Hi all- new member here.. I have a question about surface rust Im looking for advise on. Got a 88 full size Blazer. Right now I use it for my part-time lawn service and any other chores that require a truck so its not a daily driver. It sits outside for now. Im the 2nd owner and I fully intend on “restoring” probably 5 years or so from now. (it is in excellent mechanical shape and body only has 2 small quarter sized rust holes on the ¼ panel down by the corner of the door so it’s a real keeper..) They aren’t the problem as Ill weld a patch in there when I restore it. Problem is the surface rust developing on the hood and roof. It’s the kind of rust you can literally wipe away with you hand. What can I treat it with to stop this until I get around to restoring it? I have tried a coat of car way just left on but I think that over time the sun and rain dissolve it. Navel jelly/steel wool and rattle can primer?? Unfortuantely cant keep inside.. that’s where Im restoring my 1969 chevy stepside (numbers matching..grin…) thanks for any advise - diggerdave

I used some rust converter from wally world on the wife's car where she scraped the paint off down to the metal. It's been at least a year and the rust is still gone. I know I'm gonna have to sand it off to paint, but for a "get by" it's worked for me and it's cheap.:D

BTW Welcome to the board from South Mississippi.:D

With rust, the sooner you remove it...the better. Rust never sleeps and only gets worse 24/7. The best thing IMO would be to completely remove it since it sounds like it is in the initial stages.

If the paint is thin enough to get rust in a few areas, you will soon have it on the whole hood. The aresol rust converter will work OK, but will damage any currently good paint that it gets sprayed on.

I would prefer to sand the entire hood w/ 60 grit sandpaper to bare metal and epoxy prime the entire hood (3 lite coats of epoxy). If you want to use rattle can paint instead, prime it and paint it w/ some spray paint. Use at least 4 good coats of paint because the one part rattle can paint will not last very long, and you will be right back where you started in a couple of years.

If you go epoxy primer, the hood will be ready to restore when you are..if you go rattle can (the cheaper and easier way) you will need to go back to bare metal and start all over to restore it.