[stick]

...turned out to be just the tip, with no iceberg underneath. Phew! I saw this rust bubbling up under the plastic side skirts and was scared to see how extensive the rust would actually be behind the panel. It turns out, the rust hadn't gotten very far. I'm just going to wire-wheel it down and POR15 it for now.

 

[toxiclows]

good save man. . . At lest there is suitable metal under there worth saving. .
could have been alot worse. . . .

clean it up and protect it and you should be good till you can give it the once over. . .

Chris

 

[stick]

Well, the rust repair is done. It's just a temporary repair to stop the rust until it's time to do proper body work on this car. I ordered in some silver POR15 and was delighted to find out that it is almost exactly the same colour as Vogue Silver Metallic. Here's a pic of the repair.

 

[ollie]

Sweet fix there stick.
Now I may need some of that stuff for my gas door area.. :shock: :shock:
I found a few bubbles there.

CURSE YOU RUST!

 

[Wasuri]

Why is it only temporary? How bad was the rust?

 

[stick]

Why is it only temporary? How bad was the rust?

It had eaten half ways through the metal already...and I'm assuming that it's probably rusty on the inside of the panel as well. I just wanted to seal off the metal to stop the rust from spreading. By the dents on the door sill, I'm imagine that the previous owner used to kick off the grime on his shoes against the door sill. There was a massive pile of grit and salt residue under the plastic side skirt. The entire car needs to be repainted eventually...so when I am finished restoring my other car, I'll do a proper repair and paint job on this one.

 

[Wasuri]

Ouch. Sorry it had to happen, but thanks for explaining though! I hope everything goes well in the restoration. Are you going to have to cut away any metal too how extensive the damage is? It kind of looks like it may have gotten in a hole??

 

[stick]

Ouch. Sorry it had to happen, but thanks for explaining though! I hope everything goes well in the restoration. Are you going to have to cut away any metal too how extensive the damage is? It kind of looks like it may have gotten in a hole??

The damage is fairly localized. That's why I wanted to catch it early with the POR15. I will probably cut and weld when I get around to it. But thankfully, it won't be as big of a job as if I were to leave it for a couple more years unprotected.

 

[daveb91]

Good choice on the Por15 silver its a lot stronger than the black stuff.

 

[bobski]

Ugh. Inspired by this thread, I decided to take off the side skirts to take a look and clean things out if nothing else. I found this:

... after wire-wheeling off the scale. Looks like a previous owner tried to seal it with spray paint :roll:.
I'm going to cut it out and weld in a patch... Any thougts as to how I can paint the back (interior) side of the patch and welds once it's in place?

 

[stick]

Some people drill hole somewhere and spray in a coating and hope that it covers the entire backside.

Here's what I would probably do: Coat the middle of the backside of the piece with POR15 (don't coat the 1/2" edge, because you don't want it to be dragged into the weld). Sand and coat inside the opening as much as you can reach with POR15 (again, except for within 1/2" of where the weld will be.). Spray the 1/2" edges with a weld-thru primer (weldable primer that is high in zinc content). When you weld, the weld-thru primer will be pulled into the welds and will help protect them from corrosion. (Honda uses a crappy weld-thru primer to protect the back of panels. Get a good quality one, and the metal will be protected better than from the factory) When everything is done, coat the front surface with POR15.

That's how I would do it. Anyone else got any ideas? I've had a couple of sleepness nights pondering this little problem as well.

 

[stick]

Just remembered...there is an access hole to the back of that panel from inside the rear wheel well. Look for a round rubber grommet. If you get a flashlight and a paint swap on a long piece of wire, you should be able to paint the back of the panel entirely with POR15 after it is welded in place. How cool is that?

The POR15 company sells a painting tool called a "Dauber". It is essentially a wool swab on the end of a piece of twisted wire. I'm sure you can probably find them from other vendors for cheaper, or maybe even make your own.

 

[bobski]

Good point - I noticed the rubber plug a couple days ago while checking out the condition of the undercoating. Now that I think about it, I might be able to reach down there once I take out the interior panel. The trouble is there's only about 1/2" between the panel I'm welding and the next layer in.
I'm a little suprised someone hasn't made a sort of spray-nozzle-on-a-stick for these situations. Maybe I can just drill a small drain hole and pour POR15 over the back of the panel via a tube or something. I've never used the stuff before, so feel free to point out any problems with that idea.
Sheesh... And just after I spent most of my spare cash on tires.

 

[stick]

If you can get a swab in there that is covered with POR15, that would work the best. I would avoid pouring POR15 into spaces. It grabs onto things and shrinks while curing. ie: if you poured it into a pop can and let it dry, it would pull the walls of the can inward, crushing the can.

Maybe there is a long skinny nozzle that you can get for a paint gun. However, if you were to just stick the paint gun nozzle in the hole and spray away, I'm sure that it would coat the entire inside of the space simply because of the quantity of air that it would be pushing through the space. Is there a grommet on the other end of the space so that the air has an escape path?

You might be able to use an airbrush for this purpose as well...i think they have a wider variety of tips than automotive refinishing guns.

 

[daveb91]

yeah i remeber a guy who actually dumped por15 into the bottom of his sunroof when it dried it wrinkled the whole panel.

 

[bobski]

Welding novice + crappy welder + thin metal + upside down = :evil:

This is after grinding down all the drips. I'm using a cheap 80 amp inverter welder (Mini 80 by ArcOne) with a TIG torch... 2% thoriated tungsten with pure argon. 95% of the time I can't get an arc started - the electrode welds itself to the surface. Another 4% of the time I can't do anything meaningful with the arc before it burns through and/or back the sheet metal. Turning up the amperage helps with starting but makes the arc that much more destructive... 55 amps is about as low as it will go and still strike an arc.
Makes me wish I had just saved a bit more and gone with a decent MIG, or even a buzz box, since I have the same problems when I try to stick weld.
Any advice?

 

[stick]

You need a low power MIG welder unit with gas. Check around, you might be able to rent one for a day. I'm probably going to save up and buy a Millermatic 135 unit for welding thin sheet metal.

http://www.millerwelds.com/products/mig ... matic_135/

Powerful units are good for making solid penetrating welds on thicker metal, but they just end up burning huge holes in thin sheet metal.