Body and paint guys: Please lend advice (pics inside)

A couple weeks back I picked up another project that had a cheap paint job done about 7 years ago (Earl Shieb). It had some blistering at the bottom of the doors and on the rockers. Now keep in mind I bought this car for a driver and I don't want to dig into it too deep since I am already up to my elbows in another frame up build. I want to do a quick fix on the areas pictured below. Quick fix meaning no cutting or welding, and yes I know it will be just covering it up to a degreea and I'm sure it will rear it's ugly head again at some point down the road, but for now I just want it smooth and protected as best it can be without adding metal and doing it (properly).




Please lend advice as to what you might think would work best to seal this up for as long as possible. I was thinking to just wire it clean from the outside, put some Metal Ready on it and then skim it over with All Metal or similar product.
Again, I know to most and even to me this seems like doing a hack job, but right now I just want to have it smooth and be able to drive it while I finish my other project. I can do it right at a later date when I have the time and shop space to do so.
Thanks!

 

That rust is coming from the inside, so it doesn't matter what you do to the outside to "protect" it. Whatever you do outside will pop off again when the rust creeps further.

You need to remove the rust from the inside (sandblast, then cut and patch) and paint/seal it completely. Anything else is a bandaid.

For a bandaid, I'd bash it in a little (1/16"), bondo it up, then paint it. Don't worry about it too much because you'll see it again next year.

 

The drain holes are probably plugged up,pull the door panel, clean inside door, make sure drains are clear ,undercoat inside door,then repair outside and you'll be good.

 

the rust is coming from between the panels, nothing fast and cheap you can do , at this point i would prime it and drive it and not worry about it until your ready to get rid of that 4 door for a 2 door. or get some alumn, tape, tap in the rust put the tape over it and mud it up, and reppaint, and as soon as paint dries, trade it off. thats what the guy before you did.

 

Ditto,...a cosmetic "fix" will show up again,....As already stated, open the drain holes, and weld in a patch piece. Or, is it possible to find a better door in a salvage yard?

4TTRUK

 

Clean the rust inside the panel as best you can, then apply Ospho to neutralize the rust. When that has dried, lay some rubberized under coat on the inside, and make sure the drain holes are clear.

Make repairs to the outside, and cross your fingers.

 

Love the car. Can't believe I'm saying this, but I guess if you absolutely can't fix it right for now just go with what you're thinking, metal ready, maybe some POR-15, all-metal.

 

Cheap way out : Take a pick hammer and pick out all of the rusted out metal. Grind the area with 36 grit disc. Clean the backside of the areas as good as possible. Like stated above, use Ospho or similar cleaner to clean the inside as best as possible. Pack the holes with UPOL Fiberall. This stuff is watertight and will hold up as good as can be expected. NOW, take POR 15 or similar and flood the inside/backside of the repair areas. Put plastic down underneath where you will be pouring the POR 15 or
similar product and let is seep/drain out and coat the entire inside of the door bottom.
Finish the exterior with a finish glass, Epoxy, Urethane High Build Primer over the Epoxy (after 2 hours @ 70 degrees) and paint. On the cheap, this will hold back the Cancer as good as possible without welding in fresh metal , etc.....

Not the preferred method but will be a good repair on a driver.

Good Luck,
VR&C.

 

If you want a cheapo fix just beat the rust down and fill it with silver dollar or something similar. Shoot some old motor oil inside after it's painted. It might last a few months.

 

that looks like a nice car that deserves to have that fixed. what you want is not a fix or repair, just different than it was before, soon to be the same again. why bother?

 

Sounds like he wants to flip it.

 

My other five year project is ALMOST nearing completion and I really need to focus on getting it finished up and the kinks worked out. I want the vehicle road worthy immediately without a whole lot of time taken away from the other project. I probably should have just left the bubble there but curiosity got the best of me.

The roof of the car will need attention anyway. It's not rusted but the paint has began to flake away exposing bare metal. See the previous owner had left this car outside in rainy Oregon under a water soaked car cover for the last two years and every panel has blistering. What you see in the pictures is the worst of it. I'll live with the rest but wanted to do something about those spots. I'm afraid the more I dig the more I will find and I'm the type that can't leave things alone. So yes, I guess I just want to cover up the problem to deal with or not at a later time.

 

I'll admit to doing some patch jobs like you're talking about on some 60's cars that I've used as winter daily drivers in past years. The one thing I would recommend is to treat those deep pits/holes with POR 15 and then fill with fiberglass reinforced filler (short hair, not long). Finish off with filler of choice after that. I've had decent results doing this. The roads get heavily salted here in the winter months and the repairs hold up halfway decent. I prefer a temporary repair and quickie paint job over doing nothing at all. I agree with you that I'd rather spend most of my time on my more important projects than doing a full rebuild on a winter car in my climate.

Sometimes half-assed has a place.

 

If you hack it, just dont bitch the next time you buy some POS that the last owner hacked.

 

x3.......... Use some tiger hair for a better temp look.........

 

Hate to say it but for the short term it does.

By the way what type of a primer would someone recommend to put of these areas? There is already the presence of at least one typ of previous filler where the repairs need to be made. Is there a certain primer that is good to go over bare metal, old filler, old paint and new filler all in one shot?

Bare with me I am obviously not too experienced in body and paint.

 

Why did you even bother to take the time to D/A it down when you knew you weren't gonna' do it right in the first place?

 

I wanted to see if it was just paint bubbling or rust underneath since there are some areas with similar bubbles that have solid metal behind them with only paint bubbles. Much easier to fix than metal reapair.

 

Little blisters under paint = rust with at least a pin hole, requiring metal work. I've never seen anything else as paint usually just won't decide to blister on it's own accord. Know you know. Saw it a lot in MN.

Like all the other guys have said; prep the best you can. Beat the metal in enough to get a decent layer of the fiberglass (Kitty Hair/Dura-glass) filler in there because if you sand it down thin the glass will blister too.

It might last a while longer if you can keep the back side dry. Undercoating the back side if you can get to it may add a little protection. Not sure any kind of primer is going to be any better than another in this case, marginal at best until the cancer is gone. Just make the primer compatible with your top coats.

 

The only thing that will take any more time is welding in a patch panel. Blasting or grinding, backpriming, POR15ing,glassing, mudding,sanding ,more mudding,sanding , primering, etc is the same...You are only talking a couple of more hours to do it right as opposed to doing it twice, OR are you a flipper going for the `ol gype and wipe?

 

Thanks for the tips.

I think the blistering may have been caused by the soaking wet car cover this car had sat under for the last two years. It was freaky when I punched the blister with my fingernail and brown water came out, only to reveal slight surface rust on otherwise clean metal underneath.

 

Fast & dirty? Here goes. Clean out drain holes in doors. Clean inside of panel the best you can-slop in some POR-15, mud up the door with All-Metal filler. It's waterproof and should hold for awhile. It does NOT cheese grate and has to be long boarded down after it sets up. Just skim coat with it, then use a light weight plastic filler over it. Don't tell anyone I said to do this-I would weld in a replacement panel and do it right. It's your car, not mine.

 

If I was a better welder and more experienced with sheet metal patches I would like to go that route, but don't have the time to do it as it would probably take me much longer than you more experienced metal guys. Although if someone more experienced would want to come volenteer some time to help I would be happy to pay for your food and beer.

 

This^^^ Use a spray bottle to apply Por 15 with. You'll have to reduce a little, but it'll get into the tight areas. USE GLOVES! Mike

 

Primer and undercoating on the inside won't do nothing but make it look like you did something. Believe me if your going to hack it, oil it. Doesn't look very pretty but it's your best bet in a hack job.

 

You can get enamel auto primer in spray bombs at Home Depot etc - stay away from lacquer and urethane - they will wrinkle crappy Earl Scheib paints... Go easy with several light coats.



Last winter worked on a rat rod for my Uncle - cleared the tailgate to save the letters and just from the urethane clear all the cheap paint on the gate wrinkled. Was quite the chore to razor blade off the wrinkled paint around the letters to still save the sanded look. All those white specs in the green are where the cheapo paint job had dust in it!

Getting the truck all primed in Eastwood epoxy primer also had problem areas that wrinkled when applied heavy.

 

Yep. Maybe ES has touch-up spray bombs. They get you in with the $200 sales pitch and out the door with the extras for $1600. I always remember my Dad's '58 Apache they painted banana yellow once and root-beer brown the next time. Probably was $39.99 then....

 

I have a set of clean rust free doors for ya.....they need a new home. Cheap too.....
PM me if interested

 

Not only do I not have time to work on this but budget is also very tight for this car. I promised myself I can put no more than $200 into the car before my other project is done and I've spent the majority of that already. I imagine shipping those would not be cheap. Thanks for the offer though. Do you happen to go to the Portland Swap meet in the spring?

 

A quick and condensed reply:

Well.... in this situation I use epoxy resin and hardener. Been using boat/yacht epoxy systems. Use the proper epoxy glass mat not the Polyester glass mat. Epoxy resins and mat for epoxy work and polyester resins and mat for Polyester glass work. Don't interchange the two as they are completely different systems. Also You can use pail of white vinegar to wash your hands to clean the resin off as you work. Then have a pail of fresh clean water next to that to dip you hands into after using the white vinegar. The resin will wash right off. Use a towel to wipe hands. I take it you have cut and trimmed the metal rust out to at least the point of good metal or the oxidation process will lift the epoxy no matter how good you think epoxies hold. You will also get to know how much you'll need to mix up to do what section your working on and will get good at this as you work with this stuff.
Keep in mind epoxy resins are not like bondo as in the more hardener you add the faster it will set. This is just the opposite for epoxies.

So, To cover up the larger holes or sections which you had to trim and cut out due to rust you will have to cover those areas first working from the back side with a section of oversized cut to fit epoxy glass mat. Tap plastics sell various mats. I always use the multi layered mats that sewed together layers of matting ready to be cut and soak then applied.

Have a shallow pan slightly larger than the largest glass mat piece you will be applying. Pour the anticipated amount of premixed epoxy/hardener into this pan. At this time take and apply a coat of this epoxy mix batch and apply over your properly prepared metal area with a brush. You can also mix into your resin mix batch an epoxy adhesion agent that is sold to help the bonding process. Let this rest for about 5 minutes at room temperature. Then apply another coat.

Now soak the glass mat section you previously cut to size into the resin using a plastic squeegee in a dab like manor making sure the mat/cloth is soaking up the resin. You can visually see when this happens. Now take the glass mat at each corner with your fingers and bring it to the site and apply it. If it is a contoured area you can use a backing form made of foam or cardboard just make sure you have a layer of thin kitchen saran plastic wrap over your form. The epoxy will not stick to plastic wrap by the way and you can use this knowledge for many purposes when working with epoxy resins. Now use your squeegee to fan out the areas that are sandwiched against any existing metal surfaces. You want to get the air bubblers out and force the resin into the glass mat material. Make sure to have your resin pan under this area to catch the drop out material resin that will be running down. If you need more resin then just use your brush to take it from the pan up to the patch glass repair area and smear more resin on. Repeat as needed as the patch set up over time to aid in building up thickness. Now if you want a nice smooth crater free surface just have a helper tear off a piece of plastic saran kitchen wrap and apply it over the surface. When cured the plastic will come right off and you will have a very nice smooth surface with less sanding and filling required.

When it comes time to make small repairs over small areas or filling over spots or joints:

Prepare your metal surface as before. Mix up you resin batch as before. Apply to the surface areas as noted before as needed. Now let the work area set while your doing the next thing below.

Cut up the amount of glass mat needed with a scissor making sure the fibers are the length of about 3/4 inch to 1/2 long. Put them onto a mixing plate and stir to get the fibers blended together. Now mix what you think you'll need of the epoxy/hardener into this cut up mat mix and stir together.

Using a popsicle stick or similar wooden item, take up the mix and apply to your work area spreading and kneading as you go. You will get the hang of that as well. Carefully peal out the resin loaded strands from your mix plate in sheets with your wooden flat stick and apply to your work area. Let this set up to some extent and then build with the remaining resin in your mix pan to thicken and build up the area. Again you can use saran wrap kitchen plastic over your finished area to achieve a flatten finished product. The saran wrap tends to draw the resin up to the surface much like when you are finishing concrete which is also the same type of finishing process. The metal trowels are bringing the cement cream mixture up to the surface allowing you to fill in over the aggregate rock leaving a hard smooth surface.

Well... Gee, guess this turned out to be quickie novel after all. Oh well.....