Hi everyone,

I am looking for some advise about how to deal appropriately with a rusty firewall specifically the area where the body number is stamped.

I have a matching numbers car which has been in storage for the past 10+ years and I have discovered that the area of the firewall below the ID plate where the number is stamped is rusting and the last two digits of the body number are becoming harder to read.

Recommendations about how to best deal with this so that the ID numbers are maintained would be very welcome. Please see the following images:

Rust Converter with the main constituent
phosphoric acid
But read and obey the instructions

_________________
" A Hundred Years From Now It will not Matter what my Bank Acount Was,
The Sort Of House I Lived in, Or The Kind Of Car I drove ... But The World May Be A Better Place
Because I was Once Important In The Life Of A Child"

From the photos you have provided it appears to be surface rust and no worse than that which I had on my car. I had the under floor, engine bay and boot grit blast and etch primed with no damage to any of the identifying numbers. When painted with the two pack finish coat the numbers are clearly visible on the firewall and the radiator shroud.
Hope this helps.

_________________
John Sneddon
0408 431 807
1963 Morris Cooper
1965 Morris 850
1968 Morris Cooper S

The main reason they do this is because the stamping was done after the body was painted. The numbers 0,4,6,8,9 are the most common to rust away because the paint inside the stamping chips away easily over time.

Use a paint stripper and wire brush to clean the area up. Scrape out any crap from the numbers with a scribe to retain the depth of the stampings. A treatment of rust convertor and a light coat of paint should still retain the depth of the numbers and prevent future rust.

Thank you very much for all your help. I'll get to it right away. Cheers.

I'd Just keep the area coated with fish oil or lanolin or whatever, until the rest of the car needs painting. It's no where near as bad as some, I wouldn't get too worried about it

No where near as bad as yours was. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=85481

I couldn't even see Susanna's number until I acided and wire brushed it several times. A small sanding block also helped.
Once I could read it clearly I traced with a scribe to make it a little deeper.
After I put Hi-Fill primer over the firewall I scratched her numbers out again so they were nice and defined.

However in this case, when it's time to paint I reckon a sand and acid clean would be all that's needed, with maybe just a light trace over the number with a scribe

Thanks again everyone. It also very nice to receive so much advice from fellow South Australians. Cheers.

Mine was /is hard to read after it came back from sandblasting, a coat of paint would have hidden it.
We masked it off painted the whole firewall and unmasked and threw a couple coats of clear over the lot! Worked well

_________________
-jamie-
1963morris 850
1965 solid side van
1994 rover racecar