Rustocalypse

[mrmike]

I am making a custom set of sideskirts, I noticed some rust corroded paint around my old ones. I took it off and found this:




Any tips on rust removal?

[heineck]

wow, im glad i never have to worry aboot that

[Nate's Alero]

Yep, grind and bondo....

[cherrington17]

grind it out, coat with POR-15. put side skirt back on.

bdyman can give you more precise instructions

[AleroDrime]

in the mean time till you learn with to do hit that with some white rustoleam paint, it helps prevent further rust

looks like you have some underneath the trim in the upper part of the picture too

[Oldsnut]

Just put a Band-Aid on it, it will be OK.



Not!!!!!!!! PM Bdyman and ask him what to do. Grinding the rust away is a good start though.

[bdyman]

thats all the way through and it looks like it goes up around the wheel house area,
the1/4 and the rocker panle need to be cut out, replaced with new metal, i always cut a 1/4 inch above the infected area, when you cut it out try to keep the shape of the infected area intacted so its easier for you to fab up new metal

the rest i would use a 6inch grinder, and a angle grinder with the 2 inch discs, then i would use the 3m discs they kinda look like black steel wool that goes on your angle grinder

if anymore holes pop up, like around the wheel house area, if its infected by the spot welds, grind the spot welds off with your cut off wheel using a cut off wheel for grinding welds, if you have body tool i use a panle seperator to remove the metal from the mating flange

when all metal is clean, if rust has infected the inner structure, that also need to be cleaned, and either a etch primer or por-15 can be applied before the new metal is welded in

inside the new metal also apply a weld through coating it stop rust and even welding it remains on the metal, i would also remove the trim panles to apply panel bond or a seam sealer inside the 1/4 to stop the rust

if you have allot of experience in metal fab , welding, it can be fixed if you take your time and have the experience

i also forgot if there is any seam sealer and panle bond removed make sure you apply it back on before primer is applied, i also recomend fusor products, the seam sealer is a 2 part epoxy and it dries fast its sandable fusor has great products

[KenshinZero]

Welcome to my world, lol

[Nate's Alero]

Originally Posted by KenshinZero

Welcome to my world, lol

X2, rear 1/4's suck on coupes.. poor drainage i seem to think is the culprit

[KenshinZero]

Yeah, the side skirt is rather long under the car, and is angled so the water kinda pools in the corner.

[bdyman]

people let me say this too
"bondo" or plastic body filler what ever you want to call it, is not a rust prohibitor at all, even though bondo technology has come along way in the past 5 yrs, it is corrosion resistant to a point, it is no longer porus, which causes water to be let in, which in evercoats eyes they say its corrosion resistant

products like duraglass are the worst to apply over rust repair, it is some of the most porus material made in our field and we dont use it anymore and i havent used it in 5yrs, we use evercoats product that has kevlar in it, it replaces the duraglass, reduces die back, sweeling, and that is corrosion resistant

its what is done to the repair that makes it corrsion resistant, its the steps taken that is applied over the bondo that will make it last
not bondo

[AZFire316]

I know this thread is a little old now, but I can tell you that the coupes definatly have a drainage problem. I pulled mine down a little bit after a rain storm and a ton of water came rushing out from underneath. Luckly I'm in AZ no salt, other materials in there too, so no rust was under, but to be safe in the future, i just left the back half of the skirt open so that the water would have somewhere to drain out.

[meadus101]

When they do the "Rust Check" System. They actually drilldrailage points on cars.

So the back fender cover, and the side skirt are great places to start on our cars.

Just get a bit of touch up paint to put on the holes of the underside so you don't leave any exposed metal.

[AZFire316]

I didn't actually drill any holes in the skirt itself, just left the inner side open so water could rush out and not stay underneath. I'm not sure why GM would overlook such an obvious issue, especially for folks in the snow/salt areas.