I recently detailed my car and in many spots what I assumed were bug guts were little rust spots. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle this? I know you can buy paint that roughly matches the car’s paint, but is there some kind of sealer I should use first?
The paint should act as the sealer as long as you touch it up if it ever gets knocked off again. Little rust spots on what I assume to be the hood or front of your car are really a non-issue, corrosion-wise. But that said, are these just small spots on body panels, or are they spots near wheel wells or something where water tends to collect?
I didn’t look specifically near the wheels, but mostly it’s on the front of the hood. What’s the difference? Because you can’t paint the wheel well?
No, the difference is just that spots on the hood don’t tend to grow much, especially if they’ve been covered with touch up paint. The most common parts of a car to rust is anything on the underbody, and I’d say the most common body panels to rust are right near the fenders usually because that’s where rocks get kicked up, break through the paint, and when water sits in there it rusts. Super common, just a fact of life.
The paint is the sealer that will keep that area protected, but first the rust should probably be removed or neutralized via physical means (grinding) or an acid.
And on top of all that, that’s what waxing is for, both to even out micro imperfections in the paint and to serve as a sacrificial protective layer.
Is it rusted over the paint or rusted under the paint? For the former they make iron decontaminate spray to remove iron particles embedded in the paint. For the latter, you’d want to sand it down to clean metal and then prime and paint.
