How To: DIY Rust Repair
04-03-2005, 06:38 PM
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How To: DIY Rust Repair
UPDATE: bottom of the thread
I've finally decided that after dropping a bunch of money on the ITR that it was time to show my wagon some love. Summer plans include new suspension and a D15B swap and some other ends. Before spending any significant amount of money on her, Betty, I decided I wanted to get the body looking decent first. I wasn't about to spend outrageous, for a beater, amounts of money to have the rust fixed, so my dad and I went to town. Neither of us have ever done any kind of bodywork, but it's going well so far. We would have finished the side we were working on this weekend, but his swapped EK got rear ended and totaled yesterday so that took some time out of the day, and is another story all together.
Supplies:
Fiberglass Sheets
Fiberglass Resin (Gel)
Bondo
Electric Sander
Somehing to mix and apply bondo with
Scissors to cut fiberglass sheets
Aluminum Angle Iron
Screws
Die Grinder
Tyvek Suit
Gloves
Goggles
Respirator
Note: Fiberglass will get everywhere when sanded: in your skin, lungs, eyes- be careful.
Before we start here's an assestment of the amount of rust we're dealing with:
Step 1: Cut off all rust with the die grinder. Be sure to leave no remaining elements of rust as it will quickly spread. Here's my dad taking his turn with the grinder.
Step 2: After this we made a cardboard template of the quarter panel from the other side of the car and made a fiberglass over lay of it. We then put some resin on the bare metal and attached the fiberglass template to the car. We used this to guide us as where to add more fiberglass. Sorry no pic as of now.
Step 3: Apply resin over the fiberglass overlay. Place cut fiberglass sheet onto the resin and proceed to cover the sheet with more resin. Allow to dry 30 minutes or so depending on the temperature.
Step 4: Trim the fiberglass and sand to create a gap between the door and quarter panel.
Step 5: Since we had to remove so much metal we cut this aluminum angle iron to form to the arch of the wheel well. We attached it to pieces of the inner fender well with sheet metal screws. This adds stregnth and allows you to create a lip for a stock like appearence. We also screwed parts of the fiberglass to this before using the body filler.
Step 6: Apply resin to now-dried fiberglass and on the metal lip created in Step 5. Apply the fiberglass sheets on top of the resin and coat with more resin. Again, allow to dry.
Step 7: After the resin has dried apply body filler over the fiberglass. After filler has dried, sand and repeat applying filler until desired smoothness is achieved.
That's about where we ran out of time today. I'm back at school this week but will be coming home to work on it some more this coming weekend. I'm pretty happy with how things are going so far. We have some more body filling to do and sanding before priming and getting some paint on it. We have a little bit of rust to take care of on the other side of the car along with some around the rear window wiper and some around the windshield. Then we're going to take care of some dents and fill in the antenna holes, paint the trim and bumpers, and decide what we're going to do for paint. So far not a bad weekend for trial bodywork.
Modified by HondaRcB at 10:52 PM 4/12/2005
I've finally decided that after dropping a bunch of money on the ITR that it was time to show my wagon some love. Summer plans include new suspension and a D15B swap and some other ends. Before spending any significant amount of money on her, Betty, I decided I wanted to get the body looking decent first. I wasn't about to spend outrageous, for a beater, amounts of money to have the rust fixed, so my dad and I went to town. Neither of us have ever done any kind of bodywork, but it's going well so far. We would have finished the side we were working on this weekend, but his swapped EK got rear ended and totaled yesterday so that took some time out of the day, and is another story all together.
Supplies:
Fiberglass Sheets
Fiberglass Resin (Gel)
Bondo
Electric Sander
Somehing to mix and apply bondo with
Scissors to cut fiberglass sheets
Aluminum Angle Iron
Screws
Die Grinder
Tyvek Suit
Gloves
Goggles
Respirator
Note: Fiberglass will get everywhere when sanded: in your skin, lungs, eyes- be careful.
Before we start here's an assestment of the amount of rust we're dealing with:
Step 1: Cut off all rust with the die grinder. Be sure to leave no remaining elements of rust as it will quickly spread. Here's my dad taking his turn with the grinder.
Step 2: After this we made a cardboard template of the quarter panel from the other side of the car and made a fiberglass over lay of it. We then put some resin on the bare metal and attached the fiberglass template to the car. We used this to guide us as where to add more fiberglass. Sorry no pic as of now.
Step 3: Apply resin over the fiberglass overlay. Place cut fiberglass sheet onto the resin and proceed to cover the sheet with more resin. Allow to dry 30 minutes or so depending on the temperature.
Step 4: Trim the fiberglass and sand to create a gap between the door and quarter panel.
Step 5: Since we had to remove so much metal we cut this aluminum angle iron to form to the arch of the wheel well. We attached it to pieces of the inner fender well with sheet metal screws. This adds stregnth and allows you to create a lip for a stock like appearence. We also screwed parts of the fiberglass to this before using the body filler.
Step 6: Apply resin to now-dried fiberglass and on the metal lip created in Step 5. Apply the fiberglass sheets on top of the resin and coat with more resin. Again, allow to dry.
Step 7: After the resin has dried apply body filler over the fiberglass. After filler has dried, sand and repeat applying filler until desired smoothness is achieved.
That's about where we ran out of time today. I'm back at school this week but will be coming home to work on it some more this coming weekend. I'm pretty happy with how things are going so far. We have some more body filling to do and sanding before priming and getting some paint on it. We have a little bit of rust to take care of on the other side of the car along with some around the rear window wiper and some around the windshield. Then we're going to take care of some dents and fill in the antenna holes, paint the trim and bumpers, and decide what we're going to do for paint. So far not a bad weekend for trial bodywork.
Modified by HondaRcB at 10:52 PM 4/12/2005
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04-03-2005, 10:43 PM
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Re: How To: DIY Rust Repair (HondaRcB)
Man Im not bashing you at all....honestly I understand that this is more than likely your daily but it wont last for more than a few years...I went to school for auto body and rust work sucks but welding in new metal is a way better solution than fiberglass....fiberglass sucks moisture and will eventually pop out.... 
for doing it yourself though....
for doing it yourself though....
04-03-2005, 11:16 PM
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nice DIY, and sorry to hear bout the CTR gettin totaled, i actually saw the accident, not it take place but the aftermath, i remember complimenting your dad on how beautiful the car was
04-04-2005, 03:52 AM
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Re: How To: DIY Rust Repair (FOMULA91)
seeing someone w/ no exp tackle a job this big makes me fell better about attempting the body work on my car
luckily i only have surface rust on my pass side rocker
luckily i only have surface rust on my pass side rocker
04-04-2005, 05:47 AM
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Re: How To: DIY Rust Repair (RACINTWEEK)
thats the sexiest wagon i've ever seen, almost
edit: you can get those tyvek shipping bags from the usps, snag a bunch of those and a few roles of duct tape and you're good to go,
edit: you can get those tyvek shipping bags from the usps, snag a bunch of those and a few roles of duct tape and you're good to go,
04-04-2005, 10:21 AM
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Re: How To: DIY Rust Repair (W O T)
I don't plan on having thr car mroe than a few more years, so that's all I'm hoping to get out of the repair. Thanks for the words about the EK, hopefully insurance will get things straightened out today.
About the cardboard template:
After cutting off all the rust on the passenger side we really had no basis for the shape of the arch of the wheel well. To remedy this we made a template of the arch on the driver's side of the car. After making the template we taped it on the drivers side of the car which allowed us to see how far into the wheel well to fiberglass.
About the cardboard template:
After cutting off all the rust on the passenger side we really had no basis for the shape of the arch of the wheel well. To remedy this we made a template of the arch on the driver's side of the car. After making the template we taped it on the drivers side of the car which allowed us to see how far into the wheel well to fiberglass.
04-12-2005, 01:52 PM
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Re: How To: DIY Rust Repair (HondaRcB)
Update: Weekend 2 of Rust Repair Ends in Success
Over the weekend we finished the passenger side and moved onto the driver's side which didn't have nearly as much rust. Most of the steps are the same as the passenger side except we used some sheet metal rivited to the car instead of fiberglass for the running board repair. So much easier, I can't believe we didn't think of it for the passenger side. Oh well. Also we had patch up a large hole in the rear hatch area. Other than that we sanded and primered and now I'm waiting to recoop some money and get it painted after I fill in some dings and what not. Here's some pics of the weekend's festivities. I didn't take as many as I thought. All the excess sealer and stuff was cleaned up and primered, she looks good.
Over the weekend we finished the passenger side and moved onto the driver's side which didn't have nearly as much rust. Most of the steps are the same as the passenger side except we used some sheet metal rivited to the car instead of fiberglass for the running board repair. So much easier, I can't believe we didn't think of it for the passenger side. Oh well. Also we had patch up a large hole in the rear hatch area. Other than that we sanded and primered and now I'm waiting to recoop some money and get it painted after I fill in some dings and what not. Here's some pics of the weekend's festivities. I didn't take as many as I thought. All the excess sealer and stuff was cleaned up and primered, she looks good.
04-12-2005, 07:30 PM
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Could you clear up how you reproduced the lip a little bit, im kinda lost? Is the piece of angle iron you made (from the copy of the other side) actually on the car or only a template?
04-13-2005, 07:57 AM
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Re: (spankjelly)
We fiberlassed first using a carboard template of the other side as a basis to know how far down into the wheel well to go. We then attached the angle iron the the inner wheel well with some screws and screwed into it through some of the fiberglass. The angle iron added a considerable amount of stregnth and allowed us to roll fiberglass over it to create a lip.
04-13-2005, 11:38 AM
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Re: How To: DIY Rust Repair (HondaRcB)
NICE WRITE UP. oops sorry for the caps. gonna be doing mine soon. maybe by then i'll have a digital camera and i'll take some pics.
