body rot!!

[tps761]

hey whats up. i have some pretty intense body rot on each of my quarter panels. how do i go ahead and patch it up or fix the rust? i'll post some pics later, but i mean its ugly as **** and the car won't pass inspestion as is. sorry for the vague questiong, but when u see the pics it will all makes sense.

 

[jmpSHO]

I had the same problem the only way to fix it the right way is to have a body shop cut out the rust and weld in new metal. Where in Mass are you? I had both my rear quarters fixed and a whole new driver side rocker.

 

[Eric VerValin]

If its like mine was, I swapped the entire body.. ended up being a LOT more work, but a LOT cheaper too.

 

[tps761]

I had the same problem the only way to fix it the right way is to have a body shop cut out the rust and weld in new metal. Where in Mass are you? I had both my rear quarters fixed and a whole new driver side rocker.

ya i know that wasn't what i wanted to hear lol. i mean i have the means of doing it, but its my second car (winter beater) and i don't want to put that much into it. maybe in a couple years, but not now. so what i think i'm going to do is wire bush as much of the rot away and sand the metal down as best as i can. then i'm goiing to fiberglass the holes and bondo over it so its smooth. then paint it. i know its the ghetto way, but all my money is going into the mustang right now. doesn't need anything lol, but it gets all the goodies. so is that a good idea u think?

I'm located in northboro near worcester. just curious how much did all that work cost you??

 

[jmpSHO]

I paid $1,100 do have the driver rocker replaced and $1,500 to have the rust in the rear quarters cut out and new metal welded in that also included repainting the rear quarters and roof.

 

[tps761]

I paid $1,100 do have the driver rocker replaced and $1,500 to have the rust in the rear quarters cut out and new metal welded in that also included repainting the rear quarters and roof.

ya well thats something i'll never have done professionally. i mean my boss it pretty handy with stuff like this so i'll ask him to help me when the time comes but do u think fiberglass will hold long enough

 

[tps761]

If its like mine was, I swapped the entire body.. ended up being a LOT more work, but a LOT cheaper too.

when u say "swapped the body" what exactly do u mean? like u cut a parts out of a doner car?

 

[shomtx95]

if i fiberglassed, i would put something on the inside to keep out water, like rubberized undercoating.

 

[tps761]

if i fiberglassed, i would put something on the inside to keep out water, like rubberized undercoating.

i don't really know that much about fiberglass. is it permeable? no it can't be! they use that SH#T to patch holes in boats

 

[Eric VerValin]

when u say "swapped the body" what exactly do u mean? like u cut a parts out of a doner car?

Umm.. I pulled the engine / trans / suspension and swapped it all over to a clean body I found in California. $500 for the car, $6-700 to ship. When you start getting into all that sheet metal it gets expensive in a hurry. And usually they will do it without a warranty.

And technically if you find the right car, the parts you pull off of it can be sold to make your money back.

 

[sperold]

I have an 89 SHO winter car. I had the same problem as you, the car runs great and everything works, but the body was terrible. I had holes in the middle of my doors! I fixed mine 3 years ago. Here is my advice. Go to UAP and get their body metal (about $25.00 for 3 foot by 6 foot), this stuff never rusts, even where you cut it. It must have some kind of alloy in it. Make paper templates of everything you need (you can buy outer rocker panels, but that is it). Transfer it onto your metal, and use a jig saw with a metal blade to cut it out (you don't have a wavy line at the edge). Be prepared to make lots of small pieces like the lip over your wheel welds, I bent my 1" edges on a workmate clamped tight. Try to make a tab on your last panel that can be picked up by a tab on your next panel. I painted both sides of this metal and installed it with pop rivets, shape it as best you can before you put it on. You will be surprised how well it turns out with no bodyfill or anything to smooth it out. I put on some body fill to hide the places where the new metal joined the old car and just scraped it flush. Add fill to corners like the wheel well lip and scrape it flush. If you have any ability, you can body fill the whole panel and shape and sand the surface, but I found I had no ability to do this and it was actually better to leave it alone. At this point you can take it to someone who can do it, or you can spray bomb it, like I did. It has been 3 years and none of the panels has lifted or misbehaved and it still looks presentable. I did not cut out any old metal, just clean it up and prepaint it with tremclad rust paint or whatever. This may not get you any show awards, but I am still surprised at how long it has lasted and how good it looks for the effort by someone with absolutely no skill in bodywork. My car was black, so matching paint was not a big issue, so you may have some extra work there.

 

[tps761]

thats some good advise!! i'm in the same boat as you. can pull and engine and rebuild a tranny no prob, but when it comes to body work forget about it. where did you find quarter panels? that would be awesome if i could get my hands on a pair.

o, completely random. can someone give me a site that gives a discription of how to do the KOER test.

 

[jmpSHO]

http://wiki.wikisho.com/wiki/EEC_Self_Test_Procedure

Here is a link that explains it. Where in MA are you? I have a decent scanner if you want it scanned.

 

[sperold]

So far, no one makes quarter panels for these cars. You can only buy the outer rocker panels. That is all that is available that is not bolted on. But keep looking, it could change. Try the body work yourself. Give yourself lots of time and now you will need a heated spot to do the work. It is time consuming. I was OK till I hit the body filler part. The lowest prices are at Walmart and it is White Lightning brand. Eventually you will get good at applying this stuff and you can buy a file to shape the contours prior to sanding. I always thought I would take my finished job to someone who knew the trade and have it really finished off and painted, but it hasn't happened yet. What I have done has never gotten any worse, so at least you are stopping the rot and stabalizing everything and eventually it will get finished properly by someone else or you will keep at it and finish it yourself.

 

[jmpSHO]

So far, no one makes quarter panels for these cars. You can only buy the outer rocker panels. That is all that is available that is not bolted on. But keep looking, it could change. Try the body work yourself. Give yourself lots of time and now you will need a heated spot to do the work. It is time consuming. I was OK till I hit the body filler part. The lowest prices are at Walmart and it is White Lightning brand. Eventually you will get good at applying this stuff and you can buy a file to shape the contours prior to sanding. I always thought I would take my finished job to someone who knew the trade and have it really finished off and painted, but it hasn't happened yet. What I have done has never gotten any worse, so at least you are stopping the rot and stabalizing everything and eventually it will get finished properly by someone else or you will keep at it and finish it yourself.

Where did you find a new rocker panel for our cars?

 

[tps761]

http://wiki.wikisho.com/wiki/EEC_Self_Test_Procedure

Here is a link that explains it. Where in MA are you? I have a decent scanner if you want it scanned.

in northboro about 15 min east of worcester. thanks for the offer, but i think i got everything. if something else happens (god i hope not) i might take u up on that offer.

have u ever been to the gillete stadium for the car shows? i was going to take my mustang there the other day, but i didn't have time to clean it so my budy and i scratched the plans. i wonder if there are any sho's that go

so SPEROLD you didn't cut any rust out? all you did was sand and wire brush the rust? i think i'm going to try fiberglass and see how that works

 

[Eric VerValin]

Where did you find a new rocker panel for our cars?

Thats what I'm wondering... I found a few places that used to stock those, but they have long been discontinued... every place I talked to was talking about fabbing up some sheet metal... $$$

 

[jmpSHO]

Thats what I'm wondering... I found a few places that used to stock those, but they have long been discontinued... every place I talked to was talking about fabbing up some sheet metal... $$$

I had my driver side replaced with a used rust free rocker. They said they couldn't find a new one any where.

 

[sperold]

That is right, if you remove everything, it will be very hard to shape the new metal. I bought some "rust killer" in spray form and treated everything first. The fiberglass should work out fine, I have no experience with it, but my guess is that you have to have it really flat before it sets up and you will save a lot of time later.

 

[sperold]

Where did you find a new rocker panel for our cars?

I bought my car in terrible condition with new rocker panels pop riveted in place. Since then I have seen them listed, so I will look up the source over the next few days. The outer rocker panels come way up into the "door slam" area of the car and they were pretty complicated looking.