Looks like ill be learning how to do rust repair and body work pretty quick in the next few months. My friend bought a 68 Cougar yesterday for 400 bucks. And the last time it was registered was 1982, the car is a southern car so it does have quite a bit of rust in the quarters and floor pans. The body has no big dents at ALL just a few dings and that is it.
Things we already have or are planning on it:
POR15
Media Blaster
Grinders, cutting wheels, wire wheels, etc...
A flux core MIG and a Stick Welder
Rivet gun
Ive heard great things about POR15 but its pretty pricey and im sure we would use it in the quarters, and and fenders but what would be a good rust converter that is affordable for spots with just surface rust like the roof, trunk, and top?
What about just paint sealers in general? Is the duplicolor stuff pretty good?
And for the MIG what kind of wire can be used as a "filler" for some of the small pin holes.
Feel free to share your opinions on some of the methods and chemicals you have used to fix rust on your maxima's radiator support or other vehicles.
Looks like ill be learning how to do rust repair and body work pretty quick in the next few months. My friend bought a 68 Cougar yesterday for 400 bucks. And the last time it was registered was 1982, the car is a southern car so it does have quite a bit of rust in the quarters and floor pans. The body has no big dents at ALL just a few dings and that is it.
Things we already have or are planning on it:
POR15
Media Blaster
Grinders, cutting wheels, wire wheels, etc...
A flux core MIG and a Stick Welder
Rivet gun
Ive heard great things about POR15 but its pretty pricey and im sure we would use it in the quarters, and and fenders but what would be a good rust converter that is affordable for spots with just surface rust like the roof, trunk, and top?
What about just paint sealers in general? Is the duplicolor stuff pretty good?
And for the MIG what kind of wire can be used as a "filler" for some of the small pin holes.
Feel free to share your opinions on some of the methods and chemicals you have used to fix rust on your maxima's radiator support or other vehicles.
Mine was a mess - I just replaced the radiator and the metal under there was the worst. Literally flaking off by touching it. I basically just took extremely coarse belt sander paper and attacked it. Then I sprayed on a penetrant to see if that would loosen it up more. Then sanded again. In between I used an air blow gun to blast the particles into the air - and into my hair. I had a rusty pillow for a week.
Finally once all the particles were blown off, I mixed 5W-30 engine oil & NLGI No. 2 Grease into a green slime goop bucket. Then with a paint brush, I smeared this goop all over everything. It soaked in and I left it like that. I figured it might be better for it to stay greasy and wet maybe to be water resistant.
Other bad areas were around the transmission mounting areas, around the coolant drain bolt on the engine block, even some rust on the oil pan. The green slime dripped on some parts that caused a nice smoke show when I started the car up.
If you are going for major body work, I assume you are doing a frame off restoration. The wire wheels won't help you too much with the body.
Get a good media blaster and shoot the body. then epoxy primer it. once you notice the swiss cheese, start cutting sheet metal out.
As you get pieces out, you will notice more rust behind the panels you couldnt see becasue they were covered.
When you get to making your own sheet metal, do it in small pieces. you never want to cut a piece so large the rest of the panel changes shape. you can also get a basic metal stretch for this stuff--especially around the wheel wheels, windshield channel, weatherstipping type-areas.
Get a GAS mig welder. Do not do wire/rosin core for this. Also forget the rivets. learn to do a proper stitch.
Don't forget to spray the BACK of all your sheet metal patches with weld-through primer.
you also might find a TIG welder handy to melt some silicon-bronze. it's very useful for filling in areas that do not need a whole piece of tin--but still have a lot of holes. you can just melt the sil-bronze rod with the tig. It's kinda like spackle for metal.
I have used their "Rust Encapsulator" product with great results.
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HID Fog Lights. Otto Racing FSTB. Progress RSB. Falken Torque 5/Toyo Proxes 4. Cattman Cat-back, Hi-Flo Cat. Techna-Fit SS lines. Hayden Tranny Cooler. Ground Wire Kit. Big Brakes, H&R Springs(in garage). and Illuminas coming to Maxima near me.
If you are going for major body work, I assume you are doing a frame off restoration. The wire wheels won't help you too much with the body.
Get a good media blaster and shoot the body. then epoxy primer it. once you notice the swiss cheese, start cutting sheet metal out.
As you get pieces out, you will notice more rust behind the panels you couldnt see becasue they were covered.
When you get to making your own sheet metal, do it in small pieces. you never want to cut a piece so large the rest of the panel changes shape. you can also get a basic metal stretch for this stuff--especially around the wheel wheels, windshield channel, weatherstipping type-areas.
Get a GAS mig welder. Do not do wire/rosin core for this. Also forget the rivets. learn to do a proper stitch.
Don't forget to spray the BACK of all your sheet metal patches with weld-through primer.
you also might find a TIG welder handy to melt some silicon-bronze. it's very useful for filling in areas that do not need a whole piece of tin--but still have a lot of holes. you can just melt the sil-bronze rod with the tig. It's kinda like spackle for metal.
hope that helps some.
Thanks! Me and my friend have been talking about what all we are going to do to the car. It isnt going to be a frame off resto, just enough to get the car to a weekend status vehicle, fix and seal as much rust as we can. Since the car is sitting outdoors still we ended up wire wheeling and sanding off most of the surface rust on the body, and just spraybombed it with some rust converter, some primer and then some sealer primer for now until he gets a garage for it.
+1 on using POR 15.
It really "seals off" the rust!
As far as MIG Welding small holes, I'd recommend using a 110V Welder using .025" wire. Real easy unless you have a "ton" of rust near the hole!
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