Under-side right.


Top-side left


Donor car 1


Donor car 2

93 Honda Civic Hatch
I got some rust where the hatch meets the body. This would be my first time welding in a patch panel.

 

That'll be a fun place to weld. I'm sure your car's structural rigidity will appreciate it, though I'm sure everyone would appreciate step by step pictures as you go along.

 

Sadly my car is suffering from rust in the same spot but is no where near that bad. I'd love to see someone attack this particular spot.

 

Honda owners need to realize how easily they have it when it comes to rust issues.

I don't do body work, but honestly, its only metal - it can be fixed.

Here, how about finding a '38 VW that has been hacked, welded, cut, f'd and left for dead in the fields of Lithuania, only to rebuild it better than original. Yeah, your rust is easy to fix.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=340552

 

Difference being that 1938 is the first year production of the VW bug and that car is worth a shitload. When a 6th gen civic gets rust repair it probably cost as much as the value of the car..and that value just get keeps going down. So, it's a question of incentive no matter how easy one is to repair compared to the other.

 

Of course we have it easy.

 

No brace left


No brace right


Brace in left side


Brace in right side


Brace in center

We're getting there. bump

 

nice.

 

Happy to see you came back to update this thread.

 

Still working on it. This is my first time fabricating a patch panel. bump

 

Still working on getting this roof skin piece ready for final installation.
I've used POR-15 degreaser, metal prep and paint


Seam sealer applied


Here I'm showing an example of one the gaps I filled.

Before


During


After



I'm a little worried about this gap. I'm not sure if I can just fill it up with
seam seal. Maybe I need to place some sheet metal in there. Any advice is
appreciated.


bump

 

looks like it was deformed from removal, I'd just rework the area with some force to get the mating surfaces to touch again.

 

Thanks Shinsen

 

needs to be filled with metal/weld. too big to seam seal.

 

Thanks for the assistance.

Here is where it stands now.


Tack welds


More tack welds


Starting to grind the welds down

bump

 

Very nice! That's an ambitious project.

 

 

Well I'm excited LOL

 

First time ever mixing body filler.



Applying filler



Seam sealer


New clips for roof trim. ttt

 

Second coat of body filler


Mixing glazing putty


Applied glazing putty


Alot of sanding later


Wrapping up a different type of gift. Bump

 

Good job so far, can't wait to see it finished!

 

You should have swapped the whole roof skin. The roof flexes and there's a pretty good chance the fill will crack, plus it's really hard to weld it and not have it warp even tacking here and there and cooling it off with air between welds.

Another tip: Use fiberglass first on something like that before the bodyfill, it's waterproof and it's a lot less likely to start blistering in 6 months to a year.

 

thanks for the advice. I realize later that it would've probably a been better to buy a new roof skin but it was difficult to source the new roof skin.

 

There's nothing wrong with using a used roof skin, you just should have used it all of it is all.

 

I hear what you're saying. It was tough finding another used hatch to cut up at reasonable price.