Restoring An Old Car - Phase 2

The roof of my daughter's car was heavily oxidized and damaged by the sun.  There were a couple small spots above the windshield that had just begun to rust.  We wanted to address those rust spots right away and do something to protect the roof from further damage.  We also wanted to make it look better.

Before

After - no more rust

After taping along the upper edge of the windshield I used wet/dry sandpaper to remove the rust which was easy enough to do as it was just barely on the surface.  Once dry and clean I sprayed it with a coat of automotive primer and let that dry while we prepared the roof for the next step.

She did one half of the roof and I worked on the other

First we gave it a light sanding to remove the oxidation and smooth out the surface.  We were careful not to sand any areas outside of the roof area we were going to repair.

Smooth as a baby's bottom

Then my daughter washed the roof and we let it air dry.  It was a warm sunny day so that happened rather quickly.

I taped along the edges of the roof with painter's tape to make sure we had good clean lines.

My daughter used paper towels and acetone to do a final cleaning of the roof.

All wrapped to protect what we don't want painted

While she did that I draped and taped off the rest of her car with plastic creating a protective shroud all around the car.  I didn't want to risk any overspray.  I also moved the rest of our vehicles far away from our work area.

We opted to coat the top of the car with truck bed liner instead of going through the whole process of repainting.  The top of the car had some pretty significant gouges in it from hauling cargo along with the oxidation issue so it made sense to us to do it this way.

First coat

We did three good coats of the spray on coating, allowing it to dry in between each coat.  Not only did it do a nice job covering up the roof it will protect it now so we won't need to worry about rust becoming a problem in the future.

Shroud of plastic removed

It will also provide a much more durable layer of protection should she decide to add a roof rack later on and place cargo on top.  I think it looks pretty good too, which is every bit as important as maintaining the integrity of the car.  Kind of adds a little bit of a sporty look to it.  Total spent on three cans of bed liner and a roll of tape = $29.20 + tax.  All of the other supplies she needed I already had on hand.  That made it very affordable for us to fix the roof.

The light filtering through the trees makes it looks spotty, but it really isn't

As far as projects go this one wasn't too terribly difficult.  We took our time to make sure we got all of the prep work done that needed doing and I truly do think that makes all the difference with how well these things turn out.  Good prep work is everything.

She is looking really good!

My daughter is quite pleased with the final results.  That in itself makes it all worth it.  Now onto the next phase.