Technical To weld or not to weld... advice request.

[Phiz]

Alright folks, any pointers on the following wold be greatly appreciated.

I've started dealing with the rust in the seam between inner wheel arch and boot floor and basically 2 sections ahve completely rusted through, with the bit between being rusty but generally solid.

I cut the back section out and have started making patches to weld in. Once I properly cleaned the steel ready to weld the first patch in I noticed there was a small rust hole in the next section along (the one I previousl described as generally solid:bang see pics.

https://goo.gl/photos/mifZbHfL16RoGMd39
First image is the section I have already cut out and started to replace

https://goo.gl/photos/TdGH6cV2QxKXDpbC7
Second image is the hole, it's right in by the seam and approx 1cm long...

Should I cut this next section out too, potentially filling it with weld, or treating it with kurust and seam sealing over it or is this just hiding a problem rather than dealing with it? Obviously I don't want to spend time on work that is not required, or replace metal that does not need replacing however I do want to make a proper job of it and I don't want to be heading back to weld up the same area in a couple of years time!

Any thoughts/opinions received gladly.

Thanks again

Phiz

 

[jimboy]

Well Phiz, firstly forget about kurust, that just staves the rust off for a while. In an ideal world you want to cut out ALL rust & replace with good metal. You really have answered your own question. (your last paragraph)

I know on paper it sounds easy & the right route to follow, but it can be b****r to do, but you have to do it properly if your keeping the car, which I suspect you are... Best of luck.

 

[Phiz]

Thanks for the rapid response Jimboy, guess I'll keep working my way along the seam bit by bit, until I get back to where I started and the whole car has a strip of new steel in it. No fortunately it doesn't look like it goes much further forward than the seatbelt mount. On the kurust front, there is some non structural rust on the underside, just early stage at the minute, take it kurust, zinc heavy primer, paint, stonechip and then a load of waxoil is best there anyway?

As for keeping the car, we have a couple of years worth of road trips in it planned once it's finished and I suspect it'll be here a lot longer than that but even if not, the work I'm doing is very much for the pleasure of it (clearly a loss will be made financially) so I'll need to be proud of the end result no matter.

 

[FDNY21]

The seams on Pandino were pretty good, but one had a tiny hole in it which would let water in when I pressure washed the car. I treated it with sealant on the inside and then I cleaned up the outside of the hole where the seam is under the arch as best I could. I put kurust and sealant on, and lots of stone chip shield, red paint and waxoyl after that. I only did this because it was a tiny hole and the rest of the bodywork is great so I'm not doing lots of welding jobs.

But, in your case, you've got the car in bits and you're doing welding jobs, so I'd highly recommend removing the piece with the hole in and welding in a new piece. It certainly looks like you know what you're doing and it'll help prevent you having to do it at a later date anyway!

As for under the car, if you've got some surface rust, remove all rust that you can with a wire brush attachment, kurust that, then zinc primer etc and you should be fine for a while. Keep it sweet with some good quality Bilt Hamber waxoyl type stuff and you should be fine. I need to do some more underneath the car, but I'll be sure to get some zinc primer next time, the surface rust just comes back if you forget it. Bilt Hamber do 400ml electrox zinc based aerosol, I haven't used it but if you were going all out then I think that would be good! I'll be sure to use it or an equivalent product of good quality when I next do repairs under my car.

 

[jimboy]

Phiz, forget kurust all together. Get yourself some Bilt Hamber deox gel rust remover & read the instructions. This is a bit pricey but excellent stuff. Finish off with por15. Then you're sorted for years to come. You've came this far, it's worth the extra mile. Post up some pic's when you've done the deed.

 

[panda1408]

Cut it out and be done with it, it will only come back to bite you otherwise!

 

[jimboy]

I was meaning the underneath non structural rust, if this is just surface, go the Bilt Hamber route. If done properly, this will last, but if the rust is already taking a deep hold then it's cut out time I'm afraid. Without actually seeing this it's hard to say.

 

[Phiz]

Yeah I'll get to work on it this weekend, keep welding in sections until there is no rust at all in the seam . Cheers for the advice guys, was unsure at what point it stopped being structural but I guess if it's there it'll spread. Have not worked out why that seam specifically is rusty yet. It's been sat through some rain and stayed dry, no signs of accident damage in that area etc.

The Bilt Hamber Deox-Gel is on Ebay for £15 inc. delivery for 1kg so I'll get some ordered, thanks for the tip, will check out their zinc heavy primer too! Re Por15, do you mean the metal prep. or the paint?? That does look a bit more on the steep side but if I can prevent the rust underneath from spreading then money well spent.

That's a pic. I took a couple of weeks back just to show the sort of rust under the car, it's like that in a few places but there does not seem to be any structural weakness, this is what I'm looking to treat.

I'll post further updates (hopefully of my progress) on the resto. thread I've started. Thanks again for the advice, really want to make sure I do a proper job of this and then ideally just keep up to date on preventative maintenance.