Any thoughts on fixing this rust?

I don't know what I managed to get myself into, but the rust on my roof got rough without me paying attention.

A couple of auto body spots have told me to just sell it or just drive it, that whatever I do will just come back. I appreciate their honesty, but I'd rather fix it up correctly (even if that costs a bit more) and not just wait for it to rust through in the hopes that I can do more fun projects on it. Is there any hope of restoring it and does anybody know somebody near Kingston, NY that would work on it?

Any suggestions greatly appreciated,
Brad

 

Well I think that body shop don’t know crap
Proper sanding and prepping will fix that!!!

you can do your self also, I think on this forum there is a few posts on painting the roof yourself with cans

 

Thanks for the info. I'll take a look for painting myself too. Got another place I'm gonna try out today.

 

You can definitely sand that roof down, prep it properly, and paint it without problem. It will be laborious, but is definitely doable. Considering I'm restoring a 76 midget... it's definitely possible to fix surface rust.

 

Agree; not overly challenging to fix properly at home. It won't look factory, but if you get colour-matched paint, it won't be too bad. You will need to remove the windshield to do it properly however.

 

Not a body guy but I have experience hot salt bluing firearms. With bluing, if there are pits in the metal it is imperative the rust be removed from the pit. If you don't in most cases the pit will turn a nice bright orange after bluing as the rust grows from it. How I dealt with pits was to bead blast (aluminum oxide) them and then polish as usual.

I would think there are a few options available to deal with the rust in the pits if any. I would definitely try something to neutralize the rust prior to prime and paint.

 

Most body Shops will not take jobs like that . Much more money to be made doing late model collision work for insurance companies

Look for a person that does bodywork on the side to support there 4x4 parts habit .

I wonder bead blasting might be the best prep method to start cleaning out all the rust in the pits.

Being 4 hours away would be a tad to far to offer help.

 

Thanks all a bunch. This was a wealth of information. I did find a smaller autobody shop willing to do it, just had to hike out a ways to find them. Will post an update when I get it back (and I'm never letting anybody clean snow off my truck again, which I'm guessing was the culprit upon further inspection).

 

The classic shovel across the paint? Seen that one done...

 

Looks that way, but I'm not going to point any fingers.

 

My roof and hood are like that never saw anything but plastic or the nylon brush on the long handled scrapers .

Just the climate I live in.

 

I'm sure for me it's a combination of all of the above, climate, shovels, etc. I'm excited to get it all fixed up, to probably have to fix it again due to the salt and snow and ice.

 

Post some after pics..that's gonna be a nice tranformation.

Like you I live in this ice cube part of the country and my wife's old Rav4 looked the same, though that one was 13-14 years old when it started.

 

I'd get the roof wrapped

 

Any after photos of this yet?