Dark Regent

I have a project car that I'm working on, which spent most of its life in Minnesota. Unfortunately, it seems like the car probably spent a lot of time outside in the winter, so there is surface rust in odd areas. The control arms are one area in particular where there is a lot of surface rust. However, there is a black coating that is flaking off, and as I remove more of it, the arms are covered in rust underneath. So, I want to strip them. I can fairly easily remove the rust with a brass brush on a cordless drill, but I'm wondering if I need to re-coat the control arms. Granted, the car now lives in the desert and sleeps indoors.

Does anybody know if the OEM cast iron control arms are coated (painted or powder coated) from the factory? I've looked at other stock control arms and they appear to be almost black, which looks similar to the cleaned raw cast iron. So, I can't tell if they were originally factory coated or if someone in Minnesota applied some kind of undercoating. If they did, it was a pretty clean job as there is no visible overspray anywhere, and the coating is everywhere, including on the back of the hub, etc.

TsukubaCody

I bought some OEM UCA brand new a month or so ago, here's the finish they had from Honda.

Zer0ne

Stupid bokeh, all I see is the balljoint

B serious

Yes, they're coated. I think its a very thin veneer of paint. Its very cheesy...it comes right off in any kind of inclement weather and/or with minimal agitation.

The bushing lips on the factory arms are also not all coated

I have never driven my car in winter. But any S2000 that's driven in salt will rust like the dickens. A cast iron control arm isn't a weird place to get rust from salt driving, though, is it? Coated or non-coated cast iron rotors also start to rust.

When I bought a 2nd pair of JDM arms to press bearings into, it was clear that they had been exposed to ocean water mist and rain.

I sanded them off with a steel wadded brush and a grinder. I flap-wheeled the bushing lips on the arms.

Then masked and painted with epoxy. I clear coated the bushing lips afterward as well.

Don't get paint in the bores. I put a bunch of silicone paste in the bores so the clear coat wouldn't stick.

#excessive.

Here are before, during, and afters.

Car Analogy

Buy soke por15 paint. Awesoke stuff. It goes right over rust. Its the real deal, not snake oil.

You gotta prep by removing loose scale if any, then spray an acid they supply. Then just brush on.

They sell a top coat paint for areas that will see sun, as the stuff doesn't like uv. Won't need it for CA's.

It will be a lot less work than cleaning down to bare metal and paint, and waaaay more durable. The stuff is incredibly durable.

flanders

But it feels so much better getting down to clean metal


I used glass blasting to clean all my arms then some industrial alkyd paint for protection.

Dark Regent

Thanks for the responses guys.

Those do look good, thanks for the info and the photos. The control arm rust isn't one of the odd places, no, but I have found places where water obviously pooled and created some rust where I wouldn't have expected it. For instance, I had rust on the bottom of the metal strip that sandwiches the front weather strip, under the front edge of the hood, to the bumper. It was bad enough that I had to throw it away and buy a new one. I'm guessing the car was not only outside in the elements, but that it was actually buried in snow at some point, for water/salt to pool in there to the point that it ate away at the bottom of that metal strip.

After looking at it again, I think the car does also have an undercoat on the bottom of the control arms, in addition to the factory paint. When I picked the car up, and looked under the car, the bottom of the control arms looked almost wet/greasy, but in overall good condition. It was only after getting the car home, taking wheels off, and closely looking at the tops of the control arms that I saw some chips in the paint with rust showing through. Then, kinda like you say, I started peeling and realized they were completely coated with rust underneath. So, I was a bit confused about what I was seeing and couldn't tell if it was factory paint or something else. Thanks for clarifying what I was seeing. That just means it all has to come off now!

I don't wanna leave the suspension in its current state, after putting so much effort into my build, so I'll probably do a scaled-back version of what you did for all four corners.

POR15 seems like it might be a good option for paint, as I don't think I want any paint that has to be sprayed. I think I'm going to have to do it on the car with a foam brush, so that's probably the way I'll go. It seems to have been recommended a few times here on the forums.

I would kinda like to take it down to bare metal, but I'm not sure I want to risk taking all of the arms all of the way off and accidentally messing up the alignment. I'm also a little worried about the condition of some the bolts holding them in. So, I think I'm may have to try to get off as much of the scale as I can with them on the car, with wire brushes, unless I'm wrong about how easy it is to maintain the alignment.

I'm trying to decide if it's worth the risk to take it that far.