Rust repair: Will this hold, or do I need to do more?

[Kroggers]

I found some rust the other day, on the driver-side rear inner arch, just where the tube for the engine lid release cable runs. On closer inspection, I discovered that it had rusted right through to the cabin
Not having any welding experience I decided to take a different approach to fixing the problem, but am not sure if this can be seen as a long term solution, or if I should plan a trip to the body shop in the not to distant future?
Here is what I did, with some included pictures!!

First I removed the interior panel and the old sound barrier material and then treated the rust with a rust converter, and left it over night.


Yesterday I started by putting some tape over the hole from the outside to give me something to work against, and then painted the area on the inside with Hammerite.

[Kroggers]

This morning, when the paint was dry I covered the hole with fibreglass and resin.


Followed by a replacement sound deadening material, I had some left over from when I replaced the carpet in the car.


This is what I was then left with after I removed the tape. You can se where the paint that was on the tape has set to the fibreglass.

[Kroggers]

To protect it all from the outside, I treated the area again with some more rust converter, and once dry covered it all with JB weld. Here is the finished result...


Not sure if this can be seen as a long term solution, but I do hope it will hold until I can find the money to have it done professionally along with repainting the complete underside of the car

[Brad01mc]

Hi!

OK, think of this as tough love...

The art of body repair...

1) Get an angle grinder with a big wire brush and grind away until you have nice shiny clean metal. Do this from both sides.

2) Get some navel jelly, or other rust preventative chemical that will turn the Fe in the steel to Mn, Mg, some other metal.

http://paint-and-supplies.hardwarestore.com/50-278-rust-removers-strippers/navel-jelly-663258.aspx

Although I've never used the POR stuff, I assume it does a similar job. In any event, you should be able to find the chemical altering stuff at either a body shop, or parts place. Also, watch out!! This fluid will turn your hands black, and it won't wash off. One more thing. If you use a paint brush, don't dip it into the bottle. Pour some of the stuff out and use it. Any left over, throw away, don't put it back in the bottle. A boat shop would have this too.

3) It's going to get worse before it gets better. Looking at your pics, I would have done the whole fender, but since you just want to patch until later, I would at a minimum clean a ~5 cm buffer around the hole to make sure you have a good starting point.

4) Once everything is dry, start with the glass. You can also use bondo, but it sucks up water. Your tape on the back is a good idea to fill holes! Anyway, glass the area that you cleaned. If you can reach, cover the back side of the hole with resin, at least seal it around the edge of the hole to make sure you don't get any more water in there. Atmospheric water is bad too.

5) Spray some tar, or other undercoating liquid over the glass, so that it's sealed in completely. This will repel the water. Also, spray the other side with this stuff, especially if you can't get to the back of the hole with glass.

Anyway, I'm from the rust belt, so I've been doing this for a long time. The key is to get ALL of the rust ground off until you have nice clean metal, and make sure you seal everything. I can go into the chemistry of replacing the Fe and the use of tar/petroleum, but for now, this is a good way to keep the cancer away.

Good luck!

Hope this helps.

Brad

[GothingNC]

I have used por-15 on a few surface rust areas on my VW Thing on the lower floor pan area and it is still holding up very well.

[livi]

Got to hand it to you Pål - you are really a resourceful man ! Hope it works out. It does look like you have done a great job of it.

Disclaimer: I know absolutely nothing when it comes to rust treatment.

[Kroggers]

Thank you for the detailed breakdown Brad, but I believe that what I have done is sufficient to last at least until I have the underside of the car redone. At a minimum I should think it will hold for a year or two, and I did remove all the rust with a wire brush on both sides before treating the remaining metal with rust remover. We will see with time.
If I can find some good time before the end of the summer, then I might try to clean out all the arches with a power wash and good cleaning liquid, and then treat them with POR15 - but that is another project for the list

I hope this holds up just as long John, but as I have already said, I plan to do all the metal in there soon.

Well we have to do all we can to keep on top of these old cars Markus BTW, I am reviewing weekend dates with the boss for September - will email you during the week...

[Won]

... that will turn the Fe in the steel to Mn, Mg, some other metal.

That sounds dangerous