Fixing some rust on the Metro

[kafer65]

If you are still using regular steel wire from a MIG welder you would still need to protect the welded areas from rust with paint. I did this when I welded stainless bolts to the underside of my mirror delete plates. I have one spot weld that penetrated well enough that it rusted on the outside a bit.

[Daox]

I could even weld with stainless wire. However, I'm not really looking to keep this car for forever. I'm just looking to fix up the gaping holes so it doesn't degrade further. At most I imagine I'll have it another 1-2 years.

[Daox]

More work done. The driver's side is thankfully approaching the finish line. I hope to finish it up tomorrow.

So here is how we started tonight. Its difficult to see but there is a smaller hole behind the front tire, and then a long one behind that that needs new steel.




This is the forward hole.





I got it welded up and ground down. I didn't bother grinding down the welds you can't really see.





Then I shot it with primer.





Here is the forward side of the rear hole. Its quite long. I decided to patch the first part of it up to the little step you see.





I didn't get a shot of the sheet metal welded in, but I got it in, ground down, and primed.

[Daox]

Wooo, yay another update. The driver's side rocker is nearly done. I just have to slap a coat of undercoating on it.

The first panel I put in tonight I got fancy with. I bent a nice lip on it so it matched the rest of the car. This took a while to fit up, but it matched pretty good. I just used my vise and bent it with my hands.





Tacked it in.





Welded it up and ground it down.





The second panel I didn't care about quite as much. You can't really tell a difference if its bent or not once you're standing by the car, so I blended it a little and kept most of it flat.





Weldy weldy.





Here is the last piece tacked into place.





And its all welded up, yay.





One more shot of primer on everything. In a few minutes I'll go back out to clean it up and shoot some undercoating on it. Just needed to kill some time until then so I posted the pics.





As mentioned, it looks far from perfect. The undercoating should really help smooth out things in the looks department. I also will still need to order some color matched paint for the door jam area as I got primer up there.

[pgfpro]

Looks good

[Daox]

Thanks, its taken quite a bit more time than I hoped, but its at least halfway done!

Here is a bad picture of the rubberizing job. I'll have to get one in the daytime to get a good picture.

[deejaaa]

that looks great.
i think i could have saved my 81 truck if i would have had the skill, time, money and age. that was a long time ago.

[Daox]

Here are some day time pictures. Its hard to see the detail... but thats how it really is when you look at it standing next to the car too.

I just ordered a color matched aerosol can for fixing up the primer area as well as the rear quarter panel and the spot on the hood.

[deejaaa]

looks really good.

[MetroMPG]

Nice work. Years from now, that rebuilt rocker will be the last piece remaining of the whole car!

You should weld yourself a set of wheel covers!