Floor pan rust removal and finishing
 

Hi

I am in the process of sorted my 144’s floor pans. As is so often the case, rust is the result of a leaking windscreen (yes, the stupid clips) keeping the woolie matting under the rubber flooring soaked, with nowhere for the water to go.

Three of the four circular factory holes, that had expanded with rot, were cut right back and plated over to a good standard about 2 years ago.

Windscreen is now sealed (welding job pending) so I have taken out the rubber flooring, woolie matting and the passenger front seat. I have also prised off all the sound deadening (which traps water in the small grooves that run along the floor) I should point out, I have to use my car every day and I have to work in the road with no power supply.

The floor as it stands is actually very good; I’ve gone over it with a fine toothcomb and its all truly surface rust except for 2 pin holes no more than 1mm diameter (measured back to bare steel)

My question is options from here on. Ideally the car would be off the road and being shot-blasted or similar but needs and budget limit me. The options I’m thinking are:-

1. Paint strip the entire tub, re-seem seal with Tigerseal, Bilt Hamber Deox Gel, Zinc prime and top coat of flexible product. Not fussy about colour.

2. Sand back the rusty bits only and use Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80 where I need to. Zinc prime and top coat

There are so many products out there; I can’t afford POR15 and have learnt the hard way with Hammer****e (good for gates & railings only IMHO) but either way don’t want to be doing the job again in 5 years time.
Does Nitromors (or similar) wipe out seam sealer?

I can’t use power tools and frankly they create so much mess, I try to avoid them.

Like I said, I know the correct way is to strip the car and acid dip / shot blast but can’t do that right now, as much as I’d love to….

Any tips? Cheers all

Wire brush with deox gel (don't bother with converters they are very superficial at best) then an epoxy Mastic is the best paint to go for. Rust buster 121 it is rebadged Jotun, if you are willing to spend a bit more for a larger quantity the Jotun Jotamastic 87 from SML paints. Can be applied with a mini roller if you thin it down or stripe coated (roller then brush) both will give a decent finish.

Interesting products mentioned.
If one goes the rout of using say
Bilt Hamber Deox Gel , then uses Jotun Jotamastic 87, what should one do next, on top of this?
Perhaps I am confused...?

Try "Fertan" as a rust remover/inhibitor.
http://www.fertan.co.uk/

Thanks very much; so can the epoxy mastic go straight onto bare metal? Will it bond to the original paint in areas that aren't at all rusty? Given that the spot welds to the chassis rails are prone to getting rusty, I think an entire strip would be best. To save time, could a blow torch on a low setting be used - I know the fuel pipe runs under it...

Epoxy Mastic is what they call surface tolerant, it bonds very well to keyed steel or paint. If your old paint is sound in places there is really no reason to remove it, key it and paint over.

GP; you can leave epoxy Mastic as the top coat, it doesn't need over painting. Epoxies are UV sensitive so will eventually chalk up if exposed to sunlight but not an issue on a car floor. Epoxy Mastic can be over painted with virtually anything, you could chose a good 2k polyurethane paint or even a stone chip/bed liner coating like Raptor or Gravitex. But isn't required.

To remove paint mechanically I think the non-woven preparation wheels for a grinder or drill are best, Screwfix sell them.

There speaks a man fully conversant with the issues subjected to offshore Industry; you would do well to heed it.
If its good enough for that Industry then i suggest you follow the advice
Most of the other stuff is diluted crap of the same pro****.
We had a product(long since used my stores up😩) that came as a milky solution and we applied it on all the running blocks, eyebolts and other wear surfaces where it would be uselss to apply paint. Came from the Oil&Gas, v expensive but it worked REALLY well.

Quite a cryptic message there but thanks!

Just saw this on another forum, remember Rustbuster 121 is Jotun Smartpack rebadged; http://www.auson.se/sites/default/fi...monthly_uk.pdf