Rust Hole Repair

[North Coast Cab]

I removed my rockers to change t-bars and I discovered this rust hole.

It's about 1/2" square. It also appears as though there is some body filler in the area around it. How should it be repaired? Can I do it myself? It will becovered by the rocker so appearance doesn't have to be perfect.

John

[rkh3]

Yup, thats Bondo, sign of a hack job. Would make me wonder what else was done in similar fashion. They had rot and rather than cut it out and weld a patch in, they covered it with Bondo, which always fails.

I would use a weak magnet on the body to look for more Bondo. If it sticks, good, if it does not, Bondo.

[john walker's workshop]

basically, you grind the bondo off and see how big the area really is. that's a normal area for rust. the inner jamb suffers from the same wet mud that caused that hole. it has to get cut out and new metal welded in. the bad spot will undoubtedly get larger as you poke around and trim it back to good metal.

[North Coast Cab]

So I have ti cut and weld? No other way to remove rust and patch I guess. It' just somehting I can't do myself which complicates the repair.

John

[john70t]

You could do it yourself but it would take a little time. Summer has less humidity for painting.
1. feather back the paint to an inch of virgin steel surrounding rust.
2. grind all rust to a shape, and make a perfect patch out of solid scrap metal(mabye 70's 'merican car). Need a drill, cutoff wheel, hammer, and something solid to pound on. This will take time.
3. try to stop all rust starting inside.
4. weld patch in. You can drive it to a proffesional welding shop(disconnect battery/cpu/cdi first) and have them do it. They shouldn't mind if the patch fits nice. Or buy a portable oxy/o2 kit($sub400 at lLowes) and gas weld it yourself. These work greta for rusty bolts too. Watch nearbye lines and wet the carpet. Practice first on scrap metal and read up on materials and technique.
5. zinc primer, paint

[Shuie]

Check the door jamb and the door latch panel from behind the wheel well. I bet its rusting from the inside out. Beware of the lead in that area of the car if you start grinding away. If you can do it yourself, I would go for it. I couldnt. I have a $2800 receipt for a similar repair from a good bodyshop if you need motivation .

Good luck!

[daka]

I have had a lot of rust repairs done with welding by "supposed" good body shops in areas where you could not reach or even see the area behind when it was done to clean up the metal that the weld damaged. Invariably the rust started again after a few years at the points where the weld was done. If this is an area, on not the structure, wouldn't it be better to use one of the new "glues" to patch the repair piece area?

[North Coast Cab]

It appears that there is this 1/2" hole under the rocker near the jack tube. On the underside there is what appears to be a 1/4" "exit" hole rusted through as well. The surrounding body panel and area seems completely in tact. It looks like a rust spot turned into a hole and then water penetrated causing the bottom hole to rust from the inside. I think I can cut out each hole and get reparied fairly painlessly. So, what are these new "glues" and is it something I can tackle?

John

[rkh3]

Make sure that you cut the metal back to where there is 0 rust. Weld, not glue, a new patch, use POR 15 after the welds are ground down. SKIM with a plastic filler, not Bondo. They make products, can't remember the name, made just for this.

Most people hate body work, I actually enjoy it, find it creative and rewarding.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally posted by rkh3


Most people hate body work, I actually enjoy it, find it creative and rewarding.

Uh, come on down any time, free beer and more rewards than you can shake a stick at!