Re: When rust is found...

[Scott Fisher <sefisher@cisco.com>]

> > There's a product called Royal Jelly that can be applied 
> > upon the rust and ...

>  Make that "Naval Jelly" -- not Royal Jelly (Yea, I'll cut
>  down on that royal jelly stuff... 'Think it's giving me a 
>  sugar high.).

I used to use Royal Jelly on my MGB.

Gave me hives.

Ahem... Seriously, Naval Jelly is a good way to neutralize surface
corrosion.  I've used it on floor pans, trunsk, and under the brake
fluid reservoir (where sloppy previous owners have allowed brake fluid
to remove the paint) in a wide range of British and Italian sports
cars.  The best way to use it is to wire-brush all the loose surface
scale away, using a wire brush.  (You probably don't want to do this on
exterior rust spots in your paint, thought.)

You apply the Naval Jelly with a brush or using the new squirt-on
applicator which sprays a thin stream where you point it; that's the
kind I've got now, and I like it.  You still need to work it into the
surface, whereupon it starts turning the rust black with white around
the edges.  (Dang, years ago on the Britcars list, a chemical engineer
once walked us through the conversion of phosphoric acid and Fe02 into
the relatively harmless substance it turns into, and I've forgotten what
that substance is...)

Risks: if you leave rust *under* the surface that the Naval Jelly
converts, your car will simply rust again, more slowly.  

Any unused portion of the Naval Jelly that's left on the surface can be
neutralized with plain water.  You will then, of course, want to make
sure that you dry it carefully...

I've always then gone on to seal the Naval-Jelly-converted surface with
a good rustproofing primer; the best results I ever got were with
Rustoleum's red fish-oil based primer, which I used to be able to buy in
spray cans.  Then seal it with a gloss coat in whatever color you
prefer; for trunks and interior floor panels I usually use a semi-gloss
black since they'll be carpeted anyway.  

And of course, the only permanent way to eliminate rust is with a series
of torches -- one to cut and one to weld.  I'm a poor welder but using
the cutting torch is BIG fun...

--Scott Fisher