Wheel Well Rot Repair
 

Capt Murph had some Well Rot in his SE, The driver side was real bad and I sold him a peice to repair it https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generation-specific-1979-1985-18/cutting-out-wheel-well-430223/

But on the passeger side it was not as bad so he did this. Should have pics of the driver side compleated in the next few weeks



https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...d=137926&stc=1

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...d=137927&stc=1

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...d=137928&stc=1

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...d=137929&stc=1

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...d=137930&stc=1

Last Pic


https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...d=137931&stc=1

That is the amount of repairs I will have to do... nice pics

Toxic_d

One thought to add on this repair:

If i had to do it again, I would consider having the original support piece repaired - perhaps by a professional welder. Then I would spot weld that on top of the large sheet metal repair piece, so that when it is re-installed, it at least looks more like original equipment. (spot weld support piece by tack welding in the 1/4 " holes at or near the original spot weld pattern (12 spots).

As it is now, fiberglassed over and covered with undercoating, it is strong and looks ok, but from participating in this forum, I would guess that the keen eye of 7 enthusiasts would pick this out and possibly be scared away or suspect of the repair.

Of course I did several burnouts to test the strength. No upper links came shooting through the back! (Driver side was doing just that... pictures to follow) Job complete.

Thank you forum members for inspiration and technical support. :)

capt murph

happy motoring.

I had to do this on my 83 (when I was 15.) I cut all the metal out, ground the edges, dressed it with POR15 and then fiberglassed it instead of welding as I didn't have a welder..worked well.

I have the same work to do... Honestly i'm not looking forward to it... The wheel well rust is almost identical to that in the pictures. What gauge of sheet metal did you use (the piece that was welded in...)

Thanks for the inspiration... I just need to find a welder I can rent locally around town and I guess I can begin putting a new piece in there.

It's almost as if I'm looking at my own rust also...............

Don't rent one, go ahead and buy one.... you can get a decent 115 amp 12ov welder for around $200.

may I ask why you recommend on buying one rather then renting one?

Lol... that's not rust...

You should have seen my -SE before she got fixed...

The upper link mounting on the passenger side actually detached from the car due to rust...

She baiscally got ALL new wheel wells... gotta find the pics...

Oh and I should mention I reason I am against buying one at this point is because I will probally use it for a week... And I really don't want to have to buy a tank of gas and all the headaches that come with it...

Big help for me. Thanks for posting pics. I need to do the same repairs to mine. Plan on doing the repairs before the 2006 SoloII season.

what would be cool would be if a company made the replacment panel that we could just weld in... We all seem to have rust in the exact same places.... Im not really looking forward to mine but I already have the rust cut out so ummm 4 inch holes in the fenders = not streetable

Make sure to give the underbody and inside the cabin a REAL good anti-rust coating afterwards...

that's NOTHING.
the GSL that I have right now that I'm currently repairing has NO inner fenderwell foreward of the shock at ALL! the floor is rotten as well.

for the rear wheelwell area I'm using pretty thick steel - I went to the scrapyard and paid $20 for a giant stop sign, and I'm using that. it's probably 14 gauge? I dunno.

I duplicated the stock side upper control arm braces EXACTLY. I also made a thick plate that's about 20" long by 8" wide out of the thick steel on the "floor" in that section over where both the upper link and lower link attach.
When I'm done it'll both never rust again - and be about 5x stronger than it was from the factory.

making new inner fenderwells from scractch is a pain in the ass!

there's no way to just stop the spread of the rust? like spreading phosforic acid too eat up the rust, then spray paint it or something? my car has about the same rust as that pic. btw i'm pretty sure phosphuric acid can be bought at advance auto either in a little fat white bottle called rust dissolver gel, or in a taller clearish bottle that i can't remember the name.

If it's not bad yet, grind off the worst of it, then POR15 the whole area...

Then a good undercoating...

This was the good side of his car, Wait till you see the other side.

I'm guessing that mine's pretty lucky for a canadian car since I have not even half that amount of rust. But there's still bit that I need to grind down and hit with the POR-15.

where can i get POR-15? and what is it? undercoating as in the rubberized undercoating in an aerosol can?

You got that right Hades12, that was the good SIDE. I'll provide pics of the bad side (now repaired) soon.



The original outer support piece appears to be 18 gauge thickness. That is what I used for my repair piece shown in the photo. IS THERE A TERM FOR THIS PIECE??? If not, how about we call it an 'upper link support plate'... the dreaded ULSP.

As you can see, that ULSP is tack welded on. It looks like those spot welds are the seeds for rust. To prevent corrosion, I'd suggest that some sort of sealer be applied to keep moisture out of that area.

Lucky bastard...

You should have seen my 1st -SE. RRRRRUUUUUSSSSTTTTYYY!
I finally parted her out when the drive side door started to fall off, lol...

POR-15 is the father, the son, and the holy ghost of all rust paints!!!
KICKS the CRAP outta rust!
www.por15.com
Be carefeul! It's wicked powerful!

And yeah, after the POR-15 (inside and out), a good ruberized undercoating will help keep water out and stone chips from damaging your careful repairs:bigthumb:

rotaryrocketman,

POR 15 is a rust coating which converts the rust to a hard , paintable surface. Not sure where it is found. One might use POR 15 and then apply a rubberized uncercoating.

I found this info recently which claims to be better than POR 15 - http://www.rustbullet.com/

That's still WAY nicer than my good side...;)

I junked one cause the Rear end was trying to leave every time you pulled off from a stop and if you shifted 2nd to hard. It is sad that they have to rot in this way.