More rust clean up work

I had a look under the rubber seal of the boot a month or so a go and saw some rust patches, especially where it was welded. See below. There was nothing to note along the sides. The last photo is a previous one that I took when undersealing behind the bumper but you can just see the rust patches where I have removed the rubber boot seal. A fair amount of the rust is actually rust stain that has crept along under the seal as is seen in the middle photo.

 

So this week I have been cleaning it up. I got some spray paint to match the Copen silver, it claims it was but its not an exact match. Fortunately very little of it is on view,e ven with the boot open. Its either covered by the lights, bumper or rubber seal. So even though I'm not chuffed, I'm not over concerned or pi**ed off about it.

Rust remove and paint rubbed down with wet and dry. even using that 2500! Primer sprayed and then rubbed down again

 

Then paint and clear coat applied

 

This time I had removed the rear lights, fortunately no rust behind there. But its not clear coated or if it is is very light. So as it was off and I had everything available, I decided to spray some there also to just give it a little extra protection. I was also spraying this panel that went under the rubber seal as this felt rough like it wasn't clear coated fully.

 

What I had to do, well didn't but that over keenness that grips you go that extra bit further thinking you are doing good but wish you hadn't in the end, was removed the black plastic discs stuck on the flat part where the boot lid bumper blocks sit. These are not a soft rubber but a plastic and especially the left side had ripped it so the silver paintwork underneath could be seen. You can see this on the first photo in this thread. So they were removed gulped.

Everything is back in place now except these but I have ordered some gloss black vinyl sticky sheet. The stops are just screwed right up at present so they are not touching. Also with the paint being new I guess they would chew it up even quicker while its curing. Once I have a sticker in place I'll screw them back down again.

Overall it was an ok job. I'm no professional painter so I know they would be sucking air in and shaking their head but I wasn't attempting any part of main view. I can see a small run in the clear coat but its totally out of view so I left it. Rust clean up and prevention was the main aim.

 

There is a stainless steel clip on either side of each light. I found them a right bu**er to unclip. partly because I have thin and flexible fingers and not a lot of strength in them. I bet a guy with sausage fingers wouldn't have the problem I did. I found that releasing the inner one first did it. Also push on the light and try to push it more to the side you are doing to help it unclip but then push to other side to keep it unclipped. The second one then unclips quite easily.

 

I've just been out to look and i think there are 4 clips to remove. I cannot remember from when I took them off. Here are some photos.

First is just behind the wheel close to the outside.
Second is underneath the bumper to the outside edge.
Third is the furthest forward, behind the wheel, bout level with the hub and high up
Fourth is on the back section and in the corner towards the inside, follow first one inside wheel arch and come across it.

First 3 require a flat blade screwdriver to slide under the centre piece and pop it out. The other you can put a driver under it or pull it out by pulling the panel off (do the other 3 first) push fingers behind panel close to the clip and pull.

 

I finished off my boot seam rust clean up today. I had to replace the black stickers I removed to paint. These protect the paint from the boot buffers. I got a sheet of glossy black vinyl sticker. I cut some circles out that were just bigger than the hole. I would have done them bigger if I had the sheet before I put things back together but as long as they bigger than the buffer its ok.