I don't have a welder, whats the next best way to fix this hole? quick steel, liquid steel ,ect? Thanks.
Cut away the cancerous metal, get a friend or a shop to weld in a patch. Everything else is a temporary "fix".
yeah find someone with a welder ...fix it right and fix it once if you insist on a cover up then grind it all out so its clean , then use fibre gl*** paste to cover the hole , then finish up with bondo
Get the grinder/sander out and follow that rabbit down the hole... :]' Pin holes turn into holes you can put your hand through. Fix it the right way if you can by welding in new metal.
Do you want the repair to last days or years? Body filler patch job- Maybe it gets to 30 days maybe it don't. Fibergl*** filler patch job- maybe it gets to 90 days maybe it don't. ****ty weld job - maybe it gets to 365 days maybe it don't Nice welded patch will last the life of the car.
Kitty hair, or gorilla hair depending on where you live. 31Vicky with a hemi, I worked with a guy that owned a '65 Elco. I worked with him for 7 years and the last year i worked at the place he asked me what i would charge to weld some quarters on it for him. I asked him why, because they looked OK to me. so he showed me that they were basically chicken wire and bondo. 7 years and gawd knows how long they had been that way before I knew him. Sometime that stuff amazes me.
I used Liquid Steel to de-chrome my first Ford. After it was painted the steel dust in the liquid steel rusted, popping off microscopic bits of paint. On every trim hole in the body. Thank god it was just a Custom and not a Galaxie 500! Oh, yeah. The rust didn't stay microscopic either. It was like my car grew barnacles.
LOL...I love this! I just realized I could build bubble skirts right to the car with hardware cloth and bondo. Then I could just snip it out when it was time to change the tire, and glue it back after. Put a pinstripe on the glue line to hide it and voila'! After several tire changes you could have pinstripes like tree rings, but it would add lots of "character." (Good Lord! What's in this coffee today ???) Gorilla hair is OK for now if you can't weld, but want to learn so you can really fix it later... You just can't put it on over ANY rust or paint. It needs to stick to bare metal. Clean metal, sanded and s****ed absolutely bare and then acid etched, and lovingly cleaned for hours with repeated washings. To get ALL that acid back off too, That's the trick; well that, don't do it out in cold weather, and not making a spongy porous mess by getting the 'hair full of bubbles. It's not magic. Just long-fibers and epoxy resin. If you add some strategic wire reinforcing in the patchwork you can help prevent cracking and make it all much sturdier too, but knowing just what & where is complicated. PS: find a welder on the forum and bribe him with a HAMB sammitch. PPS: Welding isn't that expensive in the end. You'd be amazed at what you will do once you learn.
I´d grind it down to bare metal , have a body man look it over if I couldn´t do it myself and have him weld him in a patch. Sheetmetal is not more expensive than bondo and 1 hr bondoing and sanding costs the same as 1 hr welding and grinding,... Go ahead and take this to cut your welding skills, it´s fun!
This will never be a "nice" car thou it will be garage kept. Just looking for ideas to fix it (this is the only real bad spot). The rest is almost ready for paint (primer over bondo but has been this way for awhile with no cracking) This will be my 2nd home paint job so my experience is slim.
I don't even know what I am looking at. If it is a front fender or other removable panel you could replace the whole fender. If you know a friendly body man you could prep by grinding off the paint and bondo, and have him weld it up. Then finish and paint it yourself. This would not cost much, sheet metal is cheap and welding the panel on does not take much time. I would do it for $50 if you lived near here.
They don't call rust "cancer" for nothing- if you don't get it all out, it will be back for a visit in the near future.Cut out ALL the bad metal and patch with 18 ga. Patch and finish have to be done right too or same deal with return visit. Pic looks like a doorjamb? Can be a tricky spot to work.As someone else suggested, you may be better off biting the bullet and let a body guy get involved. Good luck with it.
Know what day I first learned how to weld...rust hole! The equipment cost may seem high but will more than pay for itself over time. I don't know how I managed to get anything done beforehand.
Its on the non removable nose of a econoline pickup. sounds like I'll have to cut it myself and find someone to weld.
Good idea. Looks like someone already tried to "fix" it with Bondo, and here we are talking about how to fix it. Kinda proves everyone's point......
Once you get below the paint and then grind away the bondo you will find it's much worse than what you now see. You're going to have to weld in new metal.
cheap temporary fix that gets you headed in the right direction; sand/grind down to good metal, cut out all rot. then make a sheet metal patch to cover the hole. paint the panel and patch on both sides and pop rivet it in. fill if you want.
Grind out the rust and repair with kitty hair which will last years on a properly prepped surface. BTW... That is not a rust hole,,this is a rust hole!
check into a used gas welder set up...may be cheaper than an electric welder. then learn how to use it.
20 gauge. You might want to go 18 for floors. Auto supply places sell metal for the purpose. Aluminum killed is nice because it does not rust.
You will need to remove the door to get better access. You or the bodyman will grind away the old paint and bondo for 6 inches around the bad area. Cut out the corroded metal, make and weld in a new piece. Welding in a new piece of metal should not take long or cost much. Taking the door off, putting it back on, grinding, filling, sanding, priming and painting is the biggest part of the job.
What you have is the result of an already bondoed up rust hole patch. The little white spots you see to the right of the crack is bondo. It (the bondo) starts above he first signs of a crack above the open crack and extends all the way down below where your picture ends. How far to the right the bondo extends is anyone's guess. To fix it properly, all the bondo needs to be removed, and the paint surrounding the bondo needs to be removed also. Only then will you know the extent of the fix that is going to be required. I suspect this will be a rather large repair before its all done. Short of repairing it correctly, I believe you can sand the area around the issue, and determine how to attach the piece to the left of the crack to the bondo on the right side, again. Once you figure that out, rebondo it and paint it. It may be good for a year or more before the bubbles show up again and another temporary repair will be required. I do this type of repair often, what you took a picture of does not give you any indication of how big the problem is, it just identifies one edge of the last temporary fix. You have to find the good steel before you can determine what needs to be done. The steel has to be shinny and solid before you can weld to it. Anyone telling you differently is pulling your leg. Gene
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