Rocker Panel Rust

[Shawn0331]

1987 Chevy V10 350TBI

Best way to take care of this?

I was thinking using sandpaper & primer.

Not too worried about looks until I can afford to paint it all.

[bake74]

     Primer for sure, I'm not sure if straight sand paper is going to get all the rust off.  The one thing you do not want to do is primer it with even a hint of rust under it, it will continue to eat the metal.
     Do what you have to do to make sure all rust is gone, then primer for sure until you can get around to painting it the right way.

[Shawn0331]

Cool. Just wanted to make sure. I've never done any restoration before. Oil changes, etc. but that's about it.

[fitz]

Primer will absorb water and cause it to rot out quickly.
At the very least put a quick coat of spray paint over the primer.
Im sure some of the body guys will let you know how to fix it the right way.

[jaredts]

Wire wheel on an angle grinder or pneumatic cutoff wheel will knock out most of it.  A rust converter will get down in the pits and help you get the rest.  Soda blast would be ideal.  You border on needing a new rocker panel, but I wouldn't.  DA sand, Rattle can primer and paint after you get rid of the rust to protect it.  You can sand this off later to do it up right if you want.

[Blazin]

I would wire brush  the flakey stuff off, Then sand it with 80 grit, then 180 grit paper on a DA. Brush on Chassis Saver over the remaining surface rust, then some self etching spray bomb primer on the bare metal, last a quality spray bomb in a close color.

[87454westernhauler]

I have been using a sand blasting mesh type wheel that is kind of like quarrel, it works great for taking the paint and rust off, much faster and easyer then a wire wheel and it doesnt take any metal off.

[Shawn0331]

Here's what they look like now. Sanded, primed & painted until I can get the whole truck done.

[bake74]

     Well that is a vast improvement over the begging pics.