Finally got around to fixing the rust on my car. Living in Minnesota has hurt my car bad Anyway, the passenger side doesnt have much rust at all, a few spots nothing through. The drivers side on the other hand is horrible. I took all the ground effects off and sanded around the rust spots to see what I was looking at. Looks like the door has 4 or 5 holes and lots of rust. The quarter pannel is rust, not sure if there is much metal left in the lower part. My question is, should I get a door that is in better shape from a salvage yard(or can I just get the outer metal and put that on? or??) and should I try and fiberglass/bondo the quarter pannel or should I get a new one. I have 2 weeks to finish this project and make the car drivable, tranny has to be pulled and get the pump seal and maybe the pump fixed too. Lost cause? I am using Naval Jelly to get rid of the rust and then spraying some kind of antirust stuff on top of it. I pretty much need the fastest cheapest way to fix this.

 

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IMO if you can find a rust free door, go for it, 3rds gens still aren't rare enough to fix parts that are easily replaced. I wouldn't bondo the quarterpanel, the rust will just come back worse, do it right, do it once.

 

My quarter panel and doors(both of em) were worse than that by a good bit actually, but when i bought the car the guy had 2 repalcement doors and a quarterpanel for me to weld on, when i removed the old doors you could just rip the door skins off with your hands!!,

if you are gonna use bondo it WILL come back. just a matter of time, if you weld a piece in and then use bondo it might work better.

 

Geeeez! Thats got more rust than my "unrestored" '64 Impala SS. lol....As for the repair I'd go with trying to get another door and for the quarter I would have to say get a new one or try to find some patch panels. If you can't find patch panels you could always cut the pieces off the new quarter that you need. Seems to me like it would be alot easier that way.

 

Welcome to the midwest my friend. Don't you love it? I'm real close to you and I cringe driving in the winter, most of the time I can see the road glisten with salt!!!! On my truck I cut out the rust on the fenders wells and put a ghetto rigged panel behind it, then I welded it in from the back all the way around the panel. Then I smothed the outside with bondo and painted it. Looks pretty good and I hope it lasts. I did it over spring break, so maybe a week, but it was much less rust then you are looking at.
Good Luck

 

Well, I couldn't find a rust free door(or any 3rd gen) for that matter in any salvage yard. Anyone in MSP that knows of a yard that has any 3rd gens please let me know. I also didn't find any replacement pannels that I could get quick enough, so I was forced to use fiberglass and bondo to fix the rust. All in all it isnt too bad, however, I can't seem to make it look smooth. There are always some chunks that are lower than the rest. 3 days and counting before this project has to be done...any sugestions?

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get 80 grit sand paper and go over all the spot u have done with fiberglass/bondo and then primer and see if u have any high and low spots and if u still do mix some more fiberglass/bondo and fill and sand down and use 180 grit and primer again and then use the glazing puddy and after thats good wet sand the glazing puddy down to were it feels smooth as hell. and then after u get everything were u want it to be and perfect to ur likings primer and seal and paint and if ur goin with a clear use tha clear also. even though theres someone on here that used a single stage paint. that looks like he used clear on it and looks like glass almost.

also dont get hit or bumpd into in the rear quater panel or ur goin to have to repaire all that bondo work ya did. someone told me that after everything looks good and all and if u get hit even bumpped the bondo could crack and fall off. but good luck anyway.

 

I'd look into http://www.por-15.com for a rust-stopping chemical that's been featured many times in Hot Rod and Popular Hot Rodding and etc. I used it on my 3.73/posi/disc axle when I put it in (axle was from an '84 t/a), I bought the super starter kit, and it's held up fine. 'Fact right now, the posi (actually an eaton gov-lock locker) blew up (they are famous for doing that), and the axle's been in my backyard under a tarp, and it hasn't shown any signs of rust.

Use all three stages, though. There's two preps (a cleaner and a zinc coating) and the POR-15. Guys from this board said they just slapped the por-15 on, without the other steps, and had no problems, but this is a 1/4 panel and door!! Do the other two steps!!

And yeah, definately don't bondo over the rust. Don't think it's gone just because it's sanded away, either. I did this. I started to re-do my paint, ran outta coin, and left one 1/4 in primer for over a year. Guess what; primer isn't waterproof, and neither is bondo- you should've seen the rust. So I sanded it all away, tried some crap made by MarHyde, in a spray can, called Rust Convertor, that apparently didn't work. Then I laid the bondo down, kept the car in the garage until the primer work was done, and had it shot by Maaco.

Now, guess what? All the rust came back, with a damn vengence, since it was hidden by Bondo. I'm missing chunks of my 1/4. Oh, I've got a pic... they're the same ones from my "why can't I find anything about replacing a quarter panel??" message. I don't think anyone will mind if I attach them again.

But if I had the chance again, I would have used the por-15 on the rust. (Didn't know about it back then.) Then I would've used the Bondo. Try going out-of-state for a door, it'd be well worth it. Have you looked at the bottoms of the doors? Not the bottoms that are visible from the outside of the car, I'm talking about underneath the door, where the outer door skin is crimped against the inner door skin. That rotted completely out on my first doors, now it's doing it again on my second set, and I've gotta get a THIRD f'ing set. I hate rust!!!

Here's the pictures... good luck with it, let us know what you do. Rust really f'ing sucks.

 

Pictures, set two of three

 

Pictures, set three of three, final set.

 

Oops, you've only got a few days? Try something called "naval jelly" or another type of chemical rust-removing acid. Do a search on this forum for "rust acid" and I think youll find a few messages.

I think sandblasting might also work... maybe you could rent/borrow a sandblaster. I think it's supposed to remove rust. Wear some kind of mask (home depot respirator might work, $35) to prevent silicosis of the lungs- unlike everything else, the dust created by sandblasting can't be coughed out of your lungs!!

A welding store might have a weld-thru cold-galvanizing primer. This stuff is mostly made up of zinc (wear a respirator or some kind of protection), and zinc helps stop/prevent rust. The stuff I have is 85% zinc (or is that 95%)! It might buy you more time than I got (painted in '97, rust started attacking around '99).

 

Don't want to be contriversial here and upset anybody but shotblasting large areas of exterior body panels isn't a great idea. If not done right the heat generated by the blasting can distort the thin metal,it also creates an almighty mess.Also I don't know why por-15 is still being recommended for exterior panels.The stuff is way too thick to hide with a paint job.I now use loads of the stuff for chassis parts where the finish isn't quite so critical but for exterior panels your doing the right thing by using naval jelly (or any phosphoric acid).I'm afraid theres no such thing as a quick fix if you want a good paint job but if your not too bothered about the appearance then by all means cover it in por-15,the stuff is very good.

ps.By the way in the UK we can't get the primer to go over the por-15 to use other paint on top.I experimented with 2pack etch primer and it etches very well without reaction meaning I can do all the chassis parts in 2pack.

 

You guys think you have it bad!! They only good news is that I live in the south now with junkyards and next to no rust. Even though they want an arm and a leg for parts!! I lived in PA. have to replace two fenders, driver door and both 1/4 around the bottom and wheel well. Only the door has gone through but I think I will get a new car and use the int and tranny to swap. I just can't find one with a good body at a good price. Like around 5-700. I can use my car for everything else.