My Mirage

I hate rust, and I hate knowing that there is any lurking under some plastic trim pieces. In earlier posts I mentioned that there was rust that needed to be dealt with. Sure for the most part it’s just “flash” rust, or surface rust… almost like a dust, but its still there and it still bothers me. And you for the most part no one would ever see anything except the guy vacuuming the carpet (uh-that would be me) but I still know its there. So I set out to de-rust, clean, and paint all the exposed steel metal up under the dash.

OK here is the metal "crash bracket" located inside the steering colomn - NASTYThese are a few panels located up under the drivers side of the dash - you can see the surface rust I'm hating. This is with the Navel Jelly - Rust remover product applied...
You can see just how well this product works at removing the rust with little to no sanding.
And some good quality Rustoleum paint...

Some pieces are flat, some got gloss... wasn't concerned with the finish - just that they were protected from rust.

Here is one shot of a piece installed (passenger side inside under the glove box)

I’d love to get the carpeting done and back in the car but there is still a ton of work to get done like wiring from the trunk to the dash, wiring from the alarm to the center console, window roll up/alarm interface module, wiring from the dash to the engine, battery cable from the alternator to the trunk, and more sound deadening (Dynamat).

With that much work I figured that I should work from the top down, getting the headliner back in would be very nice as well and there is less to do. A little bit of 3M Window Weld for the new roof yolks and some more Dynamat on the rest of the sheet metal. A minor amount of wiring going to some LEDs that will be mounted in the top of the A,B, and C pillars. But I will be re-wrapping the headliner with a different material and of course the plastic pillars will be trimmed in suede. I got the roof yolks ordered and I’m waiting for them to be delivered.

Today I started putting the painted brackets back in, broke a bolt off (by hand mind you). I was really pissed – still am. Now I have to use an “Easy out” (or something) and try and get the bolt out… plus I saw 2 more pieces of metal that look like total crap (rust) that I need to treat. AND some of the wiring that needs to be done will be impossible to reach with the cover in place. I’m getting really frustrated. So I just bolted up what I had left and cleaned everything, I had to accomplish something and since the dash was dirty and dusty as heck I decided that I would just clean it, dress it and wipe the windows. It was a real downer.