Pandoras Box/ Removing Bondo/ Rust Repair...

[Wahoo]

Well since the main thing holding me up with my car is the rust that I need to repair, I decided to uncover it so I can figure out what I will need to do. These pictures are of my '85 Buick Regal T-type. The Doors and the rear wheel well in front and behind the rear tires.
Front corner of Drivers Door

Rear corner of drivers Door, besides the rust looks like it has some type of dent that has a lot of what I believe to be filler in there. probably thicker than 1/4 inch....

Front of passenger Door - Maybe I can just weld these holes shut? Has a small dent too though

Rear of passenger Door - rust

This is the worst part of the car, its in front of the right rear wheel well, the wheel well arch itself looks like it seperated from the quarter also seemed like it was packed with cement?? It looked very porse and was a grey like color.

So this is my first time doing anything like this, I did buy a Hobart 140 mig welder though, so I'm confident I can stitch weld panels in its place, I understand you don't want to over heat the metal so you jump around laying tack welds until everything is stitched together.
Any recommendations on what tools I should buy? I don't have any hammers or dollys.
Also What gauge sheet metal should I use for this?
I plan to strip this car all the way to metal, and I used my chemical stripper(aircraft stripper made by Klean Strip), its like mid 70's outside in temp and I applied the stuff on these areas shown in the picture so I could strip them, but this stuff works like crap! I mean its a vertical surface so I can't use plastic sheets on it.
So I ended up using a 3M paint stripper disc, its a gray fiber looking disc, using it in my Die grinder, and it doesn't seem possible to use these discs to strip any medium size areas to metal would take weeks!!!!
I think thats it for my questions so far!

 

[tbone87]

Uncovering the sins of Man!! Its a cover up!! Sucks

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[Wahoo]

I removed the door and tapped it off where I plan to cut, now I've never done this before, I plan to use a cut off wheel on my angle grinder. Any tips?
Front Corner

Underneath of front corner

Tapped off where I plan to cut, the cut is so big because i figured I might as well cut out all the dings too?

Rear corner

In the last picture you see it rusted through the door skin and also through the door frame.
Tips please

 

[bryesh]

I'm no expert but I've done this before. Looks like You'll need to cut more than taped to get the rust because the rust starts on the inside of the panel but you can start there and cut more until you get to clean sheet on both sides . The door skins just fold over and will be rusty and have dirt packed so I recreated the folds which looked a little off admittedly. When welding the panel I don't butt them. I lap the patch under and maybe even tap the weld line down so I can grind the weld flush. Soldering might be better for this and makes for easier finishing . Welding with your mig should be fine too.




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[Wahoo]

What gauge should I use for the door frame if I need to fix some areas?

 

[Wahoo]

So I cut out the bad parts of the door skin, and then wire brushed the door frame. The door frame seems like its super thin... I have some eastwoodfast etch that I might put on the door frame. It is supposed to remove rust and then leave a zinc coating that can be primed over.
I'm a little worried about if it can eat through the metal, so I'm going to wait on your responses first.
I have that 22 gauge metal I can maybe fab up to renforce the door frame, or maybe it will be fine if I just prime it to prevent further rusting. although the rear of the door the fram rusted through a bit, also a couple small holes in the front too.
Does it really need to be fixed or can I just prevent the rusting and cover it up with new sheet metal for the door skin?

 

[bryesh]

First off in the 4th picture down it didn't look like you cut enough to get all the rust. Really it's too hard for me to say for sure in those pictures but I think I would be cutting more out of that panel. Also I have used etching primer in the past but it always seems to start rusting again so I quit using it in favor of the epoxy primer which seems to be better. If you have access to a sandblaster I would tend to be sandblasting that those areas rather than wire brush, I've had better luck with sand blasting.

Since you have good access to the insides of the doors I would be trying to prevent rust in the rest of the doors are around those seams by taking epoxy primer and spraying it on the inside now that you have everything apart. Wherever you intend to weld I would leave it without paint so that the paint doesn't burn off once you weld then after you're done welding I would spray it from the inside out. That goes for whatever product you're going to choose to use.

I'd try to match the door frame gauge but a little thinner or thicker is OK. Just use good sheet metal, don't cut apart a washing machine because that stuff rusts like crazy!




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[Wahoo]

First off in the 4th picture down it didn't look like you cut enough to get all the rust. Really it's too hard for me to say for sure in those pictures but I think I would be cutting more out of that panel. Also I have used etching primer in the past but it always seems to start rusting again so I quit using it in favor of the epoxy primer which seems to be better. If you have access to a sandblaster I would tend to be sandblasting that those areas rather than wire brush, I've had better luck with sand blasting.

Since you have good access to the insides of the doors I would be trying to prevent rust in the rest of the doors are around those seams by taking epoxy primer and spraying it on the inside now that you have everything apart. Wherever you intend to weld I would leave it without paint so that the paint doesn't burn off once you weld then after you're done welding I would spray it from the inside out. That goes for whatever product you're going to choose to use.

I'd try to match the door frame gauge but a little thinner or thicker is OK. Just use good sheet metal, don't cut apart a washing machine because that stuff rusts like crazy!




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I'm working now but I got your PM, might call you tomorrow or so.

The 4th pic isn't cut far enough so in the 5th pic I cut it further, it's the same area.

I do have weld through primer, I don't know if that would be good enough to spray on the door frame, but the frame itself I don't think will get too hot because at the bottom of the door it will be folded over and maybe 2 tack welds, like factory.

 

[Wahoo]

Update:

The passenger side is dont with rust repair, but I need to weld a little on the bottom front door patch I welded in because once I went to test fit the door it was too low, so I had to grind it up, and burned through.























I hand made all the patches!!! Should look good with a skim coat of filler.

 

[Phoneguy]

My hat is off to you

No way in hell would I attempt this. I would have bought new doors and had a body shop do the repairs. Looks like you have it under control...

Bryan

 

[Wahoo]

My hat is off to you

No way in hell would I attempt this. I would have bought new doors and had a body shop do the repairs. Looks like you have it under control...

Bryan

I thought I always wanted an old muscle car for a project car, but now I see its a ton of work, and this car really isnt that bad, underneath some how is not rusty, just these few areas. This is a first for me too, so thanks for the complement.

 

[CzyKats44]

My hat is off to you

No way in hell would I attempt this. I would have bought new doors and had a body shop do the repairs. Looks like you have it under control...

Bryan

^ X2 I tried my hand at that ... all i do is make more holes. Keep it up!!

 

[WildGS]

Nice work!!!!

 

[Wahoo]

My header panel broke a stud off so I'm using JB weld on it hopefully it will be a good repair.

Also has a small crack on the front near the headlight area so I'm going to put JB weld in there and hope it works as well

 

[TURBOTIMMER]

For doing this the first time, I'd say you're doing a great job. Subscribed.

 

[Wahoo]

Progress:

So I did my filler work on the doors in the areas I had to patch.

Its a little thick but under the 1/4" rule. But Its also a little thick near the door edges mainly because a high spot, the people on the auto body forum felt Its not good, and that the high spot should of been tapped down, but I spent so much time with filler work I decided oh well lol, I'm happy with it.

I'm super happy today that I was able to prime the doors!

 

[rmar]

And that's why i never mess with Pandora or her box....

 

[Wahoo]

 

[Wahoo]

 

[79transam]

only a quarter of the pics are loading cant see them all. if you have rust issue at the bottom of the door drill 3 holes with a 3/8 drill bit under the door, I had the same issue because water was sitting at the bottom. now its solved.