rust repar

[edc2003]

i have rust all around the rear wheels on my civic! does anyone else have this problem or have any idea where to find parts?

[edc2003]

i found a website thats great with repair parts at www.millsupply.com but i still need help. Has anyone done a repair on a wheel opening before?

[elon3kgtslowner]

i have lots of rust on the rear panels around the wheels, i want to do some repair as well but without buying parts. i am going to have lots of questions down the road but i wanted to let you know my car has lots of rust too. i was wondering how to remove the rear panels but i'll look over the site n see if thats posted somewhere else because im sure it is.

[maxassassin]

well in all reality to be complete and true with your repair you need to cut out the cancer and replace it. but if your wheel house ( wheel well) is rusted out as well i dont know that i would attempt it. how bad is your rusted damaged area. any pics ?

[maxassassin]

what are you saying?

[drizler]

I am doing mine right at the moment, the last in a long line of old cars I have done this with.

http://autobodystore.com/forum/index.php?index

That is a great forum to help you with anything body shop related you could need. Mill supply does sell wheel well arches and many other repair panels to fit most cars. You still have to cut out the old piece and either weld or glue the new one in place then finish it using a body panel adhesive. Fusor is the one that comes to mind. Don't be afraid to use good old pop rivets either. They tend to hold nearly as well as a weld and are (I think) better because they don't burn the paint off the back where you can't replace it often. 1/8" rivets are strong and cheap just make sure you use STEEL rivets so there is no galvanic corrosion. Then finish the rough area using some sort of body filler. Check out the forum listed above for lots of advice and some posted how to's with pix to help you out. It really helps if you have an air compressor, paint gun and a few body tools though all the sanding can be done by hand. Just remember doing it by hand is a six pack sort of job, long and torturous unless you get your head right about it.
On the other hand you can just cut out the affected area and fill then contour using bondo and it will last at least a couple years in the rust belt, longer anyplace else. You have to ask yourself how long the car is likely to last or you keep it ect and how much headache you want to tackle. If the underbody is heavily rusted I wouldn't go the panel route for example . You can skip the weld metal thing by using fiberglass matting in conjunction with plastic screen ect ( no aluminum) and save the metal work. Even duct tape will give you the shape long enough for it to dry. Just leave it back there forever who cares. It is a pain to keep it in place while it drys though so be ready for that. Bondo makes FIBERGLASS BONDOHAIR which I like for such things. Just reguar fiberglass bondo but loaded with chopped matting so it shapes sculpts and holds position very well. I use it a lot and it is completely water proof.
Here are a couple things I found out over the years by doing it wrong.

1) Don't use regular bondo on holes or any bare metal. It will absorb water and thus let the rust start under the patch eventually. USE FIBERGLASS BONDO, it won't pass water and does what the other stuff does just better. Yes it costs more but not that much. I do my first application with that and may or may not finish using the cheap stuff. If it can be reached I try to run a bead of fiberglass bondo over the back side to seal the raw metal exposed by cutting, welding back there. Just cover it prime, paint and undercoat after if you can cheap fast and dirty since you can't see it.

2) Try to use contrasting colors for different fillers, primer ect. It acts as a guide coat that wears down as you sand so you can see the high and low spots better. With hand sanding this really saves the hands.

3) If you do use 2 part paints (mix with hardener type such as Dupont Imron and similar don't breathe the fumes. At the very least and this isn't right either use a NEW filter in a standard high quality paint mask. An air supply mask is what is required if you are doing it right but they are expensive. That's a good reason to stick to the old standby paints like acrylic enamels or even laquers which are cheaper and don't hold up quite as well. The reason I say this is that I know at least a few not so old painters who sleep with an oxygen bottle or are dead from lung problems. Issocyanates are nasty chemicals and you can't smell them. They are as bad as the safety data sheet says so be careful with them.

4) I always wear a cheap mask when sanding, call me a chicken. Inhaling the crap from bondo just aint good for you. I use another cheap paint mask with the cannisters on the side just because it is safer, they are a lot more comfortable. Or use the good one with any old filters you have around new or old though they plug up pretty quick in bondo dust.

5) WEAR EYE PROTECTION HANDLING BONDO. I never did this or knew it for 2o years but you really really want to do this. One tiny drop of that red hardener in bondo splashed, squirted or wiped in your eye and it's lights out. I read that in Popular mechanics I think years back. If you don't want to star in pirate movies the rest of your life then treat that hardener with lots of respect, use the goggles. At least at the time I read it they said PERMANENT BLINDNESS, the real deal so no bondo fights around the shop :
6) Start with a small area more out of sight like down low in the corner of the body where the arch meets it. That's another common rust out area and it isn't nearly as visible or hard to shape. Do that first and learn your lessons there where it's easy.


7) Last item, Perfume On A Pig I once heard it called. Don't expect your job to be as grand as a body shop or it to save your prize from the scrap heap. Be happy to hold back the cancer for a few more years and enjoy that it will look at least a little better for your troubles. Learn to do this stuff even passingly and you can score cars way way below market value saving an assload of $$$ like I do. People see rust and they think "Junk". That's just what I look for, Honda's with 130K on them and rusty fenders.

Oh yea, cutting out bad pieces. I have a $15 Harbor Freight 3" air abrasive wheel, 1/16" thick but I keep a 5" disk on there. Cuts nice straight offhand lines like a dream. Again safety glasses a must as the guard is off due to the size of the disk. Also you can hit an underlying panel and explode the disk so glasses are a must and of course be careful of the gas tank filler as it tends to be located near those rusty areas and you don't want to go flying without wings. You can use a drill with a similar disk but the 20K rpm makes the air cutter work way better and easy to control throwing minimum sparks.
That covers what I know, go find the rest at the forum have fun and just don't expect to make a silk purse out of a piggy's earlobe.

[maxassassin]

well if you wanna get reall nitty gritty. dont use bondo brand anything there stuff is all cheap junk. use evercoat products. and always finish your body work using metal glaze. it sands kinda like gum but if you know what your doing its smooths out really easily. the fiberglass reinforced products are either kitty hair (short strand ) or tiger hair (long stranded fiberglass) but never just plug a hole with mud.

[drizler]

Originally Posted by jojaanbutt

There are cracks in the ceramic of my sink! Is there anything I can do to seal or repar them? I don't want them to get bigger, or to rust or anything.

Thats more of a handyman forum sort of thing. The question is whether it's worth fixing or just replace the sink. They do make something to repair ceramic though I can't recall exactly what it is. For most of us it may even be a reasonable idea just to keep an eye on it for signs of leakabe and complete failure till it finishes out it's life span then change it out. Try this forum I linked below. Ask them, I have gotten lots of help from these guys.

http://www.homerepairforum.com/

[drizler]

Originally Posted by jaan.kevin

There are cracks in the ceramic of my sink! Is there anything I can do to seal or repar them? I don't want them to get bigger, or to rust or anything.

I'm amazed those guys couldn't help you out on that web site. Like I said before they sell or used to sell some sort of ceramic epoxy just for fixing dinged old tubs and such. Like most things though it is some form of band aid so won't last forever. Try the local plumbing shops at the parts counter and they might be able to put you onto something. The counter guys have always been very helpful to me when I am trying to cob something together. Lots of experience there. Sorry I can't help you personally but the wife hasn't dropped anything heavy enough into ours to crack ours .....yet