Rear Quarter Rust Repair/No Welding
 

Hey everyone, check out this site I had recently stumbled upon. They claim to sell repair panels for the dreaded Honda cancer that so many of us are plague with and best of all no welding. Civic Duty LLC - Parts To Save Your Honda

To be clear, I'm not certain as of what to think of it yet, whereas I plan to see when they will have rear quarter panels for my 94 Civic VX.

It's not a bad idea at all. I'm favorable to those patches made out of fiberglass or carbon fiber, they not just avoid rust to come back but also save weight :thumbup:

I have some bubbling rust spots on both rear quarters. If these patches are everything that I hope, I plan to cut out the rust and sand everything else down to bare metal, before applying some Bill Hirsch Miracle paint to the surface. That before applying the patch panels.:thumbup:

Hmmm I don't see the benefit here. The panels are twice as expensive as metal panels from fixmyrust.com (for CRX), and you still need all the prep, cutting, filler, and finish work before you paint. If you really want to do it without welding, buy the metal panel, cut out the metal to fit the panel, and then fiberglass the metal panel on.

I need to do this on my truck for the cab corners and rear fenders. The welding is the easy part if you ask me. All the prep, filler, and paint work is the tough part.

I agree that it is in fact twice the price; but at the same time, this is a project that could go awry rather quickly, especially if you've never done something like this before. It's just striking me a simpler way of saving yourself from a lot of cussing a swearing from all sorts of variables that could go wrong.

I for one have not picked up a welder in years, and in regards to my project, I'm worried about the time it would take to drill out the right spot welds, or warping the sheet metal with the welder. For me, this would be a solo project.

body adhesive might be an alternative to welding.

The meeting point or the outer wheel well and the 1/4 panel are an integral part of the unibody and provide stuctural rigidity to the whole rear of the unibody. Is it that hard to find someone to weld in the metal panels? A decent mig welder is not expensive and it's very easy to use, only needs 110 volts. You don't just weld in the panel. You do spot welds to minimize the warpage of the metal. Probably 1.5 hours of welding on each quarter panel.Check your local craigs list to see if anyone can weld in the panels. The biggest time consumer is the preparation and finishing after the repair. I've seen factory produced fiberglass on metal panels fail from different expansion characteristics.

If it was mine I would weld in the repair panels. You never lay a bead and keep going, you spot weld them spacing the welds apart a couple of inches then come back and spot again, never welding two spots close together.

regards
Mech

I have repaired rusted out motorcycle gas tanks with a product called e-spirit if I recall. It is water based and works over night. As for large holes though I would likely braze, weld, or rivet + RTV depending on the desired surface.

I have considered a combination of mig welding and panel bond adhesive; but then I started wondering if an actual spot welder would work. I'm certain that I could rent a portable one. Any thoughts on that idea?

It's not so unusual in my country, I have seen some wrecked cars which had more Araldite and other contact adhesives than welding spots :eek: