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135sohc
02-11-2009, 02:40 AM
Noticed a telltale rust bulge around the rear jack pin. Where there was rust growing in between the rocker skin and the separate piece of steel spot welded on that makes the jacking point/nub. :(

anyways giving it about 2 seconds of thought (first mistake) and not completely drilling out the spot welds (2nd mistake) as I was removing the spot welded piece I managed to rip two small holes in the rocker skin.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh98/135SoHc/th_shadowinterior_exterior553.jpg (http://s254.photobucket.com/albums/hh98/135SoHc/?action=view&current=shadowinterior_exterior553.jpg)

and also as the picture shows I managed to F-up the whole area pretty good.

I know the ultimate proper fix would be to cut that entire area out and weld in fresh unbent/stretched sheet metal but I believe that would do more harm than good in this case as it would just rust out faster because of the damage the welding would do to any factory applied E-coat or primer inside the rocker. Where its not accessible for proper finishing.


So I'm thinking I could get an aluminum plate with an aluminum pin welded to it and using panel bonding adhesive. Bond the plate over my 'oops' area. covering the holes and the entire area around it where I distorted the metal.

The adhesive would seal the entire repair area against moisture and provide corrosion protection to the bare metal. and for good measure put a few cherry rivets through the plate and help lock it into place.

other ideas, questions or comments ?

jl93sundance
02-11-2009, 07:33 PM
It didn't look that bad, should of left it, but I would just weld the holes that you put in it then sand, then spray it with some undercoating or something

135sohc
02-11-2009, 09:09 PM
It didn't look that bad, should of left it, but I would just weld the holes that you put in it then sand, then spray it with some undercoating or something

That was after I dug and scraped a good amount of scale off. then took the grinder and removed the rest.

Aries_Turbo
02-11-2009, 09:29 PM
grind it clean.

tack weld the piece back in there but leave a little gap between the rocker panel and the metal tab. after tacking, immediately press a wet rag on the area to suck out the heat so it doesnt mess any coatings up.

then coat the area in rust bullet (www.rustbullet.com it rocks!) and in the small gap you left with a small brush so that its coated inside and out. then clean your jack really good and use it to press the piece up in there to close the gap and keep the area sealed with rust bullet. do a little more smoothing of the area with some brush strokes, let dry, prime the area and paint.

what i would have done was hammer a screwdriver between the rocker and the tab to spread it open a little and gouge all the rust out, clean and ram rust bullet in there with a brush and do the jack thing like i said above. i wouldnt have removed the tab at all.

Brian

crusty shadow
02-12-2009, 05:46 AM
cut the bad area out, clean off all the rust and spray the areas under the metal you're replacing with 3M weld thru primer. weld in new sheet metal and then refinish as normal

t3rse
02-12-2009, 07:53 PM
rustbullet does rock