Has anybody had rust repair done?

[Low84]

Oh and what welder do you recommend for this type of work?

[Prospector]

$500 compressor is a bit steep for casual jobs...
Good compressor, but maybe too good for this... You could run a shop with that one... I would walk up to the guy whose selling it for five hundred, and offer him twenty dollars... I might see a snowblower or tool priced at $500... and I always say, "Will you take a couple bucks for the wrecked snow blower?".. or whatever it is... and some times I gets it...

I found this little crapper HP compressor on sale for 60-bucks at a garage sale.. and got it for 20 bucks... Then I found a cheapy $30, new in the box, hvlp sprayer for 6 bucks... and a crap mig for 65 bucks... Thing is, you gotta be at them garage sales from 7:AM sharp to 10:AM.. After 10: 90% of the good stuff is sold and gone... This little compressor does all the tools I need for autobody... Some department stores sell them for $80 at sales, to $180 regular...

[84 400]

thats the spirt. theere are good books and dvds out there for the blazer guys. some one will know. two things to have in the front of your mind. when cutting acount for the size of the blade or disk. second the less filler bond whatever you call it the better. that stuff is junk while it is used on all custems these days the less the metter. i would do the rear quarters first man. all that you really need for them is a good grinder and a mig welder. you ever weld befor? if not it is not that hard when doing spot welds but practice first and ensure proper amperage for penitration. also do a serioses of spot welds about an icnh to half inch apart. work from one end to the other then repeat reapet repeat till it is all wlded to aviod warping the metal. Then it is a matter of grinding the welds flush. you will be on your way. Also there are many other tools for doing metal work and may patch panals out there for thi s year truck. hammers dollys all come in handy with sheet metal. it is an art and tacks some getting used to. i am starting to learn forom an old guy how to do leadding an almost lost art. so take your time be paitant and remeber you can alwasy grind more off but filling in an over size cut is a pain.

good luck !!

[84 400]

Originally Posted by Prospector

$500 compressor is a bit steep for casual jobs...
Good compressor, but maybe too good for this... You could run a shop with that one... I would walk up to the guy whose selling it for five hundred, and offer him twenty dollars... I might see a snowblower or tool priced at $500... and I always say, "Will you take a couple bucks for the wrecked snow blower?".. or whatever it is... and some times I gets it...

I found this little crapper HP compressor on sale for 60-bucks at a garage sale.. and got it for 20 bucks... Then I found a cheapy $30, new in the box, hvlp sprayer for 6 bucks... and a crap mig for 65 bucks... Thing is, you gotta be at them garage sales from 7:AM sharp to 10:AM.. After 10: 90% of the good stuff is sold and gone... This little compressor does all the tools I need for autobody... Some department stores sell them for $80 at sales, to $180 regular...

you make a good point and checking the local cregis list is good idea. that comp will runn any too you need from a sprayer to blaster to grinder to impact wrench. compresssors are always nice to have man !! i know i wish i had one! i do everything by hand and let me tell you brake caliper bolts are tough to get off by hand. i also do all my sanding by hand. it is okay though because after years of working on wodden boats and bulding other wooden things i can do it quick and i know exactly what paper to use. Now i don't know about that 500 to 25 dollar thin. around here if you pull that you would get laughed at or get a punch in the face or a slammed door. And i also can agree with you about cold. while it is not 30 below here it does get damm cold and i hate even looking at my truck in jan or feb. all major stuff is done pbefore that. Body work in 30 below sounds like a bad idea even with heaters. paint is not going to bond well that those temps

[Low84]

The compressor is at a local hardware store. The reason for the compressor is I always have had a fascination with painting, so I plan on running this bad boy hard. I plan to use it for painting (sealing, primering, paint, clear) , sand-blasting, grinding, running air tools, using it to pocket port heads, etc. I also have a '51 truck (originally bought to learn on, but is probably in better shape than my '84 by the looks of it) project which seems will get post-poned 'till later, due to my '84.

I never have welded before, except for three practice times in welding class where I was taught nothing at all because I enrolled "too late". I've heard body metal can warp very easily so that is a concern. I'm going to learn on my '51's fenders and then try to tackle the '84's quarter panels before moving to the cab.

[84 400]

good game plan and the 51 metal is much better then the 84. just remeber not nenough penitration is bad and too much is worse. also no solid beads on body panals.

best of luck and keep us posted!!!

[us111]

dang it,i can't remember his name off hand but go to the paint and body section here if you haven't already,ask them about dvd's..someone there is supposed to have some great dvd's on body repair,might not be exactly what your looking for but thats the place to ask..


just remembered it,look up "efabman" on the paint and body board.

[Low84]

Will do.

[Prospector]

The thing is, you've got rust holes... That means tiny bits of rust are gonna forever be popping up here, there, and anywhere.. about a year after you've done a good job... It's just the way things are... So you can't get a perfect job if your base is rust... but you can't do a job that will work, and will look good...

Given that you are attaching patches to rust, and it's your first time doing it...
best to not get yourself into a knot over it, trying to strive for textbook perfection... thht on that!.. You just want to get 'er done as basic and quick as you can, so you can get back into the computer, and the cat...

It's winter, so you might as well be doing this work now, so you'll have a sweet looking proud puppy in the summer...

Lets take one straight area that has a ribbon of cancerous holes... a sill...

You can grind with the edge of a quality 1/8" cutoff blade, but it throws a lot of stuff in your face... Never apply pressure that bends the blade, or it may crack, and fly all over the place... always use a cutoff wheel straight on... a flying piece of cutoff wheel is like a 22 short... I had one fly across the parking lot, and embed itself right through a neighbor's fender... worse than a 22 short, it can only make a dent... Go to welder shops, and ask them what's the best cutoff wheels, and where do they get them... Then go to welder supplies shops, and get the best 1/8" cut offs you can buy to fit your grinder...

The most dangerous time with a grinder, is when you've just changed to a fresh disk... That's when you aren't used to it anymore... things are now changed... The disk isn't tiny anymore... That's the time you can too easily get a grinder kiss right to the bone in a flash... I still don't have feeling along the knuckles of my thumb.. and that happened three months ago... The stings finally stopped a couple weeks ago... Watch that wheel like you are watching a large bear approaching you in the bush while you are field dressing a kill...

Grinders throw a lot of high velocity bits of pointy crap... Wear that helmet and face plate.. so you won't be breathing rust and steel particles, or rushing to hospital emerg to get metal pulled out of your eyes... The ear protectors save from getting grinder noise headaches... All the dusts related to body work are toxic and dangerous... Your body don't want them in there...

OK.. Now you've started grinding that sill... Fun eah..? About as much fun as being chased by a hungry shark... Be artsy with your grinding, and before you know it, it's all done... like the doctor setting and casting a broken leg... Generally I do all my grinding all around the vehicle in one shot, just to get that part over with...

Make sure you have a shiny clean perimeter around that patch, and try to grind off as much rust as you can.. but if you got holes, you aren't ever gonna get perfect shiny metal everywhere... Just do what you can... Remember, mig welding needs clean shiny metal to take...

Occasionally use a garden leaf blower, or compressor cleaner tip, to blow the dust off your work and you, and your work area...

Dry the inside of that sill as perfect as you can... and get all the mud and crap out of it... A shop vac blowing will push a lot of it out... Clean it with lacquer thinner till you almost get a clean rag...

Press a bit if fine card over the patch area, and make an accurate template, using scissors, knife, and masking tape... get artsy with the template...

Now cut out a chunk of sheet metal exactly the same as the template...
And work it till you have the bends almost perfect... You might want to buy a used air nibbler.. or better, an air shear...

Make sure no one could look in and see a welding flash... Shield your work area good so you won't blind nosy onlookers.. Nearly everyone likes to watch fireworks...

Hold the patch to the outside of the hole with visegrips... and tack it in a few places... Three to four seconds welding in one spot will likely burn through...
Be quick and precise... Welder burns come with mig welding.. so you are gonna get a burn about every two minutes... Just grin a bear it... Worse if you are welding up under a sill or door.. you get a burn every few seconds.. but you never get used to them dam stings... Grinding and welding under a sill or door is hell at best... Jack it up as high as you can.. and have a strong fan blowing the sparks away from you...

When you change the mig's wire-spool.. you Must make a smooth round end, or it will cut and wreck the welder's plastic liner tube, and won't go through the tip, causing you a ton of grief...
Good plan to clean the migs drive wheels with lacquer thinner...
NEVER run a sharp scratchy unprepared wire end through the welder hose...

OK.. so now you've got the sill ground clean.. and you've got your patch on.. and ground smooth, and any high spots tapped in with a small hammer... Redo any welds that broke... Never skip a process, when you notice you are about to skip a process... That's when it's time to get away from it all, and take a break.. when you are starting to get sloppy and stupid... Use the time to clean your work area, and to tidy up your tools.. take a piss, wash the dust off your face and arms, snort up some warm water, and rinse the bad dusts from your nose, and pick the bits of rust from your ears...

Final wash the patch.. and mix up some body plastic, and slap it on... I wish it was all that easy...

For body plastic work.. you need a plan, and some honest serious discipline, or it's just gonna be like being keel hauled in the saragasso shores...

You need a metal dish with a lid to hold a few inches of lacquer thinner...
Best dish is the ones they have at a sub-sandwich shops... Buy one at a discount commercial restaurant shop... and buy a stainless rectangle baking tray, to mix putty on...

Buy a gallon of fine finishing bodyfill...

You need four thin very flexible spatulas... a 2".. two 4".. and a fine quality metal autobody putty spreader...

Pull a fist sized blob of filler from the can, to the tray...

Knead the tube of hardener for a minute, to mix it well...

Squeeze out an inch of hardener, and mix it all up...

Fold the putty over the hardener, then do side to side motions, like ripples when a stone is tossed in water... then fold it all together, and redo the waves.. till the blob is uniform color... You've got about five minutes to get that stuff onto the patch... Press it hard into the patch.. and squeeze it hard everywhere, to set it.. then smooth it out and shape it... Position your tray under your work to catch the falling blobs... Stop when the stuff is getting difficult to work...

NOW.. scrape off the tray and knives... Pour an ounce of lacquer thinner in the tray, and scrape it out, and scrape it off the knives... then use a rag to clean the tray and tools...

Babysit the patch, occasionally scratching it with your fingernail, till it leaves a slightly white mark... then immediately start shaping the gelling filler with the rasp... If the rasp plugs up, wait a few more seconds or minute, till it shaves without serious plugging... Don't take too much off... Leave a little for the coarse sandpaper... Never sand if the sandpaper plugs up... Wait till the stuff is hard and dry...

Drop the rasp into the lacquer thinner tray... Wire brush it later...

Sometimes you might get a huge thick blob on a patch, that started to set before you could smooth it... No probs, just rasp it smooth the moment it shows a white scratch...


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After me writing all that.. you'd better be visualizing... it took two hours... I gotta get out there back to yard and shed tidying... If you run into Any questions, post 'em... We'll have you a backyard expert in just a few hours...

[Low84]

Thanks a lot for taking the time to help me. I really appreciate it.

[Prospector]

A couple of missed points.. and a little roll...


Try to find why the rust happened in the first place.. and cure its causes...

Spray rubberized rocker guard on the insides of every patch, if you can...
If water gets on the inside of an unprotected patch, it will start showing rust-through in a couple months...

Spray rocker guard inside the lower 1/4 of every door, after all the body work is done...

Install mud flaps... and silicone the drill holes, and the screws...

Buy thin industrial pig-skin leather gloves for your metal handling...

Wear rubber gloves when cleaning with lacquer thinner, and when puttying...

Use the fan to push dust away from you while you're working...

Do your grinding outside on a windy day...

Never flex a patch while you are sanding... It will secretly break it loose in areas you don't know, till it starts cracking out in about six months... especially when doing cracked dashboards... For cracked dash boards body-filler work, sand with very little pressure.. or you will get many many cracks... On dash boards you Must sand-off ALL the texture, or you will be applying filler to waxes.. which is like trying to glue two oiled objects together...

Set a large piece of sponge down where you are working.. and cover it with a cloth tarp, like a painter's tarp... Save your ass and knees it will... but remove it when you are welding, or you'all is for sure gonna have a fire...

Have a swampy wet towel handy when welding.. to put out the flames on your pant-legs... and always a fire extinguisher handy...

Cut down a wooden stool's legs, so you can sit while you sand patches...

Good plan to wear a thin coveralls, and a cap, when doing the initial grinding...

Primer MUST be applied very wet, or it hasn't stuck...

Throughout the project, maintain the honest respect for metal...

Most Important.. is if you notice a little bug near your work.. wait till it has moved away safely.. or gently move it to a safer place away from your work...
Know that the planet looks at you through the eyes of little critter's... and for you having been so alert and kind to the little bug.. you will now be charged with an ultra fine alertness in your work.. and you will now foresee disasters seconds, and even minutes, before they happen.. giving you time to avoid them, for having thought them through...

I always relocate bugs to a place that I figure they would like to be... Sometimes I dice fresh fruit, and toss it all over the yard, as a treat for the little life all around me... Now I can go out into the yards, and venomous critters permit me to touch them, and to pick them up.. even black widows and wasps...
In the bush I can approach large meat eaters, and sit with them in total safety... It's all in your attitudes toward life and living things...

One day I found a huge leaf-hopper bug on the plastic rain barrel... I says to the bug, telepathed to the center of its nervous system, as I sets my thumb beside it.. "You won't find anything good here.. Hop on, and I'll take you to a better place"... The bug climbed onto my thumbnail, and I walked around the yard, searching for a place a leaf hopper might like...
We stopped at a rose flower.. Instantly the bug flipped its back on the rose...
We stopped at a dandilion.. and again it flipped around so fast I couldn't see its movements... As we approached a huge daisy, the bug's little legs started doing an excited dance, looking a little like someone about to seriously pee themself.. rocking side to side in too much excitement... Six inches from the daisy the bug leaps to the flower...
"So I got it right this time, did I..."

...Couple days later, I'm walking near that daisy, when something leaps from the flower, and lands on my face, and slips off my face into my waiting open hand... "Hello my little friend.. I'm bettin' you wants a ride to the rain barrel"...

Critters don't fear me...

This attitude toward life allowed me to approach an adult grizzly she bear, foraging near the river at 1:30 AM... I greeted her from eight feet away, "Greetings Your Magesty", and sat, and talked to her for 45 minutes, playing a few high level mind-games with her, till I had her a little too freaked, then I backed off...
...Next AM, at about 7:30, while I slept half out the tent, on three sheepskins, I felt her pressing her nose to my bum, twice, while she sniffed me head to toes, while her HUGE front paw was four inches from my nose... I made a little whine sound, and rolled over to get her extreme stench away from my nose, and she exited silently and politely...
So I can very confidently say, "an adult grizzly she bear kissed my ass with respect.. Twice!"..

Be nice to the little life, and big life will be nice right back... Holding this attitude will make the job go so fast and easy, that you will actually enjoy it...