Cars get rusty as time goes on. They are made of metal, so it’s as simple as that. Unless you are driving a 1980 AMC Eagle, it will happen to you. You have probably seen my 1971 Ford Torino 500 before if you have read this blog. If not, go check it out! It’s very rusty. Now, I do co-own a body shop, but for some strange reason, I decided to try to do everything at home by hand.
Sanding sort of worked, but I wanted to give Naval Jelly a try. You’re supposed to brush it on, and in five to ten minutes, rinse it off and the rust is gone. I have looked to see if anyone has used this on a car before. Many people have used it on small car parts and small sections of a car, but never large panels or parts of a car. So, I did.
I tested it out on a portion of the roof and part of the gas tank in the trunk. I left the first coat on for about 20 minutes. It did something. There was an outline where the product was, and that area was lighter. Now, this rust is pretty nasty. It’s deep, and has pitted the metal.
I decided to try another coat, but after hitting it with a wire brush and cleaning the area with acetone. After the second coat, the area got lighter again. So I followed the same steps: apply, sit, rise, wire brush, acetone, repeat.
Eventually, I started seeing bare metal on the gas tank. Finally! The roof seemed to have exposed an old layer of primer. I wanted to do more, but I unexpectedly had an unrelated issue I had to take care of. So, I just managed to do these smaller sections, but at least I manged to actually see Naval Jelly used on a car!
All in all, it worked. It wasn’t the most spectacular thing, but with some elbow grease, I would say that it is a good way to get rid of rust. With more time, I could have gotten much more off. Is it better than sanding? Well, sanding helped, but my arm was done by the time I finished. With this, I was feeling much less fatigued. So, I leave that choice up to you.
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