How to Prime Sand & Get Rust Off Your Car

Painting your car involves more than spraying some paint over the surface. It begins with removing any rust from the metal body, sanding, priming and cleaning the surface. Without this process, even high-quality paint wont look good on your car. You can do all of these steps yourself in just a few hours using materials found an at auto parts store. This process could cost several hundred dollars if you take your car to a paint and body shop, and that doesnt include the paint.

Instructions

1

Sand the rusted areas with 360-grit sandpaper. Hold the sandpaper flat against the surface and sand until the rust is gone. The surface underneath the rust will still be brown, but the flakes of rust will be gone.

2

Place masking tape and paper around each area that you sanded, so the primer will cover the rusted and sanded areas, but the surrounding surfaces are protected from overspray.

3

Spray the sanded areas with rust converter spray. Hold the can 10 inches from the surface and spray left and right, not up and down. Let the first coat dry for 10 minutes. Spray a second coat and let it dry for 20 minutes. The rust converter turns black as it dries.

4

Sand the dried rust converter with 600-grit sandpaper. The rust converter acts as a sandable primer. It also converts any remaining rust to a primer so it cant spread further.

5

Wipe the area with wax-and-grease remover on a microfiber towel to remove grease from fingerprints, and to prepare the area for paint.