I have been dealing with Vermont rust for 30 years, much of the early work
on 404s, which rusted if you dried your laundry near them.
Rust in the land of the road-salt warriors is a constant guerilla war, in
which success is simply delaying the inevitable, but the delay can be very
considerable, and definitely worth the effort.
Peugeot has improved their rust resistance with each new model. 404s were
commonly unsafe to drive in 3 years of driving, particularly the 69s and
70s.
Before rust conversion coatings, I did a lot of structural repair with
fiberglass--cloth, mat, and tigerhair (fibers mixed with resin). The key
to success was getting all the crusty rust off so the bond was with good
metal, if still a little rusty on the surface, and using enough resin to
thoroughly saturate the fibers so moisture could not wick in to the metal.
The best paint I found was Rustoleum Damp-Proof Red Primer, made with a
fish-oil base. I made several test panels from the back-sides of old water
heater jackets, left outside to get good and rusty. I painted these with
criss-crossing stripes of everything I thought of using, and Consumers'
Union notwithstanding, found the Damp-proof much the best of all, both as
primer and topcoat. I think Rustoleum superceded Damp-proof (#969 I think)
with Rusty Metal Primer, which I don't think is quite as effective.
Possibly the Wurth paint is better--I haven't heard of it before.
Presently, my favorite product for treating rusty spots and assemblies
which don't require seam penetration, is Extend by Duro/Loctite (the
brush-on is much better than the stuff in the spray can). It is important
to chip, scrape, and wire-brush to get all the crusty rust off, and to thin
the rest of the rust. On paint rust spots, it can be hard to prevent the
edges from spreading later, especially if you don't scrape the paint back
far enough.
For a rusted door-bottom seam you have the problem that you can't get
inside the seam to paint or convert the rust. But you can chip, scrape,
and wirebrush the rust you can get at, and convert or paint it, then squirt
oil (I like FluidFilm) inside the doorbottom to soak into the seam. Be
sure the drain holes are clean.
At 12:20 AM 5/8/1999 -0400, Steve Bednarski wrote:
>Kevin,
>
>I grew up in upstate New York and now live in Pennsylvania, so I have seen
>my share of rust on many cars and tried many types of repairs including the
>treatments that turn rust to a blackish blue compound from Rustoleum and
>others. They don't work! The rust comes back.
>
>What does work and seems to be permanent is Wurth RustGuard paint. It is
>available from Imparts at 1-800-325-9043 in either black or silver. It is
>pricey but it stops the rust permanently. My sister in law's 1983 Honda
>Civic is a testament to its effectiveness over the course of three years
>now.
>
>I give it my highest recommendation.
>
>Regards,
>Steve Bednarski
>
>P.S. Could you post this reply to the list. I don't know how to do it and I
>think others would be interested.
>
>
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>
Brian Holm, Parts for Peugeots
at Peugeot Holm, since 1969
2120 Maple Hill
Plainfield, VT, 05667
802-454-7132, fax -1310