dry out.