Removing Floor Pan Rust

[Bingster]

I want to remove most of the rust on my interior floor pans before wire brushing, but don't want to use a water rinse product cause I don't know where the rinse water would go.  And a lot of rust removers are "dip" type. Any ideas?

[Don Coatney]

A wire brush will remove most of the rust. Then you can sweep or vacuum up the trimmings and dispose of how ever you like.

[Mike36]

I would would scrape it with a stiff, narrow putty knife first. Then vacuum, then wire brush, vacuum again, wipe it out with a rag wet with paint thinner, then apply something like Rust Oleum Rust Reformer. 

[Frank Elder]

This corner sander will clean things up in a jiff.

[Plymouthy Adams]

2 minutes ago, Frank Elder said:

This corner sander will clean things up in a jiff.

looks more like an abrasive iron to me....

about 6 or 7 years ago wife got me one of the Rockwell multi tools with the corner sander, scissors, blades of many style and sanders.....used it for the first time couple weeks ago....I do like the plunge cut ability for sure

[Andydodge]

Bingster..........how much rust is there and is the area accessible ?...........is it just surface rust or pitted?......when you say wire brushing do you mean with a cup brush on an angle grinder? or just a hand held wire brush? without knowing how much and how bad/deep the rust is its difficult to give advice..........everyones suggestions are sound but have you a pic of the floor?..............andyd   

[Bingster]

The rust is basically slightly pitted surface rust.  I would use a wire wheel on a drill. I wanted to keep the dust down as much as possible and chemically remove as much rust beforehand as possible. 

[Frank Elder]

Using this means

using this

not these.......wire equals flier.

 

 

[jcmiller]

Then phosphoric acid, then rinse (really well), then dry, then prime and paint.

[1952B3b23]

My technique is this:

1. Wire brush or scrape the lose rust off the panel. You can do this by hand or with a wire wheel in a drill.

2. Buy Naval Jelly, available online or Home Depot, Lowes, etc. Here's a link to the stuff i use: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Loctite-16-fl-oz-Naval-Jelly-Rust-Dissolver-Bottle-553472/203009241

3. Forget about the part in the directions that say the stuff will work well in about 20 minutes, it doesn't. Unless the part has very very light surface rust. Apply it to the area you would like to de-rust using a small paint brush. Apply liberally.

4. Get yourself some of the cling wrap stuff you use in the kitchen and cover up the naval jellied areas. Then let it sit for 24 hours. The cling wrap will keep the naval jelly from drying out as quickly and it will do its job much better.

5. The next day scrape and wire brush the rust and dried up jelly off. It may be necessary to repeat the process so that you can get it right down to bare metal.

This works well but it requires patience and some elbow grease. I used this process on all the panels i needed to weld on my '39 Plymouth coupe. Good luck.

-Chris