Auto body repair & detailing: Light rust, light rust, paint film

Question
I have a silver Neon. On the front part of the hood, right on the edge,its starting to get light rust. It looks like the rust is in the clear coat. There are no chips or scratches. Is there a way to get the rust off or do I have to wait until it gets into the paint and fix it like a chip? Thanks for any help.

Answer
Hi Randy,

Paint by itself will not rust. To have rust you have to have metal, moisture, and oxygen present. If you take one of those components out of the equation rust cannot occur. My suggestion would be take a light grit sand paper (1000 grit) and sand the rusted area until it's gone. Then inspect and see if there is metal showing underneath the rust. Repair it just as you would a scratch all the way down to bare metal. If you don't have bare metal present what may be happening is the paint film is so thin that it cannot act as a barrier against moisture and oxygen getting through to the metal. If that's the case it's a matter of time until the whole hood either peels the paint off or it will eventually rust through from the underneath. Either way the only full remedy is strip the existing finish and prime with an epoxy primer and re-paint the whole hood. I hope this helps.

Gary