Restoring a Rusted Roof

[Gregski]

got the remaining trim off of the quarter panels, that held the bottom of the vinyl roof on, these pieces were held on by 3 bolts on each side, two in the cabin, and the third in the trunk, so I had to use a 3/8 wrench to get the nuts off, it pays to sit inside your project car day dreaming, as it gave me the opportunity to find these bolts, I thought they were just held on with clips

[Gregski]

got some wire wheels for my 4" angle grinder... FINALLY!!! a regular kind and a cup

and found staples in my rear window sill, I had no idea they used staples to tack the vinyl with, I had no idea staples could go through 19 gauge steel, go figure, wonder if that was a factory install? anybody know?

[Gregski]

All the rust is gone, I must have spent as much time on the silly concave weld spots in the window sills and the rain gutters as I did on the entire roof, but I tell you you can snort cocaine out of 'em, jk.

Having gone through all this trial and error, I don't think I could have done it with one method or a single medium. In my case it took two to Tango, the Phosphoric acid ($15) from Home Depot and the wire wheels ($10) for the angle grinder/drill. So acid to do the heavy lifting and abrasives to get into those tough to get to spots nooks and cranies. Yes steel wool and paper towels get honorable mention as well!

Wait till you see how I primered it.

[Gregski]

1 Quart - OMNI AU MP170 Gray Epoxy Primer - $23.97

1 Pint - OMNI AU MP175 Hardener / Activator you need this to mix it with the primer to "activate it" (or half a dozen other names) - $8.70

1 Quart - Urethane Reducer for thinning out the concauction if need be - $10.86

1 Quart - PPG Acryli-Clean DX330 Wax and Greese Remover (a buddy of mine gave me this a while ago)

1 Can of Lacquer Thinner from Home Depot - for cleaning the spray gun, etc

The auto paint supply shop gave me the stir sticks and the filters for free, super nice people there at Jerry's, except they are closed for lunch, found that out the hard way, lol.

$30 dollar face mask from Home Depot, works really well

$80 dollar spray kit from Harbor Freight, compressor and spray gun combo, did the job, never sprayed with anything better so I don't know what I'm missing

[Gregski]

My high school basketball coach used to ask: "Does practice make perfect?"

"Yes Sir" we would reply.

"No, perfect practice makes perfect!" he would correct us and make us run more lines. (Needless to say the man won the state championship, but we need beer and a camp fire for that story.)

...so I decided to practice on an extra fender I had laying around before shooting the roof. I've never used that type of primer mix nor that type of spray gun (or any for that matter) so if it pooped on anything I rather it wouldn't be my smooth as a baby's butt roof.

At first I could sum up the results in two dreaded words: ORANGE PEEL! So I decided to add 10% of the reducer to the mix, the guy at the paint store said I may need it, and heck I already paid for it so why not have it join the party, right? I also toyed with the gun, increasing and decreasing the amount of paint that comes out of it, I don't know which way I turned the knob, all I know there was no more orange peel.

Here are the pictures of my practice canvas, in it's original, prepped, and primered conditions: