North American Turbocoupe Organization



wheel well rust repair
3bird Offline
Member
#1
http://natomessageboard.com/uploads/00001875/TCrust.jpg

I'm soon going to cut out this rust and old slidehammer repair. I have good original metal to weld in from another car. What is the best way to seperate the inner wheel well from the quarter panel? Are they only joined by the spot welds?
Once I have repaired the wheel well what is the best way to join it to the repaired quarter panel and not have it rust right away? Right now I'm thinking panel adhesive along the lip where the two pieces overlap and weld the rest. Followed by liberal use of POR15 inside, undercoating the underside and an epoxy sealer on the shiny side.
I welcome any comments/suggestions from those who have done this before.

And while I've got you here... Where do I get those big pop rivits that hold the outside door handles on?

Thanks in advance,
Kevin
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thecrusher315 Offline
Senior Member
#2
The best way to separate the inner and outer parts is by drilling out the spot welds. I have found that one of those stepped, conical shaped drill bits work very well. There also might be some adhesive along that lip as well. You might have to pry them loose once you get the spot welds drilled out. I wouldn't overlap on the quarter panel. I would butt the 2 quarter panel pieces together and spot weld across the seam starting at the ends, then the middle, then the ends and then continue to spot weld in different places until I have the whole seam welded and then re-spot weld or panel adhesive the new fender lip to the inner wheel well lip. If you do it that way, you don't heat the panel up as much and minimizes warping. Once you have the seam welded, then you can grind it down and fill with filler, first using everglass as the base, then regular filler. Doing it that way minimizes the filler in your quarter. The rest of your plan for coating the inside and outside sounds fine. Hope this helps...Tommy
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DonH Offline
Posting Freak
#3
I am working on this right now. My rust is in the same area but more extensive. The center of the fender lip is holed as is the area aft of the tire, both inner and outer panels. After removing paint I found filler in some places .5" thick which I removed. I believe the car was damaged at least three times in the quarter as the B piller has been cut and the section replaced up to the quarter window from the center of the fender. This area has rusted as has the lower flange of the widow. This was followed by damage to the repaired area below the window. The car appears to have taken a heavy hit on the right rear which bent the fender at the back around the tail light and damaged the inner fender and the trunk floor. The Carfax shows no accidents.

In any case the inner fender is spot welded to the outer at the lip. There is a heavy rubber sealer inside the fender lip which is difficult to remove and will keep the inner and the outer together even with the welds removed, and is very flammable. You will probably find that the inner and outer lips are rusted together as well and the rust inside is more extensive then outside. Since you have new metal cut out the beyond the rusted area and either grind away the outer lip from the inner or separate the two with an air chisel. The inner fender is going to have holes near the lip that can be repaired once you remove the outer areas.

I treat the inner metal with phosporic acid before priming. I use NAPA seam sealer over the inside seams and welds and fiber glass cloth and resin over patched inner fender sections.

Outside door handle rivets are available from NAPA # 770-2765.
1987 TC stock except ATR 2.5"
1983 Pontiac Transam T-top 5.7 T56 [email protected] top speed: 176mph
1978 Fairmont 2.3 4-spd Big-top S/W
1946 Willys CJ2A 134.2ci L4 No-top
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Dan S Offline
Administrator
#4
While you are in there doing body work, the reason for most of the rust from the inside (at least on my car) was the plastic bags that Ford filled with foam rubber. The bags broke open and water filled the foam. The result = rust! The bags were used as sound deadening material over the rear wheelwells and in the quarter below the window. There are more bags in the lower rear of the front fenders and over the wheel well radius of the front wheel.
When you prepare the body for paint, be sure the drain holes in the doors, quarter and rear quarter are open. If the car had previous body work (like mine), the bondo stooge more than likely filled the drains, while trying to hurry the job along!

Enjoy the work! Smile
Dan S
Custom 88 TC, Mandarin Copper Pearl Metallic
http://natomessageboard.com/ubbthreads.p...5#comments
1972 Ford F-100 SWB Styleside
2015 Lincoln MKC 2.3 EcoBoost AWD
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3bird Offline
Member
#5
So once I drill the spot welds, I wonder if a heat gun would soften whatever sealer/adhesive holds those two lips together? I just want to get the good metal off the parts car as intact as possible. An air chisel to seperate the two sounds scary, though it may turn out to be the best way.
I am planning on welding the seams, one small stitch at a time, without overlapping the metal like Tommy says. Where I am considering panel adhesive is where the quarter lip overlaps the wheel well lip. I'm not sure if that's the best way or not, but I think it should keep moisture and dirt out of that vulnerable spot. I've already pitched those moisture-holding foam bags. Smile All the repairs I'm doing are due to a previous bondo repair, and even though I've never tried this before, I'm confidant that I can do better than what I found when I went in. I've got plenty of time to do it right.
Thank you guys very much for your input. It really helps me to get things straight in my head before I touch the car.

Kevin
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DonH Offline
Posting Freak
#6
'All the repairs I'm doing are due to a previous bondo repair, and even though I've never tried this before, I'm confidant that I can do better than what I found when I went in."

So true. Dan S refers to the bondo stooge filling the drain holes but in my case the stooge caused the quarter window to leak. Body shops around here are terrible. We paid over 4 grand a few years ago for paint which is now peeling off. I found that the replacement quarter section was secured by four tack welds, three at the window flange (which was not put together evenly with the other flanges causing the leak when the window was installed) and one at the B piller which was rusting away. The rust in the center of the fender is along the seam where the replacement panel joins. After straightening out the inner metal and welding the panel in properly the door can now be aligned with the rear body.

Standard practice here for rust holes is to spot weld a patch over the hole and then apply lots of bondo over the patch which lasts one or two years. I generally put the patch on the inside and weld from the outside thereby using less filler and the repairs last indefinitely.

When I started this it didn't look like too much work, but with all the bad previous body work and the additional rust hidden under bondo and undercoating I have been hammering and welding since the beginning of July as the work has expanded from the one side around the back and through the trunk replacing sections of the trunk floor, the back panel, the sub frame bumper mount, etc.

And, yes, try the heat gun. I suggested the air chisel or grinding because I don't like to make additional holes where it's likely to get wet such as it would on your car, but as far as the donor car is concerned use the drill and you can spot weld in the holes to you car or simply use the adhesive.
1987 TC stock except ATR 2.5"
1983 Pontiac Transam T-top 5.7 T56 [email protected] top speed: 176mph
1978 Fairmont 2.3 4-spd Big-top S/W
1946 Willys CJ2A 134.2ci L4 No-top
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3bird Offline
Member
#7
Quote:We paid over 4 grand a few years ago for paint which is now peeling off.
Yes, I'm going to paint the thing myself too. I've bitten off a lot here, but if I mess it up I will learn from my mistakes and try again. I'll never learn anything by not trying. Smile

Thanks again for the advice, I expect I'll be back for more at some point.

Kevin
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