What's a good rust remover?

[Fornesto]

I'm beginning to disect my interior. Ultimate plans are to Durabak the whole thing and carpet the front. First, I've got to stabilize the floor pans. My cargo area is immaculate, the rest is cheeto-ish, nasty rusty, see through. I was going to grind it down as reasonable, treat with Naval Jelly, prime, patch/cover with fiberglass, roll on the Durabak, carpet and move on.

Question: Are there better products than Naval Jelly and primer for this task? Good rust removers....grrrrr!!!!

[klank]

I hear everyone talking about Por-15 from www.eastwood.com. (http://www.eastwood.com.)

[tgreese]

The bottle of Naval Jelly that I have contains phosphoric acid, and as such is not a rust remover, but a rust convertor. The rust is changed chemically into a hard, black magnetite (a form of iron oxide). Rust removers typically use oxalic acid, the principle ingredient of radiator flush.

POR-15 converts rust and also applies a hard finish - I don't know very much more about the chemistry, other than it's paint-like and very tough. Naval Jelly contains no paint, unlike POR-15 and the Eastwood "Rust Encapsulator". POR-15 requires a top coat of paint if exposed to sunlight, Eastwood does not.

POR-15 sells a floorboard/trunk repair kit that uses fiberglass embedded in POR-15 - similar to what you're planning.

[ February 17, 2004, 01:12 PM: Message edited by: tgreese ]

[RailSlide]

My frame is fubared near the skid plate. I'm thinking of welding angle iron over the pitting/holes. I will probably use a coating at some point. My question is: What to do first?

I was thinking

Wire Brush
Naval Jelly (wait for a few weeks while it converts)
POR-15 base coat in silver (metal flakes in silver POR-15)
Angle Iron weld job covering all holes
POR-15 final coat in black

[tgreese]

I'd probably apply weld-through primer on the areas that will be covered by the patch. I don't know how well you'd have to prepare the surface - weld-through may require bare steel. I would not apply any paint products (like POR-15) to the part that's going to be welded. Using Naval Jelly under POR-15 is pointless IMO.

I'd say -
grind the areas that will be covered by the patch
apply weld-through primer to bare steel
weld the patch
remove flaking rust with wire brush
paint the exposed rusty steel with POR-15

[osceola]

elbow grease

[RailSlide]

the question is, how much elbow grease?