Hello all,

New here. Thanks for having me.

I am not much of a handy man, so I wanted to get some feedback on the best way to take some rust off my roof and little tiny areas on the hood (very small). I want to preface this, it's a 1999 Jeep Cherokee, I am not worried about repainting it (even though it only has 83,000 miles on this bad boy). Just want to get the rust off and it is on my roof anyways. Unless you are 6 foot you are not going to see it.

There is a link to the image below, it's really all surface rust. From what I read, use a sander or sand paper to remove the loose bits. Then use navel jelly per the instructions to completely remove the rust. Then apply a clear coat of rust protection of some sort. Rust covers 75% of the roof I would say, but really is just surface rust.

For the hood, was just going to use naval jelly and seal it with clear rust protection.

Any feedback would be great. First time messing with the body of a car, so be nice, LOL.

Thanks in advance.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4DzUW9ut2LUWXU3bVoyTGVvWUE/view?usp=sharing

That's pretty significant rust. I'm assuming you don't have spray equipment. So, grind or wire-wheel it off - all the way off until the metal is clean. Then either brush on or get an activated aerosol can of epoxy primer from your local autobody (jobber) supplier.

You can then go over that with an aerosol single-stage paint and be done with it.

I have a 94 Cherokee with about 194,000 miles which has similar rust. Not quite as bad though. For me it's not worth the time, effort, and material cost to fix the problem. Figuring the engine will die before the rust gets all the way through.

Thanks guys.

Chris, I do know some people that I could possibly borrow them from.

Beo, 83,000 miles on a straight 6 is nothing. It drives new after tires and shocks. I had a friend with the exact same model as mine and ran for 455,000 miles. While I know every case is the same, I have had mechanics who can't believe the condition the engine is in. So I do want to try to stop the rust.

Does everyone think Chris's response is the best way to go?

Thanks

tapupartforpres wrote:Thanks guys.

Chris, I do know some people that I could possibly borrow them from.

Beo, 83,000 miles on a straight 6 is nothing. It drives new after tires and shocks. I had a friend with the exact same model as mine and ran for 455,000 miles. While I know every case is the same, I have had mechanics who can't believe the condition the engine is in. So I do want to try to stop the rust.

Does everyone think Chris's response is the best way to go?

Thanks

WHY YES, HE'S RIGHT he's the sight admin.! sure he's correct, you need to get all the brown off. like he said it looks like more than what we call surface rust. the light brown probably isn't to bad it the dark brown that are probably scaly pits. you will need to clean them, you might try your navel jelly and see how it works. when you get it all clean get some epoxy, Chris has it available here I believe or ********** . use a short napped roller and roll 2-3 coats on you should be good for quite some time.
Jay D.

I agree 83,000 is low miles. We could have a lengthy side conversation on the Jeep 4.0L engine. I'm on my second engine and it has started to knock... wrist pin issues. Common problem, look it up.

Also to consider is the fact the existing paint is failing all over the whole vehicle. You can cure the current rust problem, but other areas will be rusting in a year or two. the solution would be a complete repaint.

As far as the rust you have going on right now...

Start by washing the area you will be working on very well with soap and water. Follow with wax and grease remover, something like PrepAll. Getting the wax off now prevents you from working contaminants into the metal. Wire wheel until you have nothing but bright metal. If you can't get all the rust out of the pits with the wheel then navel jelly is OK. But after it's done the job all the residue has to come off the surface or you will have adhesion issues later on. Soap, water, and a wire brush, clean real well and get everything out of the pits. Follow with 80 grit to rough up the metal so the epoxy will stick. Clean again with wax and grease remover again. Then apply epoxy.

Epoxy application can be with a brush, but it will leave brush marks. A $20 Harbor Freight touch-up gun and a standard pancake compressor will get you a smoother finish. But there is a learning curve involved.

Good luck!!!!