The previous owner of my car shaved the side moldings on my 1994 Integra, and I wanted to fill them but with sheet metal and not bondo. I was wondering how I would go about this to wel the sheet metal on? Would I do it from the inside, and if so how would I get inside on the rear quater panels?

 

The first thought the comes to mind for me is to cover the whole thing flush with the door, but that will take a lot of work to properly shape the metal cover.

Bondo is your friend here.

 

the owner before me filled it with bondo, u can poke it right out.

 

There are a couple "tricks" that can be done. But before that, you should make sure that the "edge" of the metal around the hole is free of all paint and bondo. In other words, use a small rat tail file to touch up the edges.

1. You could start with a small piece of sheet flat stock and weld a small length of welding rod to it so it sticks up. You then feed the rod through the hole, from the back side and use it to hold the flat stock against the inside surface while putting on a tack weld. You then cut off the welding rod and fill the hole with weld.

2. This is REAL cheap, but I've done it. Take small sections of flat stock and use duct tape to hold them in place on the interior surface. You then throw on a quick tack weld. Remove the duct tape before doing any further welding or the tape will catch fire!!

3. Another way to do it is to cut your patch piece to match the diameter of the hole and have a magnet hold it in place while the tack weld is placed. The nice thing about this is that you don't have a bunch of patch plates on the inside. It's a lot more work.

Wes

 

I like your ideas but would I weld it from the outside of the car while holding the metal on the side of the car? wouldnt the welding mess up my exterior? im getting the whole car repainted, so what do I do? weld it then sand like hell?

 

In all three of the methods that I talked about, you are welding from the outside of the car. (maybe I didn't word it clearly)

There is a certain amount of build up of weld in all cases that has to be ground down flush. I like using a Mikita 4" grinder with cut-off wheel.

Go lightly with the welding and also the grinding and you will not distort the metal panel.

Yes, you will have to repaint around the area (how could you not).

Normally when I do this sort of thing, I hammer down the area slightly and then fill it flush with bondo, when paint type filler.

If this isn't clear, IM me with your e-mail address and I can send you a couple jpg's (I don't have the time right now to post them somewhere to be linked to)

Wes

 

Jweezy;

I just made up a page that may make it more clear;

http://www.performanceforum.co....html

Wes

 

thanks, that made everything really clear, now all i have to do is cut the right sized pieces and get those tools that you used.

 

tac them shut, shave them down, tac the rest, shave it down, then add a skin coat of filler, sand, seal, apply paint.

Rich

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jweezy225 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The previous owner of my car shaved the side moldings on my 1994 Integra, and I wanted to fill them but with sheet metal and not bondo. I was wondering how I would go about this to wel the sheet metal on? Would I do it from the inside, and if so how would I get inside on the rear quater panels?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I've done the windshield squirter holes before.

Just put a small, thin piece of sheet metal behind the hole. I held mine in place with a welding magnet (you'll have to remove the door panel/interior plastic.. a good idea anyways). Then weld around the edges to connect the sheet metal to the door, then fill the weld so it is at least flush. Be careful to not overheat the metal -- it will warp. Use low heat and just melt the filler into the weld, try not to heat the door up much.

Then get an orbital sander and sand it down until it is smooth. Change grit.. and if you do it right you won't need bondo at all and you can just spray metal primer over it.

Dustin