Progress from the weekend:
Alright, after getting the interior stripped out, the sound deadening out, and then took the time to use scotch bright wheels on a small DA to rough up the surface and get any and all the excess tar and glue off the metal, it was time to do something to seal in the interior. We wanted to find something that would give a nice coat, go on well, and encapsulate any and all rust, stopping it from becoming more than surface rust. There were a few options out there for this so I took the time to read all the reviews for all the products out there that I could find. And it turns out one of the best ones on the market just happened to be one of the most expensive. Rust Bullet is something that has been used by many hotrod shops around the world and in lots of industrial applications. Plus it comes with a 10 year "stops rust" guarantee.
There is also some nice research put behind this stuff vs. the equivalent at your local hardware store. If you read on the site you'll see all of the applications this has been tested on and the extreme conditions its been used in. I managed to find a box of 4 individual quarts on amazon from 4wd Off-Road supply for a pretty good deal so I snagged it up.
My thoughts on Rust Bullet: Well we prepped the surface first with 320grit just like a paint job, but the instructions say it can be used with little to no surface prep. We laid it on with a brush much to my better judgment because I didn't want brush strokes. The side of the can said it could be reduced to be sprayed though a conventional HVLP gun but that it wasn't necessary and that no brush strokes would show once dry if a brush application was used. So we brushed it on, and after the first coat I was freaking out, it was showing brush strokes like crazy, it was almost impossible to spread it even, and the only way it looked good was if you laid it on really thick, which we didn't want to do. So we put on one nice even coat with a brush. Let that dry, and it got a little bit better, but not good by any means. Brush strokes showing everywhere, you could see everywhere we changed directions, it looked awful. I was ready to sand it all off, reduce it, tape off the car and spray it. But Trevor talked me into putting on the second coat just to see how it would look. Much to my surprise, the second coat went on smooth, and I mean REALLY smooth, it coated to perfection, and dried even better, the only spots that even remotely show the slighted brush strokes are my fault where I had to go back and touch up spots where it ran a little bit after the curing process had started. But even those places are unnoticeable to anyone but me because I did them. I can praise this stuff enough, its amazing. And it truly bonds to the metal, the test piece of metal I did can't be sanded through, I had to take the grinder to it to make metal show again. And I also got some on my finger nails and it almost melted through (hole in my gloves).
Here are a few pics of the second coat going on. Sorry I didn't get pics after the first coat, I was kinda freaking out and didn't think to get pics.
First pic as you can see its still wet (sorry for the celly pics) but you can definitely see some brush strokes.
And then a final pic from the next day once it had dried. Notice how well it cured. (once again cell phone pics, I'm sorry we ended up keeping a good camera at the shop after this.)
Over all I would HIGHLY recommend this stuff for anyone needing a rust preventative. They also make a Black Beauty 3rd coat for drive train parts for that factory black finish look but its not needed for the product to be effective and is purely aesthetic.