Body work suggestions

[jcrules78]

Hi, I own a 2000 Alero GL Coupe. I have put off fixing a rust spot that formed on what would be the rear quarter area right after the door and just above the side skirting. Now I have noticed a small hole developing and rust bubbles appearing under the paint behind the bare spot going all the way to the rear right tire. I was wondering if anyone here has done their own body work and what products they might suggest. There is a small hole, so I am wondering if I should buy some sort of product to patch it, and if so, what do people suggest. I also am looking for a good quality paint that is a near perfect match for the stock silvermist metallic (code U 331D) color. I know that some of the paints out there are crap. I am just a backyard mechanic, so I don't have access to a paint sprayer, so I will need paint I can apply by brush or spray can. Finally, if the repair job comes out looking cruddy, I might try and find some sort of decal, vinyl or decorative panel to place along the base of the doors above the skirts. Anybody know of a company that makes nice looking decals/vinyls for Aleros? Thanks in advance for any opinions/suggestions.
JCRULZ

[bdyman]

ok first off its called a rocker panle molding, now the only correct way to remove rust is A. sand blasting B. removing the rust with a grinder
if there is a hole we replace the old metal, with new metal, we cut the old metal out, make a template, weld in new metal, it looks easy but its not, and why would you cover bad body work with some sort of decretive panel......lol
if you have no expereicne in body work, you need it you need the tools to remove the rust, you need the metal fab`n experience you need welding experience, body work is not as easy as it seems
so for you i suggest to go around and ask for a price

[cherrington17]

or if your naturally talented, give it a whirl... then after you botch it (if you do) get it done professionally.


gotta learn somehow.

[Mr_Reed]

just bondo it lol

[AlbinoMonkeyRat]

OMFG he did not just say Bondo. LOL

listen to bdyman. he knows his shit. sometimes he's grumpy, but don't let that fool you. in terms of bodywork, the man is a genius. (his screen name is not for laughs, like mine)

[billytheman1188]

yea, you cant just throw bondo over it, cause once rust starts, it wont stop. So patching it up to look nice wont do anything. Cutting out all the metal that is rusted is how you do it. like bdyman said, grind it down.....or sand blast it. make sure you do it the right way, or it will come back :-)

[AlbinoMonkeyRat]

Ideally, you could mold the doors and make them out of fiberglass. light weight, and dent-proof. (unforunately, it could crack with a hard enough hit)

**forgot this was a panel issue...not the doors...but either way....you get the idea.**

[[ion] C2]

Por 15 is the answer to everything.

[bdyman]

i agree por-15 is a awesome product, yrs ago we used it to do restoration work, awesome stuff
my pooint on someone fixing it them selves is this, sure go right ahead, try it out, but when you warp the panle tryin to weld, or dont prep the panle correctly before you apply any type of repair material
and it comes to me all butchered, all its going to do is cost more money because then we have to remove everything that you did and start all over again

and yes i can be grouchy, but i tell the truth/give correct advice

[jcrules78]

Hey grouchy is fine as long as the good advice is coming along with it. I have done some of my own work here and there, but I have always been told to stay the hell away from body work because it is a nightmare if you don't know jack about it. And I definitely don't know jack. What kills me is I know that I am going to end up paying 500 bucks at minimum for any body work that involves metal removal and fab. That is a tough pill to swallow, but I am still paying on the car, and I need this baby to last my wife another couple of years. So taking it somewhere is probably going to be my best bet here. Thanks guys.
JCRULZ

[twindows]

Tried to delete this one, sorry

[twindows]

I just repaired the same rust that you are talking about, on both sides. Well, I kind of repaired. When I took off the plastic rocker cover I found a whole lot more rust then expected, and I expected a lot. It seems that most two doors that I see are rusting in those places now. Mine was packed with mud/dirt/sand from not having big enough water drain holes.

Since I'm more then likely the last owner of this car I don't care if the body work is perfect. I'm also no good at all with finish work. In short, I cut out as much of the rust as I could then riveted a shaped panel in place.

I used body seam sealer between the panel and the body along with small stainless steel rivets. Then I drilled 7/16" drian holes that should have been there to begin with. I used a stuff called Rust Bullet inside and out. It's like Por-15 but doesn't seem to flake off of clean metal like Por-15 can. I know Por-15 very well because I have an old Jeep that's held togather with it.
After all that was done I taped off a strip about 1/2 inch above the repair all the way down the sides. Then painted the rocker on the car and the plastic rocker cover using black texture chip guard. Several coats of the texture paint helps hide the panel and rivets.

It's quick and sloppy but it doesn't look as bad as it sounds. You actually have to look hard to notice the repair since it curves under a bit. In my opinion the black rocker panel kind sharpens up look of the car too. I don't have any pictures.

[bdyman]

i give it about 3 months and you will see the rivets, and yes it does sound like you hacked your car, if its one thing i hate its people hacking a car
if ya did it the correct way it would last allot longer, and probabaly not look like it was slapped on
its a pet peeve of mine, i had to redo so many cars like yours and it is like why not do it the right way the first time, so they come to me and bitch and moan about paying all this money, lesson learned i guess

[twindows]

Did it it again, how do you actually delete a double post?

[twindows]

Originally Posted by bdyman

i give it about 3 months and you will see the rivets, and yes it does sound like you hacked your car, if its one thing i hate its people hacking a car
if ya did it the correct way it would last allot longer, and probabaly not look like it was slapped on
its a pet peeve of mine, i had to redo so many cars like yours and it is like why not do it the right way the first time, so they come to me and bitch and moan about paying all this money, lesson learned i guess

Sorry to offend you with how I fixed it but you missed my point. I don't like doing finish work and I don't have the equipment to do finish work. If I wanted it perfect and thought that my car is worth the $ to make it perfect, I'd pay someone to make it perfect.

You should be happy to earn all that work from people like me who hack up their cars and have you fix them. I assume that you charge $ for your work, right? The last thing that I want to do give my hard earned money to someone who does not appreciate my money as much as I do. Don't worry about having to redo my car. You would not be hired to redo my hack job if I decided to have it redone. Keep up that kind of attitude toward your work and sooner or later you won't have to worry about working on anyone's car.

Anyway, the rivets don't show up any more after several years then they do when the repair is new. I've been hacking on my Jeep in this exact same manner for close to 10 years now. It has 196,000 miles. I still wheel it off-road and drive in the winter over salted roads. The repairs I do are to prevent it from rusting again. This involves making sure that water has a place to drain and that the metel is properly cloated. It's a simple plan and it looks good enough to me. It's mine to hack if I want to.

Here's a photo of my Jeep. I'm making clearance for the hatch after an encounter with a big rock. The rear quarters were almost gone. I repaired them exactly as described above around 9 years ago. There are rivets under under black texture coating. Please show me where the repair has failed.

http://s278.photobucket.com/albums/k...=Dsc05998a.jpg

[bdyman]

i work in a shop, and yes i can say that becasue when the rust comes back and the hack work comes back that they did, i fixed way to many cars that have been hacked up and people get pissed off about the money that has to be spent to fix it the right way, no dont worry your way on the west coast so i wont ever see you or your car,
i get paid commission on a 40%split, i say that becasue of allot of cars i fixed were so hacked up, sometimes i had to remove core supports, due to a tech hacking a car out the door,, rust work coming back so bad it was worse then what the customer did, i will never loose money when i work i always make money when i work, even when i have to re-do someones hack job