pulled my carpet and theres rust on my firewall under the pedals... cant see any rust under the car...seems pretty bad tho, i tried sanding it...anything else i should do? i was going to try to sand it and primer but its taking a long time lol, perhaps i should just keep doing that?

 

keep sanding it ALL off and primer it. itll stop the rust from spreading and getting worst

Yeh it may take some time but if u still want your car, youll spend some time fixing this prob.

 

also check for a leaking brake master cylinder or clutch cylinder if you have a manual trans... stop the source of the leak to help you in preventing more rust from forming...

 

thanks for the tip! i assumed that it was because of the hole in my roof (from rust)

 

Sanding WON'T fix the problem. Rust is a chemical process. When you see rust, you see the result of the chemical process. That process is already happening to the metal AROUND where the rust is. You need to CUT out a decent portion around where the rust is and then weld in a new piece. That is the only way to 'stop' rust from spreading. If you don't, you're gonna sand, and you won't SEE any rust. A year or some time later, you'll look, and there it is again. You need to eliminate the problem, not just fight it. As far as the hole in your roof, fix that the same way, or you're gonna always be fixing rust damages. I know it sounds like a lot of work, it's not really though, and once you do it, it's worry free. Do yourself a favor, and do it right the first time.

 

umm i don't think that is right preston. if it is a chemical process it can only react so much, creating a limited amount of rust. The iron in the steel, since iron is steel, reacts with the water making iron oxide or rust. Just sand that stuff down till it is all gone and put some primer down. do what wikd240 said and you should be fine.

 

Rust is iron oxide. As long as there is oxygen, rust can form. And once it starts, the metal is exposed, making it a lot easier for that process to continue. And as far as how far it can go...that all depends on each individual situation. You're right, it may very well just stop, but it may also continue and you don't know how far it's actually occuring. What you see is the by-product of the reaction. You can't be sure that the reaction is going on away from that hole/spot, and how far it is if it is. That's why if you wanna get it done and stop worrying about it, the best way to do it is to cut a little square out, and weld in new material. If he/you/anybody doesn't want to do it, sanding will work. But the rust may come back. It may also stop. I never said sanding won't solve the problem, all I said was that the sure-fire way to stop it is new material.

On a side note, you wouldn't just sand off rust on the main frame rail, you would weld in a new piece of material to stop it and reinforce it. I'm showing him the safe side to things. I never said it was necessarily the best or easiest way to do it, just the safest.

 

cutting and welding a new piece is the way to stop the rust int hat area but not all ppl are skilled or have the $ to do this. Sanding it will help it alot.

 

sand + primer... the primer would prevent oxygen from reaching the metal... just put a few coats down to be safe.

Yea, cutting and welding in a new piece is great but he may not have the time, money or know how to do that