Rust that's dripped, and dried on paint

So a car that I'll be potentially working on in the coming months has a few rust "drips" on the hood. He said it came from rust dripping on the hood, from something that was wet and rusted, but the rust then dried on the hood.

Can it be removed? I was thinking wet sanding but :shrug: . It's not rust from where a paint chip was, it's on top of the clear coat.. but I dunno anything about chemical bonding, so perhaps the rust ate it' way through the clear?

And ideas?

 

Decon Kit has my vote...

 

I've delt with rust "runs" before, some not yet visible rust under a door handle has been sending rust colored water down the door, staining the paint. It comes right out with polishing.

I dunno how different your situation is.

 

I dealt with rust stain on a rim where an old lug nut was used and the car sat in the rain. So rust "ran" onto the rim. They were painted and cleared rims so clay and some polish took it right off.

 

I agree, I've had some rust spots on vehicle and a good clay bar usually does the trick, sometimes I had to use an aggressive clay bar like Red Clay Magic....but I've never had stubborn rust stains though so can't comment on what else to use if a clay bar wont remove the rust spots.

 

Thanks guys! I was thinking it shouldn't be too hard.. but he took it to a body shop.. and they said it'd have to be sanded down and repainted so I was just curious .

 

I'm curious to see how the clay will hold up, let us know how things work out.

 

I have worked on a Subaru that had some rusty water continuously dripping on it for some unknown period of time. Relatively hard water too so not only was it stained it was etched really badly too. I don't really know how to word this but you could almost see the depth of the staining too

Super aggressive polishing as well as wetsanding did not touch it at all. It was stained probably full clear and color thickness...the parts affected were all repainted(hood and front fascia).

Get it off as soon as possible and work through your flow of methods.. I wish you luck on this one

EDIT: I just read your response, that stinks. You always wish you can fix these

 

i found a decon kit for you!!!

ok but seriously clay should do the job.. it did on my white e34 540i that has near 15 year old paint!!

 

Water-based automotive paint is classified as a semi-permeable membrane; rusty water will leach into the paint and remain in the substrate further permeating given time.

Detailer’s clay will remove the solidified rust contaminants from the clear coat, but will not affect the other coats of the paint system.

A paint decontamination system will penetrate these paint layers and neutralize the corrosion, if it is not neutralized each time water permeates the paint it will cause further corrosion