Rust can be the biggest roadblock to a paint job. That is, before your RV surface can be painted or patched, you need to rid it of rust. Whether you are painting the entire thing or just touching up some damaged spots, rust is your worst enemy. Whenever you paint over rust, it doesn't stop it from spreading. Rust can continue to grow under the paint as well.
So, the first step is to remove rust before you patch or paint your car; this is obviously something that will be included in any professional body service. But, if you decide that you are going to handle your own RV collision repair, you need to first learn how to remove rust.
Finding the Right Rust Remover
There are a number of rust removing solutions that can be used. There will be some products that you find can only find at auto body stores, but others that can be found at any home improvement or retail store. It is really hard to determine what product is going to work best until you try it on your car.
There are liquids and gels that are very similar and claim to have the same ingredients. But, one product or brand may just work better than another. It really depends on the severity of your rust, your paint finish, a number of other factors that are pretty unpredictable. The best thing to do is simply try out one product, and see if it works. If it doesn't, try another.
Using Rust Remover
Usually, rust remover will soak into the rust area and help break it down. But, you will need to use a professional power sander to actually rub the rust off of the car surface. The trick to this is to remove all the rust without creating too much damage to the rest of your car body. That is, if you just have a couple inches of rust, you don't want to sand so much that you remove several inches of your RV body.
Sealing the Repaired Spots
After the rust is removed, you want to seal the area. Sealant will encapsulate the metal and prevent further rusting. It can definitely save you a lot of headache down the road.
Rust can get so bad that it eventually deteriorates your entire car body, and can even create large holes in your RV that are unfixable. When you find and fix the problem when it is less than the size of a quarter, you can do the work yourself, and end up saving a lot of money.
