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Rust Repair  Rating:  Rating
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 Posted: 07-21-2005 05:10 am
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Gary Martin JH 15371
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Working on repairing some minor rust on JH 15371. The car is really in pretty good shape rust wise. Floor boards seem fine. Only exterior signs of rust are at lower edge of wings (fenders both front and rear). This is minor as it is only surface rust. But in starting work inside the trunk, as soon as I removed the trunk lip seal to my dismay I found that the lip was pretty much gone in some places. I would say 95% is still OK, but there are sections where and inch or two are pretty eaten away. I have glass beaded all this and the trunk floor to remove rust.

I would like some advice as to the best way to repair the trunk lip. I was thinking of using some fiberglass to rebuild the lip in the damaged places, or possibly liquid metal. I could fabricate some metal strips and tack weld them some how but this seems somewhat more difficult. Has anyone delt with this particular problem and have recomendations on how best to proceed ? 

Thanks, Gary

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 Posted: 07-21-2005 05:12 pm
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Mark Rosenbaum
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While fiberglass might work, the liquid metal will almost certainly fall apart fairly quickly.  IMHO, there's really no substitute for doing the job with steel.

If your damaged spots are only an inch or so long, you can fabricate replacement sections with simple hand tools.  These could then be welded or brazed in place -- or even silver-soldered.  Any excess beading could then be removed with a die grinder (one of those $10 electric ones from China should last long enough).

Alternately, where the rust damage is extensive, you'd be better off to fabricate an entire new lip rather than doing multiple spot repairs.  Some of the online tool stores sell various low-cost sheet metal fabrication devices, and one of these would seem ideal for this sort of job.

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 Posted: 07-21-2005 05:35 pm
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Mitch Ware
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I second Mark's advice. Be sure to cut away any nearby rusted metal to make sure you have good metal next to your new pieces. This will slow down the rate at which the rust gets back into the area you have repaired.

Mitch Ware
1974 JH-5 #111119670
1971 TR-6 #CC66950LO

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 Posted: 07-21-2005 06:33 pm
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Jensen Healey
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I think if this lip is that rusted that the damage at the wings might be far worse than it seems. Have you removed the panels inside the wings to investigate? There is no reason to repair the cosmetic problems before a thorough investigation of structural areas with an ice pick.

Cars with "no rust" have rust. Cars with "some rust" usually have lots of hidden rust. Remove the carpets and the stainless kick panels on the door sills and latch area. Stick a light up under the dash in the battery area.

If there is no structural damage treat surface rust with POR 15 and Bondo for a good looking daily driver.

Good luck,

Kurt Housh

JH 13148 "Old Bondo-wing"

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 Posted: 10-20-2005 12:22 am
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Gary Martin JH 15371
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Question about Brazing. I have started in cutting off and replacing my trunk lip flange. The rust only got to the verticle part of the lip. The horizontal part is good. So I cut off the lip and fabricated a new lip from 20 gauge sheet metal. I formed it into an L shape so it will fit under the horizontal part remaining. Everything is cleaned to bare metal, degreased and clamped in place. I then attempted to braze in a section and found it difficult. I have to get the metal glowing red hot before the Flux coated Brazing rod will melt. I'm not an expert on Brazing, but seems more like welding to me! I'm using 1/16 rod and an acetylene torch. Should I use a smaller tip ? Adjust the flame so its not so hot ? That is heat it slower somehow ? Heat from opposite side ? I'm afrade I'm going to melt right through the sheet metal. And its burning off my paint for 2 inches around ! Maybe I should just solder it, if that would hold. Or tack weld it in places and solder the rest. I will add some pictures soon.

The rest of the car is pretty rust free. The front fenders are off, and only had minor surface rust at the fender-rocker joint. Looks like same problem at rear fender-rocker joint. How hard is it to remove rear fenders ? And this POR 15 stuff. Sounds like this can be put right over rust without cleaning. How good does that work ? If you have surface rust and you sand and clean the surface, then use POR 15, will this repair hold up for quite awhile ? In the past I have sanded and/or glass beaded surface rust, treated metal with 3M metal conditioner to neutralize any remaining rust, then primed with a good epoxy primer. Would POR 15 be better than using epoxy primer ?

Gary

Last edited on 10-22-2005 08:00 pm by Gary Martin JH 15371

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 Posted: 10-21-2005 06:23 pm
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Ed Davenport
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As to removing the rear fenders - its not too hard.  They are bolted across the top and bottom (I didn't have enough metal left at the bottom sill to worry about the bolt) and riveted behind the door and at the rear.  The inner splash guards are screwed to the inside of the body.  Also there was some lead in the top between the door frame and the first bolt and in the rear at the top corner. 

The amount of hidden rust, on my car,  astonished me (although I'm not really sure why, being its a NJ car).

Ed

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