Under Taillight Rust on '62 Safari

[Tlam]

After removing the tail light and license plate bracket assemblies on my '62 Safari, I was unpleasantly surprised with a fair amount of rust. I'm sure that with all of the collected wisdom contained within this site, some of you AS gurus have a method to get rid of this rust prior to polishing. I have already used PPG PR-5044 to remove any sealant and/or clearcoat. Good stuff by the way, put it on in the evening, come back in the morning and scrape off with a plastic scraper, neutralize with lacquer thinner - done!

[putback]

By now I'm guessing you're way beyond this. Common problem of steel against aluminum. It will happen faster and worse the next time without a barrier between them. You will find other places with the same problem. Ice tech roofing membrane makes a nice gasket for steel on exterior aluminum surfaces. Common rattle can auto undercoating works well for places like the small angle iron pieces that connect the aluminum body bows to the floor and the front hold down plate to the shell.