great work dude! your welding is really coming on well! already better than sme of the shite I've seen on here hahaha

Thanks man, having a proper bottle and regulator makes all the difference.

i bet! i couldnt get on with the hobby bottles there shit! now i just gasweld everything with oxy/acetaline as i cba with mig / arc lol

gonna be sweet this :)

I hope so Eric, anything is possible with enough effort.

So, painters, here's one for you.

I am treating rust as I go and baremetalling it where possible. Will it be ok to prime it with a few coats of Zinc 182 anti rust primer? Or will this react with the new paint when it goes on?

I want to avoid it getting surface rust while it lives in my garage for the next few months prior to paint shop. What's my best option?

That should be ok (though am I really one to comment, see my thread!). If you're worried, you could use bar coat between the zinc primer and high build primer, but I don't think that's necessary. We used to zinc prime and then paint things at work. But by all means get a second opinion.

I can't believe you're taking this one though, it's more rot than metal. Fair play and kudos for keeping another one on the road

Bear in mind though that primer is porous, so long expose to moisture will eventually cause rust to form underneath the primer and break-out on the surface.

A friend of mine had a NOS Mark1 Derby wing that had been painted in red-oxide primer over the original black E-coat, and left that way for some time in a garage/unit. When we came to prep it for paint we had to bare-metal the whole thing and treat with Jenolite to stand half a chance or erradicating the rust that was forming.

Granted it took years for it to get that bad, but it's worth trying to avoid leaving things in primer for great lengths of time if at all possible.

I'll have to dig out Mikela Auto Tuning's website. It's big budget stuff done for customers, but seeing some of the husks of grot they bring back to showroom condition, it shows anything's possible!

Mine wasn't easy going, but a lot of the problems mine had were from being badly repaired after a rear end smash, which allowed water-ingress causing grot, otherwise it wasn't/isn't a bad shell in the areas that count now on early Polos.

EDIT: Here's a crusty old Group B Celica for proof that anything's possible!

^^Pretty amazing stuff there.

I'm on my phone so will have to look at the link later. I can't help thinking that I'm the first on here to restore a mk2 that's this bad (well the first to publish it) as I've had a look a a lot of the build threads and can't find one like it.

I wonder what a better solution to primer is then as I don't want to waste paint if I don't need it. My garage is dry but and carpeted but as its not heated it will naturally be cooler and damper than a house.

That Celica rebuild is amazing

Zinc prime, etch, high build and then blow a bit of colour over it to keep the moisture out. When you come to properly paint it, just take it all back again.

Oh wow, That link was amazing!

Is etch really necessary?

Today, this happened

new panel from Guy

It's advisable to help adhesion of the paint

Small update

I ended up making light work of the panel that Guy sent

Welded in, just needs a skim of filler to level it of after dressing the welds with the flapper wheel

and some new toys

Some fancy wolfsburg bits that were cheap and some audi quattro VDO gauges

Edited 12 June, 201313 yr by runforrestrun

I like the gear knob there.

Regarding etch (again) it shouldn't really be used on old paint as it can lift it. I've never had a problem personally, but I've not ofter used etch. Where I've rubbed back to metal I've not used etch personally, just 2K high build.

I still can't believe you're taking this on. Such commitment

Good stuff Jim.

Can you etch prime onto Zinc primer? Won't it react/lift the zinc like it does to basically anything except bare metal?

Worth looking into Nick. Again, I've never had a problem and the zinc content may have an effect (more zinc = less lift?). Worth trying on a spare panel really. Zinc primer actually has a fairly rough finish to it any way so you could probably forget the etch for that reason

It's all good fun. I might not use the chrome bits, so I will let you know if I sell them.

I've bought etch but so far just sprayed weld through primer (zinc rich) or zinc 182 over the bare metal as the garage is dry anyway, but once I've finished each area I will give it a splash of colour to protect it.

I've bought two cans of etch on your recommendation but have yet to research or use them yet.

At least it's easy to get back to bare metal (I just use a blowtorch to burn it off!)

Etch 'should' be used on bare metal, but unless the whole panel is sans paint, that can be hard. Always good to have a couple of cans for painting anything metal mind

What chrome bits are you talking about there?

The ones right above.??? Lol

But he just bought them, thats quick to get sick of them. Thought I might have missed something in an earlier post

Update - Windscreen surround is now finished.

Tonight I finished removing what was left of crossmember. Who has seen in here before I wonder..

I wonder how to clean up the inside of it. Any ideas anyone? I'm thinking shotblast is the only viable option? It looks worse than it is as it's full of leaves too, but there is some surface rust in there too.

Edited 2 July, 201313 yr by runforrestrun

I'd be tempted to spray some waxoil down there. I'm thinking that's what I might do on mine.

you got a compressor Jim just blast some air down there or even some carb or brake cleaner as it will drain a lot of the dirt out, wont cause any rust and will evaporate leaving no residue

Use some of that veg oil you seem to have been stocking .... lol

soooo... I've decided to get a new shell.

There's just too much work in this to make it worth my time.

I've decided that I'd rather start with a solid base (same game plan though) and cut out six months of hard graft, than spend all summer in the garage getting weld burn and not 'really' having anything to show for it. After all the sooner I have a shell covered in paint, the sooner I will have a car to drive!

There you go, I said it!

Not as committed as I thought.. oops