Before:


After:



Thats what happened for riding on 245 45 18s while lowered.Scraped the paint right off.

 

Doesnt look that bad till taken apart.


Grinded down the welds and started peeling the inside sheetmetal


Took a small grinder to all the rust.

 

Single coat of "etch" primer.



Beat it shut.


Seam sealer

 

Filled all the gap with the seam sealer.Being carefull not to leave any gaps for moisture to get in.


Scuffed the inside of the wheelwell with 3M red suff pad for adhesion of rubber undercoating.Thought I took a picture of the can but didnt.So 2 coats of that.



Thats pretty much it.Just needed some paint afterwards.Didnt even mess up the sheetmetal on the outside.

 

Questions and comments are welcome.Now all I need to do is get inside the trunk and spray a "wax" to seal off moisture from the inside.Before anyone asks,Im not doing this to your car.Just posted to show a permanent repair can be done.

 

You are the man! I was about to ask if anyone had encountered this same issue and how they solved it. Thanks a bunch man!

 

No prob.
Shaved tab for tire rubbage.


Solved muffler rubbing issue with hoseclamps.


No more plate rattle with sound deaden block plus velcro plus expanding foam.

 

More useful cheep mods. I'll employ some of them when I switch to a 245mm tire

 

Looks good. I'm going to have to get on this repair myself before much longer.

 

excellent write up bro

 

Thanks fellas.

 

Looks Great man! Did it the right way!

 

nice work body man,

 

You definately took it to the step I wanted to, but have been unable to due to lacking tools.

So you can pry those two "pieces" of metal apart so you can get at all that crappy rust? I was worried that because they were welded/rivited and I would cause body panel damage beyond the rust (bend marks, wrinkles in the metal). I dont have access to body shop tools/materials.

How bad is it to "pop" those welds and rivits? I am assuming you used a body hammer to mate the two pieces of metal back together? What tool/how did you peel the two pieces apart without damaging/warping the metal?

So you:

• ground the rivits
• peeled the metal
• ground the rust off in the now open gap.
• applied zinc
• beat the two pieces back together
• Applied seam sealer
• Applied 3M Rubberized Spray

Is that seam sealer like latex caulk? Or a much harder substrate? Reason I ask is why didnt you seam sealer then press the two panels together and then seam seal again?

 

man, dont i wish i knew body work... ghey!!! lol... nice work man

 

yeah deff good work man like that plate idea too

 

Yea all the quarter lip is two pieces of metal welded together.What I did was grind away at the lip till the welds were no more.If you wanted to separate them without doing all that you can drill the just dimples out .Wasnt worried about the metal distorting onthe inside since it isnt seen anyways.Seam sealer and undercoating covers all the flaws.

To separate the metal I used a small screwdriver to get the gap started and then some small needle nose pliers to tug at the inside layer.The outer layer I was careful not to mess with because I didnt want to respray the whole outside quarter.The picture shows the outside wheelwell wasnt distorted at all.

Any semi pointy hammer will work.Wasnt going for perfection.Yea Colonel,That list pretty much describes all the steps.The only thing that should have been done different is keep the grinder moving while getting the rust out.I let it get too hot and the paint started bubbling on the outside.Luckily it was still inside the lip so all it took was a little sanding and paint.

The seam sealer used dries to what I would equal to a tennis shoe sole.Cant squeeze it once its dry.Which it does quickly.It should be fine though.Just gotta get some "cavity wax" sprayed from inside the trunk.

Im not a bodyman ,just a painter with access to tools and some free time everyone once in a while.

 

DAMN YOU SNOW/SALT
Next Project: Fix the curbage on those wheel my man
Good job on the rust repair tho.

 

nice job

 

good job

 

Stuff sprayed from inside the trunk into the wheelwell.

 

Rust FTL my 01 is just starting in the exact same spot.
Hose clamps FTW!!! Instead of having my B-Pipe hanger re-welded every 4months, finally clamped the SOB down to a metal cross bar.

 

Hate that chit.Cant believe its a fad now.Not the best example,just a quick yahoo image search.

 

Excellent write-up. What are your thoughts of using the POR (Paint over Rust) product in the process?

 

Should be fine.

 

your a true do-it yourselfer. Mine unfortunately has a more serious cancer.

 

Good work. Me no rust yet

 

squirrel, how are your fenders holding up after 2 years?

 

Excellent write up op, I like learning about body work products , its the one automotive trades I can't seem to master. Body work isn't easy for those who never tried it.

As far as rust preventive paint, por 15 is great, and I just recently tried master series silver which is a product from a small company that the vintage vw guys swear by cost much less then por too. I love toyota trucks so I'm always battling with rust and etc.

 

nice write up good pics nice man,7 out of 10 max's in my area (01 to 03) have the exact same rust spot, including me it sucks, but nice job man

 

this is my biggest question. by the looks of your work it would far supersede any comparable shop doing the same work,
so yeah im completely wondering how its holding up !

 

Holding up so far



Hood is rotting from the inside out though.

 

How are you liking the master series silver? I used POR15 on my maxima last year along the lip which runs along the bottom sides of the car, where you jack from. It seems to have held up decently so far. However my maxima is now my winter car, so I haven't had a chance to look at it since about 4 months ago.

 

I lucked out with a rust free 89 hardbody.Waited years before my friend finally let it go.

 

Looks awesome after 2 years. How did you manage to seperate the lips apart initially to grind them and paint them? Did you use any special tools?

 

Took a grinder to the lip edge shaving it down little by little till the spot welds that hold the metal together were gone.Then jammed a screwdriver in the crack to start spreading the metal.Finished pulling with pliers tugging the inner lip.So no ,no special tools besides the grinder.