lazy rust repair/paint job. Before and after pics.

[afterthisnap]

So I bought a 1990 legacy wagon , auto, non-turbo, in sunny TN with the intention of driving it to Utah.
It had 150k on the odometer and carfax, regular oil changes, no wrecks, and no rust...almost.
The "Misty Dawn" paint was in amazing condition for its age except for one total rot-through on the rear quarterpanel (This is after I peeled away the paint-scab that hid the corrosion).


There was a gob of mud that was stuck in the fender and it trapped water against the sheetmetal. Over time it formed a pinhole, and what water that made it in got stuck along the rubber adhesive material the factory used in there.

I put off fixing the hole until right before I left town, even though I had almost a month to get around to doing it. The average summer temperature here has been about 98degrees and 80% humidity- hours after I decided to getting around to dealing with the car it started to rain, and the forecast predicted that it wouldn't let up for days.

Even though conditions were terrible for painting, I knew that if I didn't get it done right then I would literally never have the chance/time do it, so said "F#(* it" to the weather, backed the tail end of the wagon into the garage, and went to town.

I sprayed as many surfaces I could reach with rust preventer or self etching primer, then let it dry for 4 hours, plugged any holes, then put in the base layer of bondo. The panel has a fairly flat contour so it was easy to sand down with a block.


The lower edge of the panel was heavily corroded and needed to be "rebuilt" so I began to take off the bumper to gain access to that edge. I accessed one exterior bolt and the clip nut it was attached to, and in the process of ripping out the interior panels I realized it is probably easier to pull the engine with a spoon than it is to take off the rear bumper.

Enter the laziness!

Since the top leading 3" edge of bumper was free to wiggle, I slid some 220 grit between the bumper and the quarterpanel and just shook the hell out of it until it shaped the bondo into what I thought would be passable.


It worked OK, and the throttling motion helped channel some of the aggression I held from trying to remove the bumper.

I did the sand and prime dance with 600 grit a few more times, and then when it came time to mask I only did the plastic trim. Yes, again with the laziness, but I also figured the paint was going to look so off that any overspray would help blend the color.


I had ordered a can each of "059 Misty Dawn" and the matching clearcoat from autmotivetouchup.com. It's basically a metallic beige with a little bit of burgundy to it. I've used metallic rattlecan from duplicolor in the past (pearl blue on a Buick) and it looked like total crap, but I have to say that I was surprised with the results with the Subaru:

First coat-super light :


Second coat:


Third coat:


Fourth coat:


First clear coat:


Second clear coat:



There may have been a fifth coat of base color; some of the coats were so lighty applied to blend that I didn't really count them as a coat.

The wagon is still in the garage and will stay there for another 24 rainy hours in an attempt to let the paint dry adequately in absolutely awful painting conditions. Here is how it looks now:




I tried to touch up a chip in the door edge and thought I screwed everything up when I wiped down the door with acetone. The edge of my rag swiped some of the quarter panel paint and made a small but really noticeable blemish in the fresh paint.
I just crossed my fingers and hit it with a coat of clear hoping that it would make it less noticeable. The clear actually pulled up some of the color (metal flake and all) of the base and it all redistributed it in an even coat, thus totally erasing my mistake. I thought it was fairly amazing at the time, but realize now that I had also spent several hours in a cloud of rattle-can vapor .


Anyway, I had these few photos of the process and thought I'd share.

[silver03]

Not bad, not bad at all.

[afterthisnap]

Thanks.
I just checked on the paint and it didn't do anything funky last night. I may close up the garage and run a radiator heater for a few hours to make sure.

Before this I prepped and sprayed the bumper with 2 coats and it came out just a hair lighter than the paint on the hatch.
The color match with 4+ coats is perfect and I can count all the small defects (dust specks, fisheyes, etc) on one hand- not bad for the bare minimum of prep and spraycans. I don't know if it was the humidity or the spray nozzle, but there is almost no orange peel. It looks indistinguishable from any of the other panels and even the bottom edge looks fine (from a few feet away).

[afterthisnap]

Does anyone have tips on preventing more rust?

The wagon's new life out west is going to see a lot of road salt and sand. The factory undercoating is chipping off in huge flakes but the metal beneath looks pristine.

[evolutionmovement]

Re-undercoat every spring the undercarriage and wheel wells wherever it got worn off. Do it the first time and every year after will only cost you a can or so. The other thing is to nail the rust when you see it. Get cold galvanizing zinc primer when you go down to metal and Pour 15 or other corrosion inhibitors poured into sills through the holes left by removing the kick panels on the sills will help prevent future rust from the inside. I also would hand clean the car at the car wash every week, using the high pressure hose to primarily blast out the undercarriage and wheel wells where sand collects. When you hit the bottom of the front fenders behind the tires, you should see all kinds of crap coming out between the door leading edge and fender. When it runs clear water, you're good. Another good thing is to make sure all seams are sealed with seam sealer. I have to do that on my new car since the factory didn't bother. Following these directions, my 1990 wagon had less rust than my 2006 Mazda 3 (which I didn't follow the above on) did when I traded it in last month.

But it looks good. If it weren't for the humidity from the rain, I bet you could've gotten it blemish free. I repainted a bike with spray cans and doing many light coats and wet sanding the few drips came out looking like it was done in a shop and only cost about $30.

[afterthisnap]

I was always led to believe that re-applying undercoat will lead to water/salt getting trapped between the cakes of the old coat and lead to accelerated rust. What products do you use?
I should have done it after 3 weeks of blazing hot temperatures and no rain. I was tempted to get the thing onto a lift and hitting the entire underside with something like rust bullet (I always had POR eventually peel off), but I don't think I want to deal with getting all the old stuff off.

I hit the sills with primer and such when I was trying to get the bumper off. I believe the factroy seam sealer is the culprit in the massive rust spot. You can see it in the second pic. It's the thick layer between the sheetmetal.
I'd be concerned with applying it incorrectly and getting water trapped in there.
I did that with a jeep quarterpanel once (with foam) and it never drained once it got wet.

Thanks for the tips!

[afterthisnap]

Also, the car is actually something of a gift for a 22y/o and will occasionally serve double duty as a food mule for wilderness youth program out west. Since it's going to change hands I won't really be the one responsible for the upkeep, but I want to do as much as I can now.

[Danny-G]

One of the big factors in causing rust is that rubber strip that lines the inner lip of the rear fender. Just take them off, they trap dirt and moisture and that eats through the paint then starts the rust.

[afterthisnap]

Yea, I noticed that. When I pulled this one off there was a ton of dirt and grit trapped behind it.

[evolutionmovement]

Yeah, that rubber strip probably looked nice when new, but causes problems. I always wash it and let it dry before undercoating. Seems to bond to the old, clean stuff fine. I just use whatever rubberized undercoating they carry at AutoZone and New England winters haven't bothered it. The bottom never got to bare metal, but when I replaced the fenders in 1999, I undercoated the hell out of it and they still looked good when I pulled them off last year, just needed a little cleaning up. I tore the car apart thinking it was going to be all rot with the idea that I'd part it out, but I was amazed to find just how well preserved it was. Good thing you gave up on the bumper, although you wouldn't need to remove the beam to get the cover out of the way, that beam gets everything kicked up at it terribly and would likely have been a real PITA to remove for the rust.

I hear you about POR 15. It's the one everyone seems to use and it's readily available, but I'm looking out for a better product for when/if I finally build my own car from scratch.

I don't know what that weird crap is that Subaru used as a kind of sealer between some of the panels, but I know what you're talking about. It seems to be an at least semi-absorbant material and I wonder if it was a kind of sound deadener more than a rust preventer as it doesn't appear to be very good at preventing rust. The seam sealer I'm talking about is more of a rubber kind of thing, which they also use, and I haven't had it cause any problems. You can sometimes see it where welded joints meet and it looks like painted over caulking.

[reddragons]

looks good OP! i have 6 or 7 of those i need to get to. i want to keep this car, problems or not (94 ss)