I have a white vehicle and I have tiny little spots of rust all up and down?

Question

the sides. I'm assuming this is from the salt they put on the roads as I just noticed it for the first time today after washing it. What can I do to keep it from getting worse??? Thanks for any help! Oh, I wash my vehicle whenever I can, but we have had highs in the upper teens for weeks and I haven't been able to wash it until now. (Just for all you haters who'll tell me to wash my car more often)

Answer 1

Well don't worry I am not a hater. lol Except if I was a owner of a car wash site now.

You get small nicks and over time the rusts builds up and then by the time you notice it, it is too late. What you can do is go to an automotive parts store to get a primer, sand paper, and some white spray paint or paint dabber.

1. I do not know how many holes or how big they are. Look at the bright side. You will not have any vampire attacks, as we all know they do not attack the Church which is holy and holey trucks. lol
But you can samd the holes if there are a lot of them.

2. After sanding, you get the primer but get the one that eats the rust and primes at the same time.
http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/Product/Pr-p_Product.CATENTRY_ID:2000774/c-10101/Nty-1/p-2000774/Ntx-mode+matchallpartial/N-10101/tf-Browse/s-10101/Ntk-AllTextSearchGroup?Ntt=primer

The above is what to look for in case the auto part stores do not carry any. But shop around though. I would sand the holes smooth then put the primer on. Let it dry for a couple of days to cure it.

3. Now here is the trick one now. You could just dab the holes with primer using a toothpick to put just enough to cover the hole. Let it set for whatever the instructions say. Then you can get a small, bottle paint dabber for your color of truck. They are about half the size of those big felt markers. They will be in the paint section of the auto stores. Anyway, they are used to touch up small scratches and in you case small holes too.

Now if you sand them you could put the primer on, then spray paint the truck. But then you will notice white spots here and there. So again choices. You can buy some masking tape and put a big strip of tape running across the top edge of where the most holes are, and on the top half you have papers to cover the top part. Then sand the hold section, put the rust primer on it, wait, then later you could spray paint with cans and spray another color on bottom to make truck two tone or get the nearest color available. Now the secret again, is to take your time. After you are thru, then finish with Urethane plastic spray. This will put an invisible protection on the paint which most new cars have. Now if the holes are in a group, you could paint just a big stripe to cover up the majority of the holes and still make your truck look cool. But then you have to watch what the temperature is like. You can not paint during cold days, if you do you will find out why not.

If you plan to sell the truck soon, then you could just dab paint on the holes. If you plan to keep it longer, then take care of the problem now before it gets worse. But you will need the rust primer stuff. Paint the bottom half, paint a stripe, or put a stripe on the lower part.

A good measure is to buy you some mud flats to prevent the rocks from kicking back. You can buy the cool ones that if you sell your truck you can always take them off and put them on your new one.

Answer 2

There is no simple answer to that one. Road crews use a mixture of salt AND sand on roads, so it is more likely that the sand is doing the more damage, allowing the salt moisture to get in to the bare metal.

Putting those wheel well "deflectors" on all four wheels will help reduce the effects some, but won't eliminate it.

Unfortunately, the damage is already done, if you have a lot of this all down your vehicle. when it gets warm again, you may want to wash it thoroughly, and do a lot of touchup, or have a shop do a partial re-painting. That's if you want to keep the car...

Answer 3

the best way to help prevent rust is keep the poilsh up to your car.you can even buy it in the general color range.when you wash your car use wash n wax or a simular product.