Welcome back to the 6th Gear Garage! Today I’ll show how easy it is to repair
this rust around the windshield of my Toyota Camry. I’m working on the $500 Toyota Camry again
this week. So far I’ve replaced & painted a fender,
repaired & painted the plastic bumper, replaced the radiator and Now There is an ugly rust
spot on the roof that I’ll take care of today. This all started with a stone chip in the
paint and overtime, the exposed metal rusted and has bubbled beneath the surrounding paint. This is what happens if rock chips are left
alone, so cover up chips with touch up paint as soon as you see them. First thing to do is clean the entire area
with some wax & grease remover. This will remove any contaminates like wax,
tar, road salt, dirt… stuff I don’t want to grind into the surface with sand paper. Before I go to town grinding and sanding this
rusty area, I want to protect the rubber gasket seal trim around the windshield. Most older cars have removable trim but in
the 2000’s most vehicles had trim that is part of the windshield seal, which isn’t
removable without taking out the glass. So I have some Q-tips here and I’m just
tucking it down between the rubber trim and the roof to help it stay away from the roof
edge. Once the Q-tip is tucked in, I’m going to
use tape to keep the trim pulled forward. I now have space to get in there and the tape
is going to protect the rubber trim. I’m going to try using a wire brush on a
drill first, to see how much of the rusty area I can strip. This is easy, just rest your arms on the car
to help hold the drill steady. If you’re nervous about the drill kicking
back, skip to the next step. The wire brush worked ok, but I couldn’t
get down in the crack and the whole area still needs some sanding, so I’m going to use
some 80-grit sand paper on a sanding block. 80 grit is really rough, so it will go down
to bare metal with no problem. The reason for the sanding block is so the
paper will have a more uniform, flat contact surface than if it was just my finger behind
the paper. That can cause low spots and lead to an uneven
surface. Also notice I’m changing sanding directions. An opposite cross hatch pattern sands better
than the same direction. Look at all of the rust I’m removing now
that I didn’t get with the wire brush. I have a brass brush, which is probably too
soft for this job. I’d go with a steel brush for something like
this. So now for the vertical edge… The 80 grit paper is thick and rigid, so I
let it hang down past the edge of the block to get into the crack. I’ll keep doing this until I’m past all
of the rust. Ok I’m done sanding for now. 80-grit sand paper really made this go fast. That’s bare metal but I see some pitting
from the rust. I can feel it when I drag a finger nail across
the top. That’s going to require some body filler
to make it smooth before painting. First I’m going over the pitted area once
more with the wire brush, since those bristles should be able to get down into the tiny pits
and brush out any remaining rust that I didn’t get with the flat sandpaper. All rust must go! I made a lot of dust so far, so I’m blowing
it away with compressed air. Now it’s time to apply the body filler. It’s pretty simple to use… Just mix the filler & hardener per the instructions
on the can, and using a spreader, lightly squeegee it over the pitting from the rust. A light skim coat is fine… go too thick
and you’ll have extra sanding to do. you can always add more if needed. I forgot to record this step, so here’s
filler being applied with a spreader to the bumper repair I did in a previous video. Then allow the filler time to cure, according
to the instructions of the product you used. I have my 80 grit paper and sanding block
again, and I’m just going over the body filler real quick to knock down the really
high points. This doesn’t take much sanding. Notice I’m working further and further outside
of the original repair area. That’s alright because it will all blend
together once it’s done. Now I’m sanding again with 180 grit paper,
going sightly outside the area I sanded with 80 grit. The higher the number, the finer the grit. Once I get up to 400 grit paper, the scratches
will be small enough to cover with filler primer. Notice I'm doing a cross hatch pattern again. I’m only building back up where I took down
to bare metal, so the filler is going to be thin. This looks even now and most importantly feels
even. Because my work area is growing, I taped further
down the rubber trim to be sure I don’t scratch it up. Look at this, I have a pit in the filler. There could have been an air bubble when I
mixed it on the board. Or maybe I just didn’t spread it evenly
- it happens. Because that area is so small and everything
else is so smooth, I’m just going to fill it with some spot putty. Spot putty is meant for really small imperfections. It doesn’t need to be mixed with a hardener
like body filler, so it’s easy to use in small quantities. I wiped a little too much there, so I put
some back down. Let it dry according to the instructions and
it will be ready to sand smooth. Ok the putty has cured and now I’m sanding
it and the surrounding area with some 320 grit on a sanding block. And doing the same thing again with some 400
grit. Remember to go over the scratches left by
the previous grit each time you sand with a higher grit paper to ensure no deep scratches
are left behind. It’s better to go outside the repair area
and make it larger than to miss some scratches. Alright I kept sanding and here’s where
I am. Now it’s time for some primer. I have some paper down to block the windshield
from overspray. I also blew away any dust and now I’m cleaning
the entire area with the wax & grease remover. A clean surface is essential to a good final
product. Let it dry… Near the edge I have some bare metal showing
where I sanded through the filler. This surface is perfectly smooth so I’m
done adding filler. Instead I’ll just hit it with a coat of
Self Etching Primer. Self Etching Primer is formulated to bond
to bare metal, so it’s perfect to use here. Next I’m using Filler Primer. This is a high-build primer that helps to
fill any minor scratches or imperfections. Once again, I’m going to do some quick sanding
with the 400 grit paper to ensure that the surface is perfectly smooth and uniform. Now I’m doing the final sanding with 600
grit and this is covering the entire repair area and even going a little outside to be
sure all the scratches from the 400 grit are removed. Just be sure not to sand too much and go through
the primer, back down to bare metal. I’m wiping the entire repair area with the
wax & grease remover. Even your hands can leave oils on the surface,
which can cause problems when it comes time to paint. So there’s all the prep work I’ve done
so far. Most of the time and labor involved in a paint
job is in the prep. I’m blowing any dust out one last time with
the compressed air. And one last cleaning with wax & grease remover. I’m going way outside of the repair area
this time, because I’m going to blend the spray paint with the factory paint. On the first color coat, don’t go too heavy. If the first coat doesn’t completely cover
the primer, that’s ok. That’s better than a sag or run in the paint. This is DupliColor Perfect Match paint by
the way. Most auto parts stores carry this line. My local store didn’t have this OEM color
code in stock so they ordered it for me. So I gave this about 10 minutes to dry, and
you can see there is still primer showing. Here’s a second coat. That’s looking better. And a third coat. I let the color coat dry and it’s time for
clear coat. But before I lay that down, it seems like
dust loves to land on fresh paint. So I’m going to use a tack cloth to clean
any dust or overspray from the surface. I’m going to feather the clear coat into
the rest of the roof, so I’m wiping a large area here. That was dirtier than it looked, although
some of that was probably overspray from the color coats. I have some Lacquer Clear Coat here and the
trick is light coats at first. I’m going further out than I did with the
color coat. And now the second coat of clear. I’m going a tad bit heavier than the first
coat. This can nozzle has a nice wide spray pattern. Now it’s time for the third coat, which
is the wet coat. The wet coat should be thick, without being
so heavy that it creates a run or sag. The wet coat helps to fill in any light areas
from the first 2 coats and doesn’t leave any texture from overspray. Here’s a better look at the wet coat. Notice how I feathered the wet coat to be
lighter around the edge to blend it into the original finish on the roof. It looks really glossy now, but it won’t
for long. Ok the clear coat has fully dried and the
wet coat no longer looks wet. It’s actually less glossy than the original
finish. I pulled the car outside so you can get a
better comparison. Time for polish! Lacquer paint is softer than the factory urethane
paint, so it’s easy to polish to a shine using a buffer and cloth pads. I’m using a light cutting compound by Meguiars. If there’s an orange peel surface texture
in the clear coat, I’d start with a heavier cut compound and then follow up with a light
cut. So one more look at the new paint before polishing… And here’s how it looks after polishing. Now polishing does remove some material, so
if I was going to do a lot of polishing, I would have done more coats of clear. But this is a $500 daily driver with a quarter
million miles, not a show car. If this was a show car, or something newer and nicer,
I’d spend the extra money on professional urethane paint. One more thing do to… wait a couple days
for the new paint to fully cure and put a coat of wax on it. Keeping a coat of wax on the paint will make
it last. I saved a lot of money and did this job right
here in my garage - and so can you! I’ll put a list below of all the products
I used today. Let me know if you have any questions in the
comments section. As always, thanks for watching and subscribe
for more how-to videos and other project updates, here at the 6th Gear Garage!
