weather is nice, and I think its as good of time as any to fix the f'n rust but I need some pointers. first off I work at an engineering company and next month will have access to all the tools and facilities for the weekend. I have 2 exceptionaly rusty areas on my car. 1. strut towers. pretty common from what I see, and the fix should be too hard, shear some plate to match the rusted area and weld onto the good metal. 2. Heres where its tricky. my rear quarters. http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/6176/day2ftn0.jpg (not my car) Its been bond-o'ed over by someone in the past so it looks fine, but man its got some rust happening so I want to patch it all up. the rust has rotted out behind the black runner and one side on the pinch weld. Any advice would help, I know its pretty good everywhere else, so any tips would be great. Thanks fellers
Well I suggest you take both front fender's off and inspect the area behind...I had to patch some actual holes behind my fenders because they were so rotted... And if the fender's are bad enuogh you can always get aftermarket fender's for $100 a pop...or weld in some new sheet metal.. I chinced out and just pop-riveted and fiberglassed new metal in for my fender's.....meh..it worked
these arnt fenders as far as i know, its all one solid section no? Im gonna get a used welder soon, its something ive always wanted and for under 200 bucks im going for it. good have a tool shopping spree with the 400 dollars i sold my bike frame for.
They're fender's alright....4 bolts under the hood, 2 behind the door, one behind the corner light, and 2 underneath by the door...iirc I took mine right off and fixed the uni-body underit...then put them back on after grinding the rust off... There's some pics at the top here http://www.st162.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=31&start=15 of when I did mine...
rear pannels, the picture is deciving i guess. p.s do you have an msn, we need to conduct our heated debates off form as not to upset the zen
No one get's upset here...and it's probably easier to reach me here anyway... But the rear 1/4's are the same, they're just sheet metal around the unibody, so if there's rust, sand the paint down, find where it ends, grind off every spot of rust, then reattach new metal, bondo, sand, primer, then you're probably off just using rubber rocker-guard like I did because it hides shitty body work like I did!
Ill have to take the runner off the frame sometime to really get a good look. your right about the pic, im clearly a fool lol. Im concerned about hoe one side of the pinch welt is rusted away in areas, is it very structural to the frame and will I be able to just weld on the sheet metal to fix?
Almost everything you can see with the car together isn't structural, except the upper pillar's... The lowest part of the car where the folds are are structural as well, since that's where the car's supposed to be lifted from... I managed to grind off at least 3" up and 5" wide off the back of both sides on my car and just foam+fiberglass+bondo it and it looks great....
Used Welder : 200 dollars Rotary too: 20 dollars Thick GLoves: 7 dollars Staying home from work to finally be able to finally patch the rust in your car: Priceless (A welder at work recommended tarring the welds to help prevent rust) Tomorro's Fun
Is that one of the welders that can be converted to gas use? If so, I highly reccomend it. I thought welding was a PITA until I switched my MIG from flux to gas. Gas welding is the shit. I actually reccomend that you grind those welds down, to make sure you got full penetration on the welds, plus, it makes it look cleaner. Harbor Freight has grinders dirt cheap. It's very difficult to tell if flux welds penetrated without grinding them down.
This one is flux only, Ive used gasones before and Id have to agree they are a lot better. Like N/A vs. Turbo, the flux is just less hassle and money compared to gas. I could see the penitration on the other side when I was checkin it out fron the wheel well, its pretty bodged but Im sure it will be ok. If it break I can always just redo it, I dont have any interior in the back to start with
damn sheet metal is hard to weld a bead on, Im sure ive got enough on there to hold it fine... I hope haha well if not ill just redo it. I got rained out again but I think ive finished for now. Im going ot buy an angle grinder to cut through all the shit metal where it still need to patch and put brandnew stuff in . Still lots of gaps and holes but I think its finaly strong enough I can drive it for a few years and not have to worry. of coarse ill be fixing it all within a couple weeks
I was quite upset when I finally saw the extent of the rust. but I just gotta think to myself that its just a car, and im not the one rotting away. I think Ive got the majority of the struts patched enough to last several more years, and I dont wan tto even look under the runner to see the rust there but I hope i can fix that part with just 2 sheets of metal, not like what ive done here with a million small ones. good luck to me and my mule!
Don't feel bad that you can't get a bead going with a flux welder. Its really hard. I worked and worked at it, and then switched to gas and got it on the 3rd try with that. One hint, you might have your feed rate set way too high. I have a Dual Mig 131, and its set at MAX/1 with .6mm wire and a feed rate of like 1.1. Anything more produces lots of spatter and rod fragments. (I'm working on a celica with 18ga steel too, so our results should be similar) You really should grind the welds out. Flux welders are really good at making the welds look like they took when they absolutely failed to do so. If you aren't getting a bead on the opposite side of the weld, it's not taking. Check out this site, specifically the videos on feed settings. After watching the feed rate video I was able to get my welder set up properly in like 10 minutes. http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/
Im using Low voltage with a feed of about 6 or 7. I played around and founds that it worked pretty well. I know I have got penitration in some areas, a couple spots i know I dont but overall I think its gonna hold ok. I dont have my grinder yet, but im definitly planning to get one to finish the other areas next weekend. Im going to reinforce the iffy welds today too.
