Bob's Component Resto, Part 27: Sheetmetal Rust Repair

[cruiser]

Good evening, kids. And yes, I know that sleep has been hard to come by lately, especially with all the depressing news in the world. So tonight we serve up another yummy sleeping pill to send you to bed with: Sheetmetal Rust Repair. Yes, we've all fought it. The insidious tendency for our lovely Mopar rides to corrode. It seems like a losing battle most of the time. As soon as we address one rusty spot, another one appears somewhere else. Depressing, isn't it? Well tonight we'll look at some of the problematic rusty areas of my 1974 Duster and see the result of eliminating these spots. Until I purchased it in 2019, my Duster had spent its entire life in Portland OR - an area not particularly known for rusty cars. Still, there were four problem areas that needed to be addressed: A rust spot at the lower left corner of the rear window, another just forward of the left tail light, and two areas behind both rear wheels. I've included photos of these four areas prior to the repair. As you can see, the worst spot was the area ahead of the left tail light. I have never done auto paint and bodywork before, and I seriously considered tackling this job myself. But since I'd have to look at it for the rest of my life, I didn't want to look at a repair that looked like a 12 year old kid worked on it. So I turned to a skilled local guy here in Shakopee MN named Scott Whitley of Scott's Auto Body (Scott has given me permission to use his name in this article). Long story short: Scott was able to accomplish in a few days what would have taken me weeks to do, and his work looks a helluva lot better than anything I could have done. He started by grinding out all the corroded metal that you can see in the photos. The really bad spot ahead of the left tail light required a fiberglass patch to provide a solid surface to refinish. The other three areas merely needed a bit of body filler as they weren't rusted all the way through. Once the fill patches were completed, he primed and block sanded everything - a tricky task especially at the rear of the car with its compound curves. My JY9 Tahitian Gold Metallic paint had darkened a bit over the years, so he couldn't use the stock formula when mixing up the new paint. As you may know, there is a device that shines a light into automotive paint to determine the exact pigmentation to color match an paint job. Scott used one of these lights and the color match came out perfectly. So on went the final coats, followed by clear coat and a final buffing. I'm very pleased with the results, and I felt the price was very fair. I didn't want to sink a fortune into my rust repair as my car is a driver and doesn't have to be perfect. The car already has plenty of "patina" and I'm not trying to turn it into a show poodle. So now I've eliminated all of my problem spots and I couldn't be happier. Note the after photos of the four repaired areas. I've also included a photo of my car in front of the 1957 vintage home that I grew up in here in Minneapolis. Yesterday, I spent several hours cleaning and detailing the car, then went out on a five hour night time drive to celebrate her rust rescue. It was a cool night here in Minnesota, and the 49 year old slant six motor came right up to 195 degrees and just purred along at 73 mph the whole time. What a lovely ride! I hope that you've enjoyed tonight's installment and you're ready to head upstairs with a sleepy head and a smile on your face. Until next time, keep inspiring and supporting one another. Night night!

 

[harrisonm]

I hate to rain on your parade, but you do realize there is only one proper way to fix rust, right? Cut out the rust, weld in new metal and then filler, primer and paint. Although you CAN fix a rust hole by cutting ALL the rust out and then doing a fiberglass patch, fiberglass is not metal. And the repairs on the three places that "merely needed a bit of body filler as they were not rusted through" are likely temporary at best. I see the before pictures of those three spots, and you can't properly fix rust bubble areas like that with a bit of filler. Rusty / bubbled places like that need to be cut clear back into good metal. If you keep the car for a while, you will see those three places come back.
Sorry.

 

[cruiser]

I hate to rain on your parade, but you do realize there is only one proper way to fix rust, right? Cut out the rust, weld in new metal and then filler, primer and paint. Although you CAN fix a rust hole by cutting ALL the rust out and then doing a fiberglass patch, fiberglass is not metal. And the repairs on the three places that "merely needed a bit of body filler as they were not rusted through" are likely temporary at best. I see the before pictures of those three spots, and you can't properly fix rust bubble areas like that with a bit of filler. Rusty / bubbled places like that need to be cut clear back into good metal. If you keep the car for a while, you will see those three places come back.
Sorry.

Yes, your point about getting all the rusty metal out is well taken. I may not have explained it properly, but where you see bubbled rust, he ground all of it away until he found solid virgin metal. The only place that necessitated a fiberglass patch was in the left rear corner, which he performed after removing all of the corroded metal at this location. He did not use any body filler over corroded metal, just over solid virgin metal. And yes, I agree that any patching or refinishing of this type can be a temporary fix. But it has taken 49 years to corrode to this extent, and the car sat outside in the rain in Oregon for almost all of that time. Thank goodness they weren't using salt where the former owner lived. So I'm anticipating that since the car now lives in a dry heated garage well protected from the salt and weather and never sees rain, this repair will last a long time. By the time it starts rusting again, I'll likely be too old to care anymore. As I mentioned, I did a lot of research on how an amateur like myself would remove corrosion and refinish my car, and I thought I understood the process pretty well. I just wasn't up to the task in the end. Scott took exactly the same steps that I would have, and I'm very happy with the result for the price I paid. My 1969 Charger was a full rotisserie resto, but let's face it - this isn't a Charger, just a pretty common grocery getter Mopar not worth that much. So I keep it up the best I can and hope that both the car and I can age gracefully. The bottom line for me is that the car is a near perfect replica of my first car back in 1977, and it reminds me of a happy time in my life. Every time I drive it, its with a huge smile on my face. I can't ask for much more than that out of the Mopar hobby. But yes, you are absolutely correct on the proper way to attack and eliminate body rust, and I agree with you. Sorry if this is too much information here.

 

[George Jets]

He did a nice job with the finishing work and matching the paint.