drunkclever

I have minor rust in both rear wells. I figure i just a cut a lil bit off and then spray it with rust inhibitor to finish off before patching the hole(s)

I sw some pics that a guy took and was going to follow the same thing. Everything was going fine. I leave get some cut wheels for my dremel tool and start cuting away. 3hrs or so later I am still cuting. I should have just bought some jig saw blades or bought a sawall. I notice that theres a patch on the outside of the wheel well with intedation on it. I figure if I drill out the spot welds I could same some time and just patch smaller holes with body filler and be done with it. next thing i know I am drilling, hammering, sawing, bleeding.

well I got one wheel well rust out of the way. I just have one more to deal with.


I was going to buy a 50lbs roll of lead .. something thats for the roof. I forgot the name. Its the only thing I could find. I will jsut cut a peice to suit my needs and use a torch to cover the hole. Should seal all right by itself. Just for better sealing I am planning to cover the interior and the exterior with a rubberized coating.

anyone think this will now work let me know as soon as possible I am doing this tomorro.

I have no skill when it comes to body work. so don't hate

capt murph

I'm sure not many want to condone this repair method, but if it is not structural and will not be seen, then proceed to patch. It will prolong the car's life and keep water out.

You might want to consider fiberglass Vs. the roofing material. They sell small kits.

drunkclever

small kits.. lol

I took allmost a ft.sg. off the wheel well. I remember seeing and reading of a method that uses lead to seal up a hole. Older cars usally were repairs with this method. Its stronger than fiber glass and bondo. I am not sure if they used sheet metal with it. I don't want fiber glass and bondo on my car. I checked it out.. theres none now as it stands.

I remember the first rx7 that I ever drove. It was a 2nd gen NA.. a true POS. everything needed some type of work to get it going. It was automatic, and flooded at every start. I got smashed fromt he rear and brought it to someone someone down town to get fixed. They just cut the rear qt. panel out and did something with lead to it. It came out new. Well.. i took my '85 down there and get the rust taken care of and the guy practically through me off the lot. what an ******* he was to me. I will never return there again.

The roofing material is lead. It just comes in rolls. I just need to hope that I can work with it.

Lee Lyons

I swear if I see another hole patch job done solely with bondo I think I'm going to go mad...people do it right...its easy... 1)wire wheel on both sides of the hole if possible... 2)clean surface with ethanol or something to remove excess grease... 3) buy a small piece of sheet metal and cut to size... 4) borrow or rent a mig welder... 5) weld... 6)wait to cool... 7) cover with some sort of water resistant tar... 8) ahhh finally finished and hey that spot won't reappear in a year....bigger than it was before...if you do it right you won't regret it guaranteed!

trochoid

iTrader: (6)

Lead is not stronger than bondo or fiberglass. In the old days, when cars had real metal was difficult to hammer out smooth, and bondo wasn't around then.

If you want to do it right, shape new metal to fit, weld it in, pre-treat for rust prevention with a bare metal, or zinc rich primer, then paint and undercoat.

Lead is for filling, not bridging.

ray green

iTrader: (14)

I agree, I wouldn't use the lead, but if the damage isn't too severe, patching in a piece of sheet metal is a relatively easy option, especially if you don't have access to a body shop where they can do it "professionally".

If you are maintaining a daily driver and not building a show car, you can manage these rust spots and others that might come up by knocking out the rust and scraping and wire brushing down to the metal. If there isn't any structural damage and the holes aren't too big, you can patch in a piece of sheet metal with sheet metal screws and epoxy:

Here's some pictures of my backyard repair, which worked nicely and held up well:

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/479957/8
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/479957/9
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/479957/10

And if you want to do it "right" by welding it in (or getting it welded in), that's a nice option if it's available. But a good glue and screw patch job will probably last just as long and this will almost certainly be longer than the remaining life in your 20+ year old car.

Then seal the whole thing up with a good tight coat of bondo on both sides and undercoating on the outside.

Special considerations in your case are that you live in Saltachusetts - check carefully for structural damage when you've got the rust knocked out and the metal cleaned up.

Good luck!
Ray

$100T2

iTrader: (1)

Lead is dangerous. I personally wouldn't want any in my car.

Wankelguy

Are you guys talking about the rolls of ZINC that are used to keep moss from growing on your roof?

drunkclever

I guess I could do something like that. Aren;t you worried that all that work you did will only last you 1 or 2 years? Did you treat the rust behind the bondo? I could see that you just removed the flaks and then splattered the stuff in.

I want to remove all traces of the rust... and then cover things up. I was going some "CSI" type investigation into where the rust started.. It seems its from the steal panels there were spot welded on the wheel well. My plan was to cut the panels out and cover the holes with some sheet metal.

I am no pro but I am a prefectionist. I don't want any chances of getting rust in there again. Thats why I am planning on just cuting the panels out.

As far as structual damage.. there none.. just needs a good'o cleaning/degreasing and recoating.

I wish I had more tools to work with. All I got is a angle grinder, jig saw and a dremal tool.

ray green

iTrader: (14)

I scraped it down really well getting rid of all rust and any weakened metal, then I used a wire brush to polish it to pretty much bare metal under the patch. I cut and fit the galvanized sheet metal from a sheet I recovered from behind our stove when remodeling the kitchen, it had a white mastic covering on one side (visible through the holes from the outside), which gave it a little extra thickness and a tighter fit.

I predrilled small guide holes for the sheet metal screws, then covered all surfaces between the patch and body with fiberglass epoxy so that when I fit in the metal patches the epoxy oozed out, leaving no voids between the body and patch. Finally the patch was secured tightly with the sheet metal screws, which bite into the body real well and pull the patch up tight.

Before putting the bondo on from the outside, I wire brushed any loose debris away and got it down to a reasonably clean surface, which is what you see in the pictures.

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/479957/8

I wiped down all the outside surfaces with solvent (either gas or ethanol, don't remember which) before coating with bondo containing fiberglass fibers, working it deep into any cavities and smoothing, tapering and sealing the job from the outside to keep water out. After the bondo set up I sprayed the outside with undercoating. The inside was painted with Rustoleum metal primer. Basically there are no holes for water to get in and restart the rot, so I think it is just as good as welding, if no structural changes are needed.

I did the repair a couple of years ago and put more than 30,000 miles on the car before it got clobbered by a Buick (never did like Buicks). It's been sitting in the driveway for the last nine months, a parts car that has already made many good donations to my other GSLs, so it's looking pretty scrappy. But the repair still looks like it did the day I finished it, no signs of any problems or aging.

I do live in Georgia, which is a lot easier on cars than Massachusetts. I know, I lived in Mass for more than 20 years. But look at it this way, what do you have to loose? With your angle grinder and dremel you could have it cleaned up for patching in less than an hour (if you haven't already). Putting in the patch and sealing it up is another hour. Then drive it and keep an eye on it, if you see any water getting into your storage areas it's not working. If it stays nice and dry, like mine did, it's holding up fine.

I'm a perfectionist too, but I have learned to live with my disorder so that I have time for other things. This worked for me, but it's true that most people do recommend the more radical approach you are considering. If you got the time and money, great. If you want to do the job yourself, which I find extremely satisfying, and get it done tomorrow, the screw and glue approach just might be for you.

Good luck, let us know how it goes!

Ray

drunkclever

Thanks for all your advise Ray.

I got a friend thats got a mig and some time tomorrow

after I get the sheet metal down I am going to treat the entire effected area with rust anhibitor and then going to use bondo to seal things up. For added longevity I was thinking of sealing any openings.. like between the braket thats got that bar that connectes to the axel. Those little openings is where the rust is coming from, its likely do to expansion and contraction along with salts.

I broke my dremal today. I need to get out and buy some brushes. Less than an hour, yeah right. I took me about 4 hrs to get one side looking halfway to the point where I could say its clean. Simply because of inexperiance. Tell you what thought, I sure am learning alot about body repair. Maybe i'll try and repair the rust on the '85, but then again.. that should take me atleast a year or 2.. lol

Cowboyfun

Glad to hear that you are mig'in it. Make sure you use .23 wire nothing bigger or else you will melt right through. then just bondo over the new plate that you welded in and smooth it out. Throw some undercoating over the bondo and then primer and paint!

purple82

Absolutely true. Make sure that you don't eat any of it, no matter how long you've been working and how hungry you are.

ray green

iTrader: (14)

My philosophy is that it's always nice to have options. You are right, body work is a self teaching process, you just need to have the time, patience and desire to learn how it's done. A couple of good wire brushes will really help out. Here's another backyard bodywork job I did with the help of my neighbor Bobby, who is my mechanical guru:

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/479957/13

Take some pictures and post them, we all can learn from your experience.

Ray

drunkclever

How the heck did ya do that? cut and weld from another car? pulled the heck out of it and then bondoed it up?

my sig contains pics of my work.. its in progress mind ya'll. My freaking brother took the air sander and dug into the paint at some places all the way down to the metal. I had a guy come over for a quote on painting it.. and he said.. we have to strip the paint all off cus of the "dug outs" he then said.. if you can strip the paint completely off you might be looking at just under 1500 for the paint job. I was ****! I better check with maaco..lol Today I am going to do some bondo and touch up some of the holes. Then I am going to do a lil sanding, and finally try and get a better quote. wish me luck.

If you look at the pictures.. the inside of the wheel well is not finished. I went as far as I could go with it. I have a friend thats good in welding and hes comeing over to check things out. The patch I made is over sized for the cancer that I had to cut out.

ray green

iTrader: (14)

"How the heck did ya do that? cut and weld from another car? pulled the heck out of it and then bondoed it up?"

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/479957/13

Pulled the heck out of it, pounded it to as close to as original as possible and then bondoed it up. First I drilled some 1/2 in holes in the metal so that I could insert a chain anchored by a rod on the back side. Then I hooked the chain up to my wife's jeep and towed the 7 around the driveway for a while, using short sharp pops to carefully pull out the metal.

Then I took it over to neighbor Bobby's house where we pounded it smooth, fillled the holes with fiberglass and the dents with bondo, followed by a nice professional paint job using Rustoleum spray paint, which is a near perfect match for the original light beige paint job. The estimate from the body shope was $2,400. My materials were about $24 and we had a good time doing it. I used the $2,376 profit to buy another GSL.

Ray