I have some mild wheel arch repair that my newly acquired 91 CRX HF needs.

The arches are not fallen, but are eaten through. PO did a bad patch over job with bondo/fiberglass patch. I plant on cutting out the bad, sanding down to bare metal, POR-15ing it, really being thorough and cleaning out the rust flakes bad spots...

I can access the arches from inside the car, too, since I have the interior removed (dying it... SEM Landau Black FTW). So... I have a 1''x2'' of 24 or 26ga Zinc. I am going to por-15 that too, then using pop-rivets, drill through and pop-rivet (thinking 4 across the top and then at least one on each 'side' of the repair) this in place, use a little more por-15 (it dries like a rock and will help fill air/gap), then use Bondo or some por-15 body-fill that I have that is supposed to be good.

Bottom line, is this a bad idea? The zinc plate will be on the 'inside' of the car, so I will have an area to fill in to get it flush with the rear quarter. Yes, the rivets will protrude and be visible, but the car needs a repaint anyway ($50 paint job thread looks promising). Car already has a terrible worse than macco overspray/drips in it. Car will clean up nice though.

Will the rivets hold everything in place? I will only be able to get to 3 of the 4 sides (because part will be the rounded arch, but I could actually put an angle at the bottom and river or bolt through here.


Umm actually, would bolts work better? Of course something with a skinny/thin head, but it could protrude on the other side and be bolted/loc-tited in place... you would never see it with the interior in place...

Thoughts?

Worst case is un-do it and bring it to a body shop.... I want to try.


*edit*

Random pic

This over the wheel arch, but less severe, and not as big, though maybe as long... on one side. The driver side could just use a good sanding, por-15, and fill. How bad would just filling with bondo be? Would it crack away eventually?




Modified by phoenix_iii at 12:51 PM 8/8/2008

 

i would spend $75 on renting a welder from any tool rental place by you! it'll save you a head ache. rivets will not hold a panel for very long.

 

What about screws with bolts? Though those admittedly would not be so easy to blend in with bondo or a body-filler... Unless I found some thin head ones, which I'm sure I could.


Good news is I'm not retarded, so worst case I will cut out the bad rust, clean the area, use POR-15 to arrest the rust, and then take pics and get advice from there... But this isn't a high stress/flexing area... it's a wheel arch... I know temp changes (North East), but still...

 

No rivets screws bolts or 24guage metal. you will need 18guage metal, metal shears, MIG welder, vice grips masking tape and a strong magnet. cut off all the rusted metal. try not to go overboard here just trim it till where u have good metal. does not need to be a certain shape. u will cut and shape the new piece of metal. pleas clean all the rust out of the inner structure and us a rust inhibitor. then either ur self or a metal worker cut and shape the metal to the cotours and lines in the new meta. then use a combonation of masking tape vice grips and magnets to hold it in place then tack it at 12 3 6 9.then u can remove all the hardwear and finish welding.

 

Is MIG the best (only?) way to work?

18ga, okay. Any particular metal (steel, aluminum, zinc, etc). I would think no to aluminum right off the bat. Input please... What am I asking for at the rental place?

Welding Experience:
* Spot Welding in High School
* Reading build threads/reading about how to NOT warp the metal, tacking, etc.