Repairing rust with Fiberglass?

[GTRON]

Thanks, they are the OEM JDM Vigor headlights, bumper lights, grill, and window visors.

And I agree a $1,200 car is not worth the money to fix the rust unless you bought the car as a show car project. Building a show car is always a case of throwing buckets of money at your vehicle without any expectation of a return on your investment. A daily driver is a different story. Typically people don't spend absurd amounts of money just to get from point A to point B. My current car is never going to be a show car, but at least I know all my bolt-on parts can be either taken off and sold for a return on my investment, or I can re-use them on another Vigor project when the time comes. Either way, I'm sure my fiberglass repair will last as long as I intend on driving this car.

There's no way my car will be a show car, LOL!
But I want have fun with this car, without spending thousands and thousands of dollars on it.

[oni_cb7]

sell it and buy one with less rust

fixed

[AccordWarrior]

sell it and buy one with less rust

fixed

Honestly...this.

You want to swap yours to manual, right?

A plane ticket to AZ would get you a rust free manual for not that much more than you'd probably spend to get yours where you want to be.

[GTRON]

Honestly...this.

You want to swap yours to manual, right?

A plane ticket to AZ would get you a rust free manual for not that much more than you'd probably spend to get yours where you want to be.

Of course I could always do that haha.

[kseriescivic]

Agreed. I found my car on Craigslist in Las vegas. It was the original owner that started it's life in California and then around 2007 made its way to vegas. Car has zero visible rust but I eventually found some between the rear window and trunk. Got a quote for around 500$ to fix it and then it should be rust free.

Sell car and find one in California

[GTRON]

So it begins! A little nervous about rebuilding it with fiber glass, mainly the bad side, where I'm going to need to get the bumper bracket in the exact same spot...

Here's some pics


Working on drivers side.. This side had the sleeper rust, I had no idea how bad this side really was till I started grinding away.


The worst of the rust, but thankfully It doesn't go much farther than what you can see from the outside. This is the part where I'm gonna have to get the bracket to line back up... Any tips?


Supplies, am I missing anything? (Resin gel behind the fiberglass mat)

[Vermonter]

Any progress?
I know how much this adventure sucks.

[GTRON]

Any progress?
I know how much this adventure sucks.

Haha, I don't enjoy taking a grinder to my car for sure, but I love getting rid of this rust! I can't wait for finished product

Here's some progress, it's been slow going, and we've been getting non-stop rain here in Kansas City for almost two weeks now.


I would like to ask, what did you do for primer? There's so many different kinds, from what I understand I need to put a etching primer over bare metal, then put a high-build primer over all of it to fill in small scratches? That's what I've done so far on that wheel well. I have undercoating done inside of the wheel well.
I had some weird stuff happening with the etch primer getting gooey then just scraping off while sanding, I'm pretty sure it's because of the high humidity we've been having...

Thanks for your advice, you're the reason I'm doing fiberglass!

[Vermonter]

Haha, I don't enjoy taking a grinder to my car for sure, but I love getting rid of this rust! I can't wait for finished product

Here's some progress, it's been slow going, and we've been getting non-stop rain here in Kansas City for almost two weeks now.


I would like to ask, what did you do for primer? There's so many different kinds, from what I understand I need to put a etching primer over bare metal, then put a high-build primer over all of it to fill in small scratches? That's what I've done so far on that wheel well. I have undercoating done inside of the wheel well.
I had some weird stuff happening with the etch primer getting gooey then just scraping off while sanding, I'm pretty sure it's because of the high humidity we've been having...

Thanks for your advice, you're the reason I'm doing fiberglass!

I used a rust reformer over the bare metal and let it sit for a couple days. When it was good and dry I just went over it with rustoleum primer.

[GTRON]

I used a rust reformer over the bare metal and let it sit for a couple days. When it was good and dry I just went over it with rustoleum primer.

Rustoleom for the win!!
This weekend is going to be gorgeous, I'm hoping to get alot done!

[GTRON]

Progress!

Got drivers side all in primer now! I still need to spray high build primer and sand out small imperfections. (There's my glass pack LOL.)



What I'm most excited about: Got my bumper mount thing fiberglassed in place tonight! This is the part that scared me most, getting this bumper mount in the right place! I took lots of measurements before I cut all the rust out, and got it back in the same position.



FYI, that's all from scratch right there. I had a sizable hole going into my trunk LOL. It's all rough/structure as of tonight. Tomorrow my goal is to get some body filler on there, and have my disc swap finished so I can drive to church Sunday morning.