Hi all. Okay, started the rust repairs on my '82. Floorpans are now cleaned up, rust converted, primered, and now coated. Not sure how to proceed. Well, that is to say, I'm not sure how to think about rust prevention. Seems the smart thing is to spray the insides of everywhere I can find with something like the Eastwood system. But...should I spray the insides of every inside I can find? Rockers? For sure. The hollow spaces in various parts of the trunk? Everywhere where it does not get too hot?

I gave the bottom, inside of the doors a good coat. When I took my doors/windows apart there was a ton of rust flakes in there. Vacuum and a scrape and a spray gave me a bit of comfort regarding water and rust in there.

I used a rust converter and painted everything. pay close attention to the rear arches where there is always so much rust. pull the wiring harness so you can get underneath it. do inside the doors and the rear qtr panels, the doubler between the trunk and the rear body panel. All the classic rust spots need to be thoroughly treated from the backside. Remove all the interior panels so you can get behind them.

There are two panels forming each rocker. The rocker is the most overlooked set of compartments on the whole car, (out of sight, out of mind). Those sections were never painted from factory and are poorly vented. There are rust particles accumulating in there for decades long and never get flushed out. The only access holes are in each wheel well. I dealt with mine with the use of a magnet rod, and a shop-vac and a rustproofing agent. A garden sprayer sprayer may come in handy as well.
Every Spider owner who plans to keep his car longterm should do this procedure:

http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=29612

AriK did you use the Eastwood sprayer stuff, the one you spray through a tube to get inside of just such spaces as the rockers? Thanks, by the by, for the advice.

Use Rust Check or an equivalent rustproofing agent. I injected it through long flexible tubing with reverse thrust of a Shop Vac as that was what was handy to me at the time. I have since acquired an old garden sprayer with a long rod and the fluid is thin enough to work with this for next time.
For areas that are hard to access such as rockers use the version that drips as it's more forgiving in the event that you miss spots. It will "flow" better and reach all the crevices. It will drip for a few days so spread some cardboard between the front and rear wheels.
For areas that are easy to access such as undercarriage and interior of doors (remove the door cards) use the non-drip version directly out of the can.


Then pray to God that you don't need to crawl under your car to work on something in the near or distant future.

Thanks, AriK, very helpful. I went back and read up your questions/posts on the rockers. Whew. Fortunately, my car is, so far, quite clean. I've been running a magnet in the access holes and reveals very little flakes.

Ha! Unfortunately, I'll be all over the underside of the car as it has not been driven, started, in more than four years. I'm at the very front end of a long job.

AriK wrote:The rocker is the most overlooked set of compartments on the whole car, (out of sight, out of mind).

And structurally the most important.