My moms old e46 is forming small sports of rust. What do you guys suggest to remove it so it won't spread? Is it something we can do at home like sand and paint touch up? Pic:
yeah sure. Thats not bad at all. Sand it down to bare metal. Hit it with some rust prohibitor. Prime it and respay the spot.
^^ What he said, OSPHO is a good rust inhibitor/convertor, they use it at marina's all the time. Ospho Rust Treatment - Since 1947
I have never seen an E46 rust like that - is that between the fender and the front bumper area ? You have to think, what got underneath it that would cause this to come out? Or, was the paint scraped, hit, scratched, etc., and then rust formed on the bare metal from the top? Good luck with this ! Dan F
I think it's from water collecting. There's this spot where the rear bumper meets the rear fender. There is also one small one where the rear window meets the hatch area. And I think one more. Can't remember. I'll look later. I assume it's salt corrosion from winter. Some brine collects and sits and eats away.
What is colour sanding, is it just sanding the colour until it levels out with the other part of the car and then level it with compounding. I googled color sand it actually shows me how to color sand, like dye little sand particles.
Take off the bumper to fix the rust. You might even have some on the inside of the fender... Use a steel bristle grinder thing on a drill and make sure all the rust is gone. I would suggest using chemicals to remove some after this step b/c rust makes little pits and arent level with your working surface. You could use a "zinc chromate" primer to seal everything up before using paint primer. Use some putty also! If you made repairs inside the fender, hit it up with gravel guard. What he's refering to color sanding is to ruff up the clear coat next to the rust spot so you can blend in your color and clear instead of having a single repair spot.
