Firewall cleanup advice

[Scott68FJ40]

I am getting started on cleaning up my firewall now that everything is out of the way for the engine swap. I am testing a couple different strippers to remove all the old paint and get it down to bare metal.

My conundrum is what to do with it after it is down to bare metal. I have been a big fan of zero rust for a long time, I am thinking about just giving it 2 or 3 coats of that after I am at the bare metal stage. I am also wondering if I would be better off going with some sort of self etching primer and top coating with some sort of high temp paint? Perhaps there is another option that I haven't even considered yet?

Any and all advice is very welcome.

 

[fj404life]

Sand it and paint it. Dont have to make it harder than that.

 

[Volcano cruiser]

That´s my plan.

 

[Alaska40]

I've been putting a base coat of master series primer and paint as a rust preventer under my final paint job; however, when I got to my engine bay there was no rust to speak of after 38 years. I'm just going to sand, primer and paint with regular paint.

 

[bosscat800]

After stripping, sand with 180 grit, clean, use a good two part epoxy, paint and clear coat! If you use a primer, it will require sanding, some areas are easy to get to, smoe areas are difficult. Epoxy takes away the sanding step once it is applied.

 

[fj404life]

If the paint is stuck good why strip it?

 

[bosscat800]

Some people feel the need to strip all the paint off. Does'nt always need to be stripped. Whatever they want I guess?

 

[Scott68FJ40]

One of the few places on my rig that has any pitting type of rust is the firewall. I am going to have to strip it down to metal in that place, so if I am going to do that, I want to make it as uniform as possible.

After crawling around under the rig all morning, I have decided that the tub is coming off anyway, so I think I am going to have the whole things soda blasted.

 

[wadeclinton]

I sand blasted my fire wall. Had the engine out and front clip off to make things easy. I taped everything I didn't want blasted and went for it. I primed it with the duplicolor pre mixed primer from Napa and then shot on a coat of Zolatone.

 

[FishNinJay]

I sand blasted my fire wall. Had the engine out and front clip off to make things easy. I taped everything I didn't want blasted and went for it. I primed it with the duplicolor pre mixed primer from Napa and then shot on a coat of Zolatone.

Hey, the Zolatone is a great idea. It seems like a pretty durable material. Any pics of that? I was thinking of using this on the underside of my fiberglass dome instead of a headliner. Plus, since it has a texture, it would be good for a place like the engine compartment, I think.