More Rust Repair! (Picture Heavy)

"MM54" (mm54mk2) 10/11/2015 at 19:46 • Filed to: None

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Nobody read my last post about rust repair a while back, so I’ll keep this one short - my Driver’s side fender has/had two big rust holes in it, and while I have a new, clean fender for it, I’m not equipped to handle EVERY bolt breaking off trying to remove the old one, which will happen based on my other experiences with less-rusty fenders. No shops seemed to want the job, quoting 6-8 hours to swap ONE fender, which I provide, painted, ready to go. Swapping a fender on a crown vic should take about 2 hours, 3 for a good shop if literally every bolt breaks off.

As a result, I’ve patched it up so it doesn’t cut me while I walk past (again) and looks better, too.

After taking a stripper wheel (mounts in a drill, they’re awesome), a wire brush, and a bit of 80-grit sandpaper, it was clear what I had to work with (and that this fender has been “patched” before.

This lower hole, which is right behind the wheel, has been around a while, but up until this past spring, there was a layer of paint bridging the hole and keeping it all together, and thus invisible, until some ice finally knocked it off.

With everything roughly cleaned up, it was time to mask, which is an art it itself.

In hindsight, I should have put more paper over the hood (more on that later) but this definitely worked. After the picture was taken I wrapped the mirror, too.

As a tip - the bags that tire shops put tires in? Hang on to them - they’re handy!

Next up, a liberal amount of Rust Converter was applied to sort of slow the progression, and give me a flat black surface to begin patching. More will be applied later.

From here, some long-hair fiberglass patch is mixed up, and if you’re like me, you forget how fast it sets and only get about halfway done before it’s too hot to touch and getting hard. This patch was jammed in the gap and pressed flat (it really does work best with this stuff to just wear gloves and use your hands).

This fiberglass sands like, well, fiberglass, so it’s only marginally softer than the metal around it - this means you want it to be in the right shape, and if anything too low, when it sets. There is a trick to this - wax paper.

Once you mix up the fiberglass, jam it in the hole and make sure it’s filling it. It will be sticking out, so take a piece of wax paper from the kitchen the right size and put it over it (the fiberglass will not stick to it). With that on, use a spread like you would for filler to push the fiberglass in the hole. Resin will ooze out and ‘seal’ the paper to the panel, making it hold the patch exactly where you want it.

Let it sit like this until it’s too hot to touch and getting hard, then simply peel the wax paper off, and clean up any big chunks with a knife before it finishes hardening - when it comes time to sand, all you have to take down is resin, which is much softer than fiberglass itself.

After some more sanding (briefly) with 80 grit, I gave it a quick once-over with 120 and got out the normal filler (Bondo because cheap cars get cheap filler). The lower hole didn’t need much (the wax paper trick is great) but the top took some volume to build back into the right shape. I didn’t get it perfect, because 1) it would look out of place on this car to be perfect and 2) I could take three days and make it perfect, but it makes more sense in this case to finish it all in a day. I got it close, and it turned out pretty well.

Block sanding is your friend with this sort of thing, otherwise you’ll just make the low spots lower and the highs just as high. With the concave curvature on this part of the fender, a soft-ish block helps, I used a soft and medium one with 120 grit paper.

Last step for filler is the spot putty/glaze stuff - it comes in a tube, doesn’t need mixed, is runny, and sands like silk. Takes a little longer to cure, though. It easily fills in little gaps, holes (from bubbles in the bondo, dirt on the spreader, etc) and sands beautifully with some 320 grit. Around this point I feathered out all the paint edges as well.

Next up is another coat of rust converter - I’ve found in the past that sanding through the first coat reveals the rust, which will bleed brown through the fresh paint as quickly as the next morning, which is really disappointing to walk outside and see.

After that, it’s time to prime, to both help hide the black converter (since it’s a white car, this is important) as well as help the paint bond. Since everything I used is Rustoleum-brand, I’ll assume the primer will also help slow the rust.

With three coats of primer, each larger and heavier than the last, applied, I used my hand to “sand” off any dusty primer-overspray. At this point I also tried to figure out how I was going to feather these patches back into the rest of the panel.

After much deliberation, I decided that there would be no feathering this out, and the whole fender will be getting painted. It would have taken painting 95% of it anyways, so why not just redo the whole thing.

The fender was wiped down with my hand again (I pretend it’s 1500 grit) and given a healthy coat of Rustoleum White Enamel, which as I’ve mentioned before, is pretty much a spot-on match for Ford Performance White.

Sorry for the lighting, but I can’t move the sun for the sake of pictures. After a while it was unmasked and let to cure overnight. Being from a rattle can, it’s got more orange peel than an orange, but it’s a good, heavy layer of paint so it should be no problem to wetsand it out some time this week and polish it to match look better than the rest of the car after it’s had time to fully set. I took a couple final pictures today, again without wetsanding or polishing the fresh paint:

The driver’s door is fairly dirty, the paint actually is a pretty close match. If anything, it’s whiter than the rest of the car. At this stage, though, about 35% of my car is Rustoleum so it fits right in (and really, you can’t tell any difference unless you’re less than 10 feet away and the car is in direct sunlight).

As an aside, I mentioned earlier I should have masked more of the hood - I spent about an hour this morning with a clay bar removing overspray from the hood, windshield, driver’s door, and the passenger’s fender. There’s more I found later on the rear driver’s side window, and probably more I haven’t found. I’m not too concerned about the light stuff - I’m going to give this car one more good wash/clay/wax before winter. The passenger’s side needs a similar repair, but it’s not nearly as bad (hasn’t fallen open yet, and behind the wheel is still solid), I may try to get to that before it gets too cold out.

So much for keeping it short... but yeah. That’s what I did this weekend!

jkm7680 > MM54 10/11/2015 at 19:51

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Looks great! Also, I love the 1998-2002 steelies.

Agrajag > MM54 10/11/2015 at 19:53

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Looks great!

MM54 > jkm7680 10/11/2015 at 19:55

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Thanks!

I like the pre-03 wheels as well - one of the few things ‘02 has that I like better than the ‘03 I briefly had. They just look good - the offset is just right. The later ones just look... flat

MM54 > Agrajag 10/11/2015 at 19:55

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Thanks!

Birddog > MM54 10/11/2015 at 19:58

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“I’ll keep this one short”

Too late!

Nice work! Glass is fun but temporary when it comes to Rust repair.

MM54 > Birddog 10/11/2015 at 19:59

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Yeeeeeah I was going to just post a few pictures but I ended up rambling on like I tend to do.

It’s very much a temporary patch - I did something similar on the rear earlier in the summer. It’ll hold it together for long enough that, by the time it’s falling apart again, I can have another car.

Frank Grimes > MM54 10/11/2015 at 20:17

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Not as good as welding in new metal but much better than straight body filler cuz fiberglass stuff is water proof.

MM54 > Frank Grimes 10/11/2015 at 20:43

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That’s the goal - if the rest of this car was worth it, I’d replace both fenders and weld in new arches over the rear wheels and new rockers, but the whole thing is borderline falling apart (if it wasn’t body on fame, it’d be broken in half by now) so this will do quite well as a short term repair. Curious to see how long it holds up!

Frank Grimes > MM54 10/11/2015 at 20:55

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I don’t want to knock your repair at all I hope it hasn’t come across like that you seem to know your stuff and do good work. Personally I would have just welde in patches and might have taken less time as well of course not everyone has sheet metal tools and welders.

MM54 > Frank Grimes 10/11/2015 at 20:59

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Didn’t come across that way at all! If I had a welder and sheet stock on hand, and didn’t live in, essentially, an apartment complex, I’d have done just that. I don’t have a welder though (or anywhere to plug one in here), and I don’t think the neighbors would appreciate welding right outside their living rooms!

Uug > MM54 10/11/2015 at 21:08

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I respect it man, good work!

desertdog5051 > MM54 10/11/2015 at 21:18

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Just a note. Those polo shirts that companies pass out to employees with their company name on them, you can buy them at Goodwill for 50 cents and they make great wheel covers. I use them on my trailer tires.

Scott > Birddog 10/11/2015 at 21:21

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My Dad used duct tape on our old better truck. Worked surprisingly well, and when it did finally fail, just get another roll. Obviously not a proper fix, but had he not told me, I'd have never guessed. The most important thing with any rust fix, cutting out ALL the rust before patching.

MM54 > desertdog5051 10/11/2015 at 21:29

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Interesting! Wheel covers and a halloween costume (“Hello, I’m an employee of x!”) all for 50 cents!

Gonzo, 50 shades of beige > MM54 10/11/2015 at 22:03

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Great walk through and great job ! Sweet CV too... May I ask what rust converter did you use ?

 > MM54 10/11/2015 at 22:34

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That fender looks scary. Wonder how long it will last. Also, there aren’t that many bolts that can actually break there. We did fenders on my buddy’s 04’ Vic and his was rusted pretty bad. All the bolts came out but it took a lot of back and forth on the bolts. I also had to swap one of the fenders on my Marauder for the same issue. Got one from a 2011 Vic, same color and all so matched perfectly.

I was actually doing the rockers on the Marauder today. Mine are not nearly as bad as yours though. Just the lower part is gone in a couple of spots. I cut them out and welder new metal in. Almost looks factory.

flyingmetalbird > MM54 10/11/2015 at 22:49

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Thank you so much! I’m going to need this quite bad soon. I recently bought a literal chunk of rust on wheels... for myself... with money...

Frank Grimes > MM54 10/11/2015 at 22:59

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LOL that would be so redneck out welding in the parking lot with super bright arcs interrupting their TV and sleep.

MM54 >  10/12/2015 at 17:44

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Nice. I briefly had an ‘03 that when I got it needed the header panel replaced, trying to loosen up the fenders resulted in 50% of the hardware breaking off, and that car was maybe 1/3 as rusty as this one. As entertaining as it would be, I don’t really want to be driving in to work without a fender because all the bolts have broken off

MM54 > Gonzo, 50 shades of beige 10/12/2015 at 17:45

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Thanks! I used Rustoleum Rust Converter, it was in the same part of the store as the paint. I’ve used a lot of brands and types and none have really done all they claim to do - but I’ve had relative success with this stuff