beginners rust repair

[M20_Fever]

I am lucky enough to have gotten a solid car to start with, but this was one of the three spots on the car that need attention.
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd20/akorcovelos/0918081820a1.jpg?t=1222020761

First thing to do was decide how much metal I wanted to cut out, I used the side grinder to clean an outline of where I wanted to cut.
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd20/akorcovelos/0920081126.jpg?t=1222020947

Next I got out the side grinder with a bi-metal cutting blade and made a hole. :)
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd20/akorcovelos/0920081149.jpg?t=1222021216

Then I used some cardboard aginst the back of the wheel well to outline the hole I made. Cut outside the lines and you have a good stencil to transfer the shape to steel.
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd20/akorcovelos/0921080833.jpg?t=1222021284
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd20/akorcovelos/0921080835.jpg?t=1222021428

since I'm not a very good welder (yet :rolleyes:) I had my buddy do the dirty work and melt the patch in.
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd20/akorcovelos/0921080907.jpg?t=1222021495

lots of staggard tacks to keep the patch from distorting.
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd20/akorcovelos/0921080921.jpg?t=1222021680

I could have cleaned the welds up a bit more, but I'm replacing the undercoat so they won't really be visible.
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd20/akorcovelos/0921080937.jpg?t=1222021918

I'll have the undercote on tomorrow and its good as new. :)

[Eviil30]

thanx for the quick lesson, i have bigger issues with the rear skirt

[M20_Fever]

yeah, that was a pretty easy fix, I'll have some more complex repairs to tackle in the near future.

[cale]

How about surface rust? Whats the best way to take it down and build it back up for paint?

[M20_Fever]

How about surface rust? Whats the best way to take it down and build it back up for paint?

first off all I'm no expert by any means, but I have one patch of fairly thick surface rust on the rocker to tackle. I plan on taking it down to bare metal with a DA sander, then skim cote with body filler, sand smooth, prime/paint. Sounds easy right? I need to do some more research before I start with the filler though.

[Matt-B]

Did you weld on a hook for towing?

-Matt

[M20_Fever]

Did you weld on a hook for towing?

-Matt

no, thats where the hard brake line meets the soft brake line. I can post pics of it assembled tonight.

[Matt-B]

that would be cool. I have a slightly different bracket there, perhaps differnece between 4 and 6 cyl? who knows

[M20_Fever]

Here is the pic after undercoating. I really should have ground those welds down more, but it will do until I get around to it.

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd20/akorcovelos/41Tweed010.jpg?t=1223238712

I cut the bracket off the rusted part I replaced, so thats the original bracket welded to the patch.

[BMW738]

Hi M20fever:wave:

Nice to see someone getting thier hands on the bodywork side of the E30!...Great Enthusiast.!
My bro is a self taught welder and has been welding cars up for years (signed up as "StigWelder")...He trained in the process "Linishing" & "metal finishing" and is an "Avid" metalworker.He is helping me to restore my E30.:rolleyes:..
I have a nightmare of a car that needs many areas restoring, including front "A" pilars, Rear inner arch, front wings, jacking cups on the floor etc etc....and will post the progress of it shortly.

He askes what welder you have (AMP size eg 150 etc) (and its setting ) / gas you are using & its wire size & speed.
The E30 is made of 1.0mm steel with the variation of the pressed panels which are 0.9mm because of stamping etc.The floor is mainly 1mm tho.

From the look of your pics, he recommends that you turn up the amperage 1 click and spot weld it in 10mm runs rather than "seam" welding your panels to get good "weld penatration". You can use a copper plate on the back of your panels to help to stop blowing through the metal when welding it.
If you have a compressor, you can cool it down between welding runs.
This will help in terms of not having to grind down the welds so much!

Graet Work M20 fever...keep it up..

Hope I can help.

Regards

Anton - BMW738

[M20_Fever]

sorry, didn't see this response. I'm not sure what the welder was set at because I didn't do the actual welding. I think the welder is a Century 140, but I could be wrong. I'll be getting into welding a lot more after xmas ;).

[PURE30]

cool fix, thanks for the tips!

[M20_Fever]

no problem, stay tuned because the e30 is going to sleep soon for the winter, lots of timew for body work then. :)

[protomor]

Qs. Where did you get your blank metal from? I can't seem to find any weldable stuff other than exhaust piping. Also, what undercoat did you use?

I have to do a fuck load of rust repair on the girl's 300zx one day.

[M20_Fever]

Qs. Where did you get your blank metal from? I can't seem to find any weldable stuff other than exhaust piping. Also, what undercoat did you use?

I have to do a fuck load of rust repair on the girl's 300zx one day.

can't help with the sheet metal, I get it from the factory I work at. I would try an industrial supply house. I used 3M rubberized undercoating, I got it at Auto Zone for like $6. Stuff works really well and looks good to boot.

[protomor]

sweet spanx

[superj]

i did some body work on my e21 using the filler so i cna put some pics up for you guys. i used bondo (the old pink kind) because i am unabel to get hte stuff we use where i work on aircraft. now, i am no expert but i have a bit of time here in the shop doing filling and smoothing so i figured i might as well give it a shot on the car since i wanted something different. i debadged the whole car and am working on removing andfilling the bumpers and then removing and filling the trim.

this where we started
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c80/busemans/bmw%20e21/DSC00982.jpg

e21s have the same style rear emblem as e30s (it might be the same part number) but their model numbers are not glued on, they are mounted like the emblems with holes and little rubber grommets. i pulled all that stuff off the car and knocked any raised lips around the grommet holes down with a ball peen hammer. next i mixed up the bondo according to the directions and slathered a thin layer across the holes and in to the recess for the emblem on the trunk. it dries very quickly so work with haste. i had to fill the emblem recess with a few layers to get it above the level of the surrounding metal. once all the spots were higher then the metal, i took a plane (tool used for removing the terribly higher bondo) and brought the bondo down to close to where i wanted it. (you can use sand paper stapled to a piece of 2x4 also if you don't happen to have a plane) from that point i used my rough grit sand paper on a piece of wood to get down to the final levels. from here i moved to a lot finer sand paper and blocked and blocked the bondo until it felt level by runnig my fingers over it. next i got some super fine sand paper on a piece of wood and finished sanding the bondo to where it felt like the surrounding metal. (you might do this process a few times because as you are sanding you might find an air pocket so don't worry if you do) this is where i had an issue. i could not get an spot putty or glazing putty. everyone was out. you guys should get some for the final final smoothing on your car. you put the glazing putty on just like the bondo. smooth it across your filled area with putty knife with a decetly wide blade. let it dry. take your finest sand paper on a block and smooth the spot putty down. its job isto fill the scratches from the sand paper for the final appearance. after you do this and are happy with the texture, prime with your choice of primer color and you are ready for the next spot of to get your paint on.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c80/busemans/bmw%20e21/DSC00987.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c80/busemans/bmw%20e21/DSC00986.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c80/busemans/bmw%20e21/DSC00984.jpg

i, in my infinite boredom also have done the corner lights.

here is the hole when they are removed
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c80/busemans/bmw%20e21/DSC01002.jpg

i had to block the back of the hole so the bondo would not just fall through so i tacked a plate on the inside
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c80/busemans/bmw%20e21/DSC01004.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c80/busemans/bmw%20e21/DSC01005.jpg
i know, looks like crap. oh well. i cleaned it up and undercoated it but have no pics.

here are some pics of the final on that deal
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c80/busemans/bmw%20e21/DSC01011.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c80/busemans/bmw%20e21/DSC01012.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c80/busemans/bmw%20e21/DSC01017.jpg

i also had a spot that looked like someone shot the car on the leading edge of the hood. a good sized odd ding like a 22 hit it. i filled that while i was doing the side markers.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c80/busemans/bmw%20e21/DSC01008.jpg

(notice you can see the outline of the bondo in the primer and the air holes. that is where you spot putty will come into play.)

all of those were without using the spot putty for final. i have since found spot putty at a store and will now have to go back and sand the primer off and smooth and redo the final smoothing and priming.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c80/busemans/bmw%20e21/DSC01183.jpg
i removed the bumper and started filling the holes up front and removed the front emblem too
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c80/busemans/bmw%20e21/DSC01241.jpg

its very easy to do and with a few hours a day, you can probably sill any dings you have on your whole car in a week.

[e30_from_philly]

looks fine but you have to start using a finer grid to get sand marks out of your bondo work other wise it's ok
i am very anal about my paint work :)

[Acefreely02]

its not good to get ur bondo wet, even if you have primer on, both absorb moister.

[superj]

i wanted to wait on the priming but since it was going to rain i had to prime everything before i had the spot putty. i mistakenly used a very rough grit sandpaper in the beginning and it was so rough that i am going to have to sand it down to metal to get alot of the deep lines out.

it will have to wait till after the m20 swap though. this is just little filling time work for now

[the pirate]

nice job and great advice Anton

wish i could have that kind of luck to have rust in an easy spot. nooo...i have rust under the dash by the rubber wiring harness passthrough