When your fabrication and welding skills start to progress you’ll get to a point where not much scares you as far as repair goes. Whether it’s rust or just old body damage anything can be fixed with enough time and skills. Over the past few years I’ve started to get myself to that point where I often have to approach a rusty panel with the question “Is it worth my time to fix it?”. The answer can differ for many reasons. Is the panel easily available aftermarket or good used? How expensive are the panels? How soon do I need it versus how long it takes to get a replacement part?
Tag: Rust Repair
How to Fabricate a Cowl Panel From Scratch
I somehow ended up with this ’29 Model A Roadster carcass I want to build a little replica-racer out of. It was cheap, the bones were there and I figured I could build it up when I found some non-existent free time. I’m a little stubborn and although I could buy an entire new steel replica body, or all of the panels new to make this car all solid again, I’d rather build the panels I need from scratch and bring a close to 90-year old car back from the dead for very little money out of my pocket. I decided I wanted to start in the front of the body and work my way back. The side cowl panels are almost ALWAYS rotted out on the bottom of these cars and after I looked at the remains of the originals I decided I could easily tackle making new panels for only a few bucks in sheet metal.
Which Seam Sealer and When to use
Just like when priming and painting your car there are a lot of choices when it comes to picking a seam sealer when refinishing or repairing your project. Seam sealer is made to cover and seal areas where panels may have been welded or overlapped. It will keep the seam from getting moisture in between panels and rusting out. As long as you use the correct seam sealer and prepared the panel correctly it will last the lifetime of the vehicle. We decided to cover the seam sealers that we offer and their best applications.
Tips to Making Custom Floor Pans for your Car
Mark recently decided to take on a resto-mod oddball in a Chevy Corvair. This neglected Chevy bastard-child was rescued from a local scrap yard and had seen some questionable repairs and better days. His first step in the rebuild of the car was getting the structure of the car rebuilt and solid before he started customizing the car. The first area of concern was the floor; or lack of it.
Complex Rust Patch Panel Made Easy
At times rust repair can be ultra simple; cut the old rust out, cut a square of fresh metal and weld it in. But those repairs aren’t usually as frequent as we’d like. Rust seems to like to creep into a curved area or into a body line that takes more care to repair. I recently decided to tackle a large rusty area of the rear portion of the floor on Project Pile House.
Buyers Guide: When to Use Rust Encapsulator VS. Rust Converter
Our tech team answers a lot of technical calls and emails each day, and there are a lot of common questions asked and advice given. Many of them are about when and where to use our different coatings and paints. Rust products might be the most confusing as far as […]
5 Easy Ways to Strengthen Sheet Metal
When you get a piece of flat sheet metal it tends to be very weak and it can be bent quite easily. So if it is so weak, why do we use this stuff for the bodies of our cars? Why not a heavier metal like metal plate? If we did that our cars would all be styled like and as heavy as a tank! This means none of those beautiful curves you see on classic cars (I don’t want to live in that world!).
Stop the Rust- How to Fix Rust Spots on your Car
If you own anything made of metal there’s a chance you’re going to fight rust sometime in your life. If you own a car that’s more than a few years old there’s an even larger chance rust will creep into your life (there’s a pun there). I decided to break down some common misconceptions about rust and give you a broad overview on how to fix those small rust spots on your car.
Hands On Cars Ep. 4 – Replacing a Rusty Roof
In this episode Kevin is all about undoing the errors of some previous owner of the Zed Sled Camaro Z28. He finishes up with the rust replacement on the bottom of the car, and tackles the cause of all the rot in the first place: A leaking aftermarket sunroof installation.