Team Ohio rust repair! (56K die)

[Josue6WGN]

As most of the Ohio guys know by now, I'm a body man. Alot of you guys have been asking me about rust repair. We usually don't take rust jobs in at work, but we're super slow right now, so we take what we can get. I figured I'd take some shots during this process to shine some light on our nasty little problem here in the Midwest!

The vehicle is a Ford F-150 Crew Cab. For some reason, the guy must love the truck enough to put over $2400 in TRYING to fix his rust. (I'll explain the "trying" part in a bit) And they need to call him back and hit him up for more money because the rust was FAR worse than they thought....idiots.

BIG HONKING hole in the rocker. I've got to replace it all together...

Towards the back of the driver side rocker...I chipped it away, and there's a hole there.

The bottoms of the doors are just awefull. The thing NEEDS new doors, but they're bent on me patching good metal in like it's going to stop the rotting. There are 3 doors that are this bad, and the other one isn't because it got replaced not too long ago.

Tools of choice. Cut off wheel, target grinder, and wire wheel. The wire wheel is a great tool for this job, it really gets in the metal and digs out all the crap. Not as good as sandblasting, but on something THIS bad, sandblasting won't do s*** anyway.

This is the reason why you'll never stop rust like this...even though I'm replacing the outer rocker, the inner rocker looks like this (the whole underside of the cab actually), and there's no way to ever get inside all the nooks, crannies, creases, between panels, etc, to remove the rust. It's not a matter of if it rusts again, but when...

Same thing after I cleaned out the door jams. I may have removed the crap on the outside, but there's still rust on the inside in between the panels. Their bright idea is for me to cut the bottom of the door off, that way I can get inside the panel and clean all that out, then weld a patch in. I'll show you what I'm talking about when I get the patch panels in.

This is the passanger side cab corner. They didn't think it was bad....but again, idiots...

This is the only GOOD door on the truck. All I needed to do was clean the surface rust off...feather the paint out...

Mask off a nice line, so I'm not just spreading around seam sealer all willy nilly! (grey stuff is metal etch primer)

And Voila!

Seam sealer...

This is what all the doors will look like. The seam sealer will slow down the rust, but again, it's not going to stop it...

That's all for now, more to follow so keep stopping by!

 

[TRexPro5]

Good work so far (like I can tell the difference) but it looks much better!

Which body shop do you work at? I need my hood and front bumper repainted... bad!

 

[Josue6WGN]

Quality Body Shop. Stop in and see us...we need the work! haha

 

[CTt3P5]

Nice write-up and pics Josh. Sadly the closet thing I have to the tools required in my garage are a wire brush and a dremel. lol At least I now have an idea of what is involved and know that I won't be doing it but would rather pay a pro to do so. That said, it seems as though my best option may be to pay more up front and get the panels replaced vs a constant battle year in, year out. Out of curiousity how much more is that guy gonna be looking at to get it fixed?

 

[Josue6WGN]

At least a few hundred more. They're going to buy me these lower door patch panels. They're just a flat piece of metal, with that lip bent into it already, makes my life easier because it would be a b**** for me to try and pound a lip over and get it as straight as the factory skin. Then I need more time/money to fix that hole in the passanger side cab corner, and they need to pay me to remove the driver side rear door so I can put that rocker in, as well as some of the interior so it doesn't get damaged during the repair process. It adds up quick!

As far as your car goes, I'm not sure if panel replacement is an option anymore. I don't know if you could find a new quarter panel, and used they'd probably be rusting as well. Plus, it's probably not worth the $2000-$3000 it'd cost to go THAT far with rust repair. That being said, your car wasn't too too bad yet. If you were to get it done now, depending on the repair procedure used, it would probably last a while before coming back.

 

[PrinceValorum]

Rust like that honestly makes me sick to my stomach, it really breaks my heart. I put a new lower door skin on a door in the class I took, but it still had the inner panel, so it wasn't that hard. I couldn't imagine having to make a whole lower half of a door! Also a lot of those high-tech adhesives and stuff are really expensive, and once you open them, there's not really a way to store them, so it kind of limits the amount of practicality they have for "at home" use.

 

[Josue6WGN]

Incorrect. We use these 3M tubes of stuff....Panel Bonder, Seam Sealer, Fast Set adhesive, Bumper Repair stuff, and a few more. Once you open them up and use them, what's leftover in that tip just hardens and seals the tube up. I don't have an "exact" shelf life of them, but I'd bet that you can go months and months on one...just pop the old tip off and put a new one on. What happens is, the tube will get to the point where there's just enough left that you can't throw it away, but not enough left for the next guy to USE, so they sit around forever. lol I grab these almost empty ones when I need to use just a pinch...

And cost, most are under $40...pretty reasonable.

 

[PrinceValorum]

Hmm, I guess the guy teaching the class was blowing smoke, then. I figured he'd know. I think he said the guns were pretty pricey, too. It kind of threw me for a loop because I thought everything would get welded on, and he said that they rarely do that anymore.

 

[Josue6WGN]

Eh, to a point. We have a resistance welder that recreates factory spot welds. Does an AWESOME job, and I try to use it as much as I can, as opposed to emptying out my vice grip drawer just go clamp a quarter panel on and leave it sit overnight. Most guys are lazy though, and don't want to clean the metal in order to use the welder. You need to clean both inside and outside of both panels you're welding together. The only thing(s) I glue anymore, are wheel well lips on 1/4's because the welder can't fit in behind the lip, and roof's. Hell, those are really the only 2 panels you're allowed to glue on the car. Everything else gets welded since it's all structural.


And I think the guns can be pricey too, but most jobbers will just give you one since you spend so much money on materials through them. I used to have my own in my box before I left the shop to go to college for a year.

 

[bazooka joe]

look forward to following your work....this thread will show everyone bent on fixing a rusty car just how time consuming and $$ the job really is....and the rust will come back eventually! i love body work threads and hate rust as well!

 

[CTt3P5]

At least a few hundred more. They're going to buy me these lower door patch panels. They're just a flat piece of metal, with that lip bent into it already, makes my life easier because it would be a b**** for me to try and pound a lip over and get it as straight as the factory skin. Then I need more time/money to fix that hole in the passanger side cab corner, and they need to pay me to remove the driver side rear door so I can put that rocker in, as well as some of the interior so it doesn't get damaged during the repair process. It adds up quick!

As far as your car goes, I'm not sure if panel replacement is an option anymore. I don't know if you could find a new quarter panel, and used they'd probably be rusting as well. Plus, it's probably not worth the $2000-$3000 it'd cost to go THAT far with rust repair. That being said, your car wasn't too too bad yet. If you were to get it done now, depending on the repair procedure used, it would probably last a while before coming back.

I found them on OMPs site for just under $500 a panel so $1000 + shipping for just the panels + what ever little incidental parts that may be needed + labor + paint = closer to your $3000 guestimate which is around what the car is worth on trade-in. Time to find a local shop to take a good look at it and give me an idea of just what I'm looking at for cost of repair.

I did find these online some time ago but wasn't sure how compatible they'd be with the hatchback? If these could somehow be used I'd def. go this route, less than $100 in parts. http://www.fixmyrust.com/1999-2004-protege/99-04-mazda-protege-4dr-rear-upper-wheel-arch--2569557.html

 

[Josue6WGN]

look forward to following your work....this thread will show everyone bent on fixing a rusty car just how time consuming and $$ the job really is....and the rust will come back eventually! i love body work threads and hate rust as well!

I enjoy sharing things like this, shines some light on the world of body work, which is usually very intimidating to most!

I found them on OMPs site for just under $500 a panel so $1000 + shipping for just the panels + what ever little incidental parts that may be needed + labor + paint = closer to your $3000 guestimate which is around what the car is worth on trade-in. Time to find a local shop to take a good look at it and give me an idea of just what I'm looking at for cost of repair.

I did find these online some time ago but wasn't sure how compatible they'd be with the hatchback? If these could somehow be used I'd def. go this route, less than $100 in parts. http://www.fixmyrust.com/1999-2004-protege/99-04-mazda-protege-4dr-rear-upper-wheel-arch--2569557.html

Those might work out actually. Maybe not the WHOLE piece, but at the least, it could be cut up and used for patches. Making a patch out of scrap metal for an area like that would be a chore!

Compare your car to a sedan next time you're around one, and that will give you an idea.

 

[CTt3P5]

I enjoy sharing things like this, shines some light on the world of body work, which is usually very intimidating to most!



Those might work out actually. Maybe not the WHOLE piece, but at the least, it could be cut up and used for patches. Making a patch out of scrap metal for an area like that would be a chore!

Compare your car to a sedan next time you're around one, and that will give you an idea.

Just call me intimidated! haha Good to know and hear from a pro, I'll be around some MSPs this weekend so I'll be sure to compare up close. Thanks!

 

[rally2003]

I miss doing paint and body work for the shops I use to work at, but I can only handle being laid off so much from the shops being too slow.

 

[Josue6WGN]

Yea, we're pretty slow right now. I have some work, but I've been waiting on parts all damn week for these cars! Some came in today, but not enough for me to get enough done on the jobs to take any time/money off them...

 

[CTt3P5]

Guess the places around me are busy? I've called several local collision shops and none of them repair rust. One guy actually talked to me for about five minutes and said to try Maaco, the only place he knew of locally who may do it. Called them and stopping in at 2:30 today to get the car looked at. At least it will give me an idea of what I'm looking at monetarily.

 

[Perro del Sol]

Josh, great job........will see you soon! No more winters for the Protege.

 

[Josue6WGN]

Guess the places around me are busy? I've called several local collision shops and none of them repair rust. One guy actually talked to me for about five minutes and said to try Maaco, the only place he knew of locally who may do it. Called them and stopping in at 2:30 today to get the car looked at. At least it will give me an idea of what I'm looking at monetarily.

Exactly, gives you a starting off point!

You may just have to take a few days off work for an extended weekend and come out to the A-K!

Josh, great job........will see you soon! No more winters for the Protege.

Good deal!

 

[CTt3P5]

Yup. Hmmmm....might just have to take you up on that. What's your labor rates? haha

 

[Josue6WGN]

I suck at pricing. They just hand me the estimate and I fix the car! haha I'd probably just undercut all the estimates you get enough to make it worth the trip.