Ok guys,
So an update from me. On Sunday and today I took off the rust remover, which did a great job of cleaning up. Got plenty of clean metal now.
I then spent a nice amount of time, slowly inspecting and cleaning back the areas/corners/angles where the arch meets the front skit area and the rear bumper area. Kind of complex areas but I was sure to give them attention as they could easily be fobbed off.. and would be a total shame if they bubbled in 6, 12 months time after all this work. Clean metal there now too.
There are some bits of the original sealant there in places, but most importantly it is clean to metal around the edges of both arch time to ensure no rust. I am wondering now if I need to remove all of it, or if the final bits will be safe there as they seem pretty stuck on.
For cleaning the intricate areas I used my Dremel with 90 degree adaptor which worked great. Jury is out on the bits I used, especially the wire wheels / cups. They weren't OEM Dremel though only cheapo bits. I suspect Dremel bits would be ace. In fact any of the bits I have used are good. I am very dubious about using cheap bits because of the fear of a bit exploding at 20k RPM. I'll probably be only going Dremel from now, but they are expensive and somewhat consumable for this kind of work. -- I guess a die grinder tool is what I should really be using. Next time
You will see in the pics, that I needed to use the cutting disc on Dremel to nob off a bit of this black plate that is used to mount the side skirt. The plate was fixed with a rivet and wouldn't come off. The piece I remove however, shouldn't affect it's function - I will have to eat my shirt if it does. :shrugs.
Pics, words and all that.......
To finish today, I put on more Bilt Hamer Deox Gel all over any exposed metal (just because) and the newly cleaned bits as described above.
Next up I am trying to figure out how I am going seal up the inner lip. I am in a situation where the inner arch steel and quarter panel come together and are both exposed (with a slight gap in between) due to the cutting. I think I will be using U Channel rubber to cover over along with some combination of seam sealer and filler. I will draw a diagram to show my proposal for critique, shortly.