Paint Questions: Best Way To tackle Rust Repair And Repainting My Regal GS.

['93RegalGS3800]

Forgive me for the car being dirty in the pictures. I'll take care of that once it warms up around here.

 

I've been pondering about repainting my Buick for some time now. The car was brought down from Arizona to Florida at the turn of the century. I remember first seeing her and how she shined bright white in the sun. Fast forward to the end of my Freshman year of highschool and the horror begins.

 

It started on the roof of the car. A little patch of surface rust and some peeling paint. That would eventually take over the entire roof. The hood and trunk started to peel after the roof. The problem areas are on the top of the car but now there are issues starting on the tops of the rear quarters with peeling paint.

 

I find this car intimidating to paint with the ammount of trim there is to remove and tape off. I'm also worried about having to pull the fixed glass and cleaning up any channels under them to kill any speck of rust. Knowing where I stand all the exterior molding will have to come off.

 

If I had the tools and place to do it I'd give this car a full unibody strip and restoration, but right now that isn't feasable. I need an alternative to keep this car going untill I can get a place to do that.

 

My questions are:

 

>How to I remove the trim off the car?

 

>What is the best kind of paint I should use for my situation? (If it be just a good primer, rattle can white, or full on pro paint job.)

 

>Is removing fixed glass as intimidating as I think it is?

 

>Do they even sell weather strip kits and the such for my car?

 

As the days go on these rust issues haunt me. I wanna be able to clear this up till I can be able to do that restoration that I wanna do.

[Nas Escobar]

That roof is pretty bad. IDK if it would be more than just "surface rust" and you have to be prepared to have to do actual body work. That roof may be SOL.

 

Other than that, Aircraft stripper, a lot of sanding, and if you can get your hands on air tools, then a paint gun and 2 or so gallons of primer and paint. The duplicolor gallon paint isn't very expensive ($25 or so at Auto Zone) but the paint gun will be the hardest thing to do. I also would suggest practicing using a paint gun before painting the car. You don't want runs on it.

['93RegalGS3800]

I'd hate to be SOL with the roof. I really don't wanna cut this car right now.

 

I thought about taking a drill with a wire wheel on it and grind the rust off that way. I tried a sander before but it wasen't really working out.

 

I got to see about getting the car tent thing we have cleared out. I'd park this car under there to keep it out of the direct weather.

 

Reparing the wet interior was one thing but this is completely diffrent. Painting a car is a whole nother kind of porcess.

 

 

That roof is pretty bad. IDK if it would be more than just "surface rust" and you have to be prepared to have to do actual body work. That roof may be SOL.

 

Other than that, Aircraft stripper, a lot of sanding, and if you can get your hands on air tools, then a paint gun and 2 or so gallons of primer and paint. The duplicolor gallon paint isn't very expensive ($25 or so at Auto Zone) but the paint gun will be the hardest thing to do. I also would suggest practicing using a paint gun before painting the car. You don't want runs on it.

[94 olds vert]

Sand the roof down to bare metal and hope you dont have any rust through points. If you dont get it primed and painted.

 

If you do there are two options get it patched with new metal. Or bondo it up. Its just a roof not that noticible compared to a fender.

 

These cars arent worth much I would bondo it.

[Nas Escobar]

I'd hate to be SOL with the roof. I really don't wanna cut this car right now.

 

You wouldn't be cutting the car' date=' what would happen is that when you sand down the roof and you get to bare metal, there may be chunks of it that are so thin and weak that they just come off. You can usually tell on the metal how weak it really is. When you press down on it, it should still feel solid. If it feels like smoosh then the metal is done.

 

I thought about taking a drill with a wire wheel on it and grind the rust off that way. I tried a sander before but it wasen't really working out.

 

That is another method, just be sure not to cut the metal. Also with some sanders you still have to use sandpaper on the disc. Usually 40-80 grit will cut through rust.

 

BTW here's a video I found on rust repair. It's not the best thing out there but for someone like you I think this may be a good fit. This is a 5 part series. I've been thinking about doing this to my Camaro. I have a rust hole I need to fix.

 

[video=youtube;wRYnMUx5CMg]

 

I got to see about getting the car tent thing we have cleared out. I'd park this car under there to keep it out of the direct weather.

 

Reparing the wet interior was one thing but this is completely diffrent. Painting a car is a whole nother kind of porcess.

 

 

Why was the interior wet?

 

If you don't feel confident about your skills, then I recommend you paint a panel at a time. The most important thing is for you to strip all the paint off the trunk and hood as those areas seem the worst hit with the paint peel ad go from there. If you can find a cheap used air compressor, I'd go that route to paint the car with a paint gun. It will be 100 times easier than using rattle cans. Rattle cans are not made for painting whole bodies. IT can be done but it is very tedious.

[rich_e777]

If you were to rattle can the car go with Valspar exterior paint. Best rattle can ive used, minimal runs and the paint is of good quality.

[Garrett Powered]

you kind of need a really good air compressor to paint a whole car. you need rust-mort to convert the rust. probably shouldn't use any stripper or cheap paint.

 

twin cylinder 60 gallon tank and a DA and some 400 grit. then a 2-part high build primer. you can get a cheap gun for that, but should spend a lot more on the gun for base/clear.

 

either that or just rattle can. Going to need to talk to some professional painters or the guy at the automotive paint store, there is a lot to it. but the only way to get good is try it yourself and wait a couple years and see how it holds up.

['93RegalGS3800]

Looks like some good information on rust repair. I think I can get away with bondo if I have to. I've never done any major body work before, but I figure I can learn how to do it on this car.

 

When I first got in this forum it was right after we had 27 inches of rain here in Pensacola FL. The car got flooded and I pulled the carpet because it got wet. (You don't remember barrowing one of my pictured from that thread?)

 

You wouldn't be cutting the car, what would happen is that when you sand down the roof and you get to bare metal, there may be chunks of it that are so thin and weak that they just come off. You can usually tell on the metal how weak it really is. When you press down on it, it should still feel solid. If it feels like smoosh then the metal is done.

 

 

 

That is another method, just be sure not to cut the metal. Also with some sanders you still have to use sandpaper on the disc. Usually 40-80 grit will cut through rust.

 

BTW here's a video I found on rust repair. It's not the best thing out there but for someone like you I think this may be a good fit. This is a 5 part series. I've been thinking about doing this to my Camaro. I have a rust hole I need to fix.

 

[video=youtube;wRYnMUx5CMg]

 

 

 

 

Why was the interior wet?

 

If you don't feel confident about your skills, then I recommend you paint a panel at a time. The most important thing is for you to strip all the paint off the trunk and hood as those areas seem the worst hit with the paint peel ad go from there. If you can find a cheap used air compressor, I'd go that route to paint the car with a paint gun. It will be 100 times easier than using rattle cans. Rattle cans are not made for painting whole bodies. IT can be done but it is very tedious.

[Nas Escobar]

Looks like some good information on rust repair. I think I can get away with bondo if I have to. I've never done any major body work before' date=' but I figure I can learn how to do it on this car.

 

When I first got in this forum it was right after we had 27 inches of rain here in Pensacola FL. The car got flooded and I pulled the carpet because it got wet. (You don't remember barrowing one of my pictured from that thread?)[/quote']

 

The biggest thing with bondo is not going crazy with it and making sure it's flush with the car. I don't think you'll have to tear apart that whole roof but hopefully you can find something to loosen up all that rust.

 

 

Yeah, I remember now. I forget who does what on here sometimes.

['93RegalGS3800]

It wouldn't bother me too much if I ended up tearing the roof apart to fix this. If I got the interior fixed then I can fix this rust.

 

From what I saw from the viedo you posted bondo is best put on in small batches. Only thing is that I'm dealing with a larger area...

 

I haven't been active on here for awhile so I can understand forgetting my initial posts. I get in the car now and it's like that never happened.

 

The biggest thing with bondo is not going crazy with it and making sure it's flush with the car. I don't think you'll have to tear apart that whole roof but hopefully you can find something to loosen up all that rust.

 

 

Yeah, I remember now. I forget who does what on here sometimes.

[Nas Escobar]

If the whole roof is gone, then that's not a bondo job anymore, that's a weldng job. You would have to get a roof cut from a junked regal and you would have to have someone else weld it on for you... which isn't out the norm. I know someone on here had some big weld job on their TGP.

 

If you're sure it's only surface rust, hopefully you can get away with sanding it off, although you may have to bondo it a bit, but that would be different than making a whole new piece from scratch. You could technically fiberglass the whole roof but getting the shape of it would be hard.