Quick rust 'cover up' with flashing?

[porcupine73]

I'm getting some rust holes now in the '96 rear doors near the bottom of the doors. The holes are probably 2 inches diameter or so now. I keep spraying rust treatments and stuff up inside there and it does seem to have slowed/stopped it from getting worse but now I am still left with the holes.

 

I remember years ago in high school my friend bought aluminum roof flashing the width of the bottom part of his rocker panels, and then cut it to length and riveted over the rusty area, then spray painted it to match his car. From a distance the repair looked great. Up close I mean it looked a little weird, what with all those rivets there and such, but it sure looked better than just leaving it rusty, and it seemed a lot quicker/easier to do than trying to bondo it.

 

Does anyone have experience/suggestions on this kind of 'cover up'? Thank you.

[MilesFox]

Trim out and scrape down any rust you can get at, and seal it up with a good enamel paint or por 15.

 

I have rebuilt door sills and rockers with aluminum roof skins from u-haul trucks. Personally, i like rivets and sheet metal vs sloppy bondo.

 

You can make a panel that futs just under the door trim and wrap it around the seam of the door and pop a rivet all the way through.

 

It would probably bebest to drill and pop your first rivet before drilling the rest of the holes. Pop your rivets as if it were a torque sequence, as the sheet metal can buckle and be wavy if you move too quickly or in the wrong order. work from the center out.

 

here are some examples of the work i have done:

[porcupine73]

Excellent, thanks for the pics and info. That's kind of what I am going for. It actually gives is good look just leaving the aluminum unpainted too. I'm just thinking it will be faster and easier to do that than trying to bondo anything. I've done some bondo in the past but I am always in too much of a hurry to get a good result, mine comes out wavy and uneven. Plus I know it's going to get wet behind that door panel more and the bondo I think will soak up that water.

 

Now that I think about it, my dad did something like that with the aluminum on an old Cadillac when I was a kid. He got old printing plates from the newspaper for free and used those for material. I think it was aluminum or some thin steel.

 

I really like your tip about wrapping the aluminum around the door panel and then riveting all the way through. That is going to be cleaner than trying to trim it to fit the outside. I just wasn't sure if there would be enough clearance for the door to still close right, but the aluminum is pretty thin so it shouldn't be a problem I would guess.

 

I'll have to see what materials I can find since I see the aluminum roof flashing has gone up in price quite a bit from what I remember from years back.

Edited July 29, 2010 by porcupine73

[porcupine73]

Hey do you just use a hand operated riveter to do that? I haven't used a riveter before. Or would it make it faster/easier to get one of the cheap pnuematic riveters from harbor freight? If this works out I'm going to do it on the '94 too.

[MilesFox]

I have had the luxury of using the u-haul hitch bay as the shop and access to tools and materials.

 

I used a pneumatic riveter. the one at u-haul was actually the harbor freight model (blue-grey hammered color). I used 3/16 x 1/2 and 3/4 rivets and 3/16 drill bit.

 

You might be able to buy rivets by the box at the u-haul if you ask the manager or the hitch guy. Although its not a normal sales item, they have the ability to sell it for retail if the manger choses to do so.

 

I would otherwise suggest semi trailer repair shops or rv shops for rivets if you cannot source a supplier.

 

go HF for the tool, but better for the rivets themselves.

 

Use aluminum since it is softer and hammerable. steel flashing can rip the holes out while drilling, and will tear if its too thin. the material i used was rather thick for sheeting, the flashing stuff at home depot will be much thinner for tight clearance.

[porcupine73]

Great thanks for the tips. Aluminum it is. I think my dad might still have some of those plates from the newspaper printing presses but I'll have to look around.

 

I know HF has that riveter on sale all the time, plus in lots of magazines they are running 20% off any item coupons, I know I've seen the coupon in Guns&Ammo and Motorcyclist in the last couple months.

 

I don't mind the rust holes too much but I was getting some flack at work for parking this 'rust bucket'. And wasps have been crawling up in the doors in the summer too.

[porcupine73]

I might have to do this on the hood too. Ok maybe that's a little too big an area. The hood on the '96 is having like a total paint system failure. It has major spiderwebs that appeared in the last year or two. Then I took it through this attended car wash last winter and they used a pressure washer on the front and it took out several good size pieces of the paint. The primer is still visible and it isn't rusting (yet).