If the damage is such as Joe stated your best off replacing the panel. Aside
from that and keeping it in a budget here's another idea.
Wire brush out the rust as best you can. You can purchase a "stop rust"
product that kills the rust and turns it black, changes the composition of
the rust, about 14 dollars, great stuff, you'll use it for years on shovels,
projects, etc. Then spray rustoleum or a couple bucks more for rust
killing/sealing primer in a can. Auto paint stores have all this stuff. Now
with paint on it may be advisable to avoid bondo which likes to adhere to
bare metal, not paint. I'd go with a surface filler/putty, adheres to paint,
that uses a catalyst hardener. I'd suggest going thick on the primer after
that. If the surface filler brings it up enough go with aerosol can primer.
If not, purchase a quart of primer surfacer and hardener, about 30 bucks.
Spray, sand, spray, sand...
If the panel is bad enough to need replacement you'll spend the same amount
of money and effort doing all the above plus the panel and cut & weld costs.
best of luck
Rob
---------- Original Text ----------
From: "Joe Curry" <spitlist@gte.net>, on 09/15/2000 7:57 AM:
Mike,
Do you have any rust through areas there? Also, is the rusted area so thin
that you can feel the area give when you press on it? If
either of these is the case, I'd recommend cutting it away and installing one
of the patch panels that are available.
My logic is that you can easily remove the rust from the outside of the panel
but you can't do anything about rust on the inside and
regardless of how well you prepare the outside, the metal will continue to
deteriorate from the inside and eventually you will get
bubbles in the nice work you did patching the area.
The patch panels are not particularly difficult to install and will return
the area to the same thickness that was when new.
For my money, I would rather fix it once right than skimp and then need to do
it over.
Good Luck,
Joe
"Graziano, Michael" wrote:
>
> All,
>
> I'd like to start working on that bit of rust on my lower quarterpanel
> (behind the rear passenger wheel). It's limited to the piece below the
> moldings, so paint matching doesn't have to be perfect.
>
> My question has to do with rust and bondo. After I wire brush out the rust,
> I'd like to put some type of rust inhibiter to prevent the cancer from
> spreading. Spray Can Rustoleum Primer has always worked well on my wrought
> iron fences and lawn furniture. But I'm not sure if the bondo will hold to
> the paint. If I apply the bondo directly to the bare metal, I'm worried
> the water that's trapped might cause the rust to begin again. This needs to
> last a few years as I can't spend the money right now to have the work
> professionally done.
>
> I only need a light layer of Bondo to fill up the rust depleted portion of
> the fender. It shouldn't be more than 1/4" at the worst spot.
>
> Is spray can primer OK after the the bondo work has been done? Any
> recommendations or words of advice?
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