55 Ford Passenger Car Body Work Question...

Hot Rod Reverend

Hot Rod Reverend

Well-known member
I am working on the body of a 55 Ford Sunliner and have found a good dent-free trunk for the car. But the interior of the trunk lid has surface rust and you can see the undercoating? peeling away. The trunk lip is excellent.

How should I attack this trunk lid, knowing that the rust has most probably spread underneath of the reinforcement sections on the underside of the sheet metal? Is my only option to have the whole thing dipped?

Can I just remove all of the old undercoating, do some rust converter, then seal up where the rust is at hoping that the converter will "seal" up where the rust does not show but is hidden?
 
i would not dip it because the alkaline dipping solution gets in where ever air can get to (which is good in one way) but after its dipped and cleaned out there will be areas you will NEVER get any paint or sealer into which means of course means rust down the road and depending on where you live will dictate how fast the rust will develop and spread wetter area versus drier desert area

are you restoring the car to 100 % originall? if not i would remove the undercoat and just do the normal prep work to what you can see and reach and try to spray bomb the rust preventer under the inner structure as best as you can
 
I am not going 100% original, and the car will be 3 season driver...so that is not too big a concern. I don't live in a wet climate, but I am concerned about dipping it. Seems the expense and then the problem of getting some type of paint and/or sealer to the hidden bare metal would just be too much...
 
If you're trying to get rid of rust, mix up a batch of molasis and water, and soak the trunk lid in that solution for a week or so. It will not remove paint, undercoating etc, but will disolve the rust. You can get a kiddie pool and usr that as a tank. Solution is 1:6 to 1:10 molasis/water.
 
I would not recommend dipping any car parts in those tanks . There is so many cracks and holes for that stuff to hide in and down the road it will come out and make a mess of everything .
With just trunk you should be able to get the light rust off with a wire wheel , a sander , grinders or anything like that . It's not a big part . Heck I am doing an entire 55 Ford with a grinder and orbital sander ! Yes it takes longer but a trunk shouldn't take but a few hours of time .
Just a thought !

Jim
 
I checked out the rust/corrosion situation again. I might be able to lightly "blast" those sections with my sand gun after removing all of that undercoating. I am not so worried about the aesthetics on the underside as I am about keeping the rust at bay - or at least sealed up and not continuing to do any harm to the whole lid.
 
why not media blast then lightly sand blast you will solve 2 problems at 1 time no undercoating and no rust i had my hood done then i painted it no problems after 5 yrs
 
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