Here is the car that will probably be going home with me tonight. I have taken pictures of the three noticable surface rust areas. I think this is not bad (but I am such a newbie, I don't know much about body work). We will not be painting the car for awhile, but I want to stop the rust now. Would you sand it down and then apply a rust prohibitor like Rust Bullet or something else? The close up picture of the area around the vents did turn out well. But if you look close you can see the paint is peeling up and the rust underneath is very light and just barely sprinkled here and there. Also if anyone know anything about interior, can this small rip in the door panel be repaired. It is the only tear in the interior.
id say you have a very very solid car if thats the only places where you have rust the biggest areas on mavericks well fords in general are the floors, the lower fenders and rear quarters and the cowl. but if thats all you have is surface rust in the pics you have posted just sand the surface rust down just either rust bullit or POR 15 ( i like this better just choice) then bondo and a glazing putty to fill in the pits from the rust and just primer over it to stop the rust till you have the car painted
Pour a gallon of water in the cowl slots in front of the windshield. If water ends up inside the car, find another one. The water should run out on each side of the car, at the back of the front fenders. The cowl vents are hard to fix and expensive. Hope this helps.
I did. I took the guys garden hose and pour water down the vents why my son sat inside looking for leaks. No leaks found. Thanks for the tips.
I tried my best to look at the floor pans and trunk. Looking underneath without jacking her up, she looked pretty solid. no noticable rust. Gas tank looked good too. The trunk still has the old trunk "carpet" with some sort of backing on in. The backing is nasty and gunky and partially stuck to the trunk. I pulled up sections of the padding and it looked really good underneath except in one area. In this area there was a some surface rust, but not too much maybe 4 inches by 4 inces - metal was solid. I am going to use the tech article to address this area. I am hoping the oil and stuff soaked into this padding has help preserve the trunk and when I get the rest of the carpet up I will not be surprised.
That rust by the back window is mildly scary ... I would have a pro deal with that. Otherwise it looks very good.
The roof rust is scary, that's not a common spot, I'm sure you'll find more....The hood's been fixed....the front bumper is crooked...I'll stop now.
Where were you when I was looking. Well the trunk is not as nice as I had hoped, but not as bad as I have seen here. there is only one major cancer spot and a few small eraser size holes. Of course, the one place I did not pull up the trunk padding.
Give this a try for your vinyl. I think the door trim can be made to look a lot better pretty easy. You'll end up with a "line" but it'll get rid of the open looking tear and will probably get rid of those wrinkles at the same time. Sometimes when the budget is key one of the "that'll do" repairs is just the ticket. You'll have to remove the panel to do the best job. Peel it loose just at that top area and turn inside out just enough to make a good flat square area to work with when you glue a "backing patch" in there. Try and get the flat area no less that 1/2" all the way around the tear. Also try and clean out any of the foam padding as rectangular as possible that is probably stuck to the back of the orignal vinyl. This allows you to cut a piece of some other "soft" material the same size to keep it from "cratering" when stretched back over and re-glued to the backer board. Get you some blue vinyl as close to the color as possible for the patch. Press the tear back together and tape with a good clear tape (packing tape will do) on the original vinyl side. The clear tape lets you see if you're happy with the look of the repair. Using contact cement (follow the directions exactly), glue the patch to the back with the color facing what will be the interior of the car. Remember, the repair is not going to dissappear but it looks like you've got a pretty clean tear to work with and you'll improve it a ton. I wouldn't even try using one of those vinyl repair kits to fill the remaining hairline unless you've got the talent of Michaelangelo for mixing paints. I've found that when the color is off just one shade the repair becomes more noticeable than just leaving it alone. Good luck.
