My husband's car had developed a large rust hole in the fender under the gas cap.
It needed to be fixed before the winter, and my husband hadn't had the free time to repair it himself; and I didn't want to pay the $150-200 to have it done by a body shop.
So I figured I'd do it myself and surprise him.
It needed to be fixed before the winter, and my husband hadn't had the free time to repair it himself; and I didn't want to pay the $150-200 to have it done by a body shop.
So I figured I'd do it myself and surprise him.
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Signing UpStep 1: Scrape and sand
The first step was to scrape off the loose paint surrounding the rust spot, and to sand off most of the rust.
I found, under the outer layer of metal, what I thought were additional layers of rusted, chipping metal, was actually dense foam padding. I scraped the rest of the metal chips off of the foam. I then taped off the area, and sprayed it with a rust treatment.
Following the directions on the can, I allowed the rust treatment to remain on overnight before I continued. (Rust treatment goes on clear, dries black.)
On day 2, I again sanded around the area, removing paint around the hole to prepare it to be built up. For rust and paint removal, I used a 60 grit sandpaper.
I found, under the outer layer of metal, what I thought were additional layers of rusted, chipping metal, was actually dense foam padding. I scraped the rest of the metal chips off of the foam. I then taped off the area, and sprayed it with a rust treatment.
Following the directions on the can, I allowed the rust treatment to remain on overnight before I continued. (Rust treatment goes on clear, dries black.)
On day 2, I again sanded around the area, removing paint around the hole to prepare it to be built up. For rust and paint removal, I used a 60 grit sandpaper.
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cal_gecko - the site has a "...'be nice' comment policy. Please be positive and constructive with your comments or risk being banned from our site. " I don't believe your post was any of these...
Also, this instructable was very well written, she should be writing manuals! Excellent job.
One comment .. I think she underestimated the cost of a "professional" job by a factor of 3 to 5, depending on how "professional" the professional is. It costs soooo much money to get body work done.
ps. My husband and I owned an auto repair shop for over 20 years, and we made a lot of money fixing the repairs done by "professionals".
But if you never try, then you never learn anything!
that means a lot coming from someone with 20 years of experience!!
You SHOULD be proud.
How many husbands have such a smart and capable wife?
More women should be willing to know how to fix things.
You can't always be sure there is a man around to do it for you.
And of course, the 'retail' market for fixing things (if you can even find anyone to really fix something) is absurdly costly.
We are a throw away society and will soon drown in our own junk.
Good for you on this well done instructable.
Let's hope it encourages more women to follow suit.
I bet he is very proud. I know I would be.
Cheers,
Jesse M.
If I had the $200 to take it to a body shop, I would. Unfortunately, a cosmetic problem on my old, scratched up car has been at the bottom of a list of things to pay for ever since the hole you see was just some bubbled paint and light rust. That's about 3 years. We have a family of five budgeted to the hilt and making do on a single income. So the choice wasn't body shop or me. The choice was me or nothing. And I don't figure another winter of snow and ice and road salt getting into that hole was going to be much better than fixing it myself.
This is instructables. If people have the money to pay someone to put in their patio, or build them a chicken coop, or retile their bathroom, there's a good chance they'd write a check and be done with it. And the quality would be better. And it would be worth the money.
But $60 and 4 or 5 hours of my time was worth it.
Try not to be so harsh on the do-it-yourselfers on a DIY website.
You are handling the creepy dudes and mansplainers better than most would.
Way to be.
I guess, the body shop would charge the author for each position in a long itemized list, like "unmounting the gas tank filling neck" (and then "mounting the gas tank filling neck"), "applying a layer of anti-corrosive mixture", and so on. Plus, I doubt that they would paint just the spot. Most probably, they would paint the whole panel= primer+2-3 layers of paint + 2-3 layers of clear coat, and the price would be closer to $400 (I know that one can re-paint the car for $300 but this is a discount price for ~1.5 layer painting and nothing else).
Thanks for a great Instructable.
Since he was the one who told me to post on here, and he watches my page, I think you just told him for me! :D
It might not be a professional repair, but then, you're not a professional body repairwoman. Just the fact that you had the thought to do this, then on top of that, taking the initiative to get it done... What a woman!
Drill a hole or two to secure it to the steel at the bottom of the rust hole. Use sheet metal screws. Apply rust sealer, bondo as usual.
Again I admire ambition in this. and you did a good job with what you had to work with. If you don't try you wont learn.
Don't Stop trying, keep at it.
Would you explain more about the internal and external panels, and the foam, and what your recommendation would be?
It's also possible, though messier, to work directly with fiberglass and liquid resin instead of Bondo. The advantage is that the resulting patch is stronger, but it won't look as nice, you'll need to use a power sander, and definitely you'll want a dust filter while you're sanding. We had to patch some serious holes in non-cosmetic structural places once on a very used car, and we just piled on the fiberglass, layer after layer, binding to rough-sanded metal edges, and when we were done, we laid down rusty-metal primer, then roofing tar.