EXT: The Rust Removal DIY

[damndamn]

Great diy I have a little over 1 year experience at a body shop and give you guys a tip if your lazy and go the other route. make sure that they do cut and weld a new piece in. numerous shops just sand and bondo and this is known to reappear and to add to that 90% of shops dont garantee rust work.

As for the diy'ers this may sound crazy but take a ice pick or a hammer with a sharp end and hammer around the sorrounding area of the obvious rust. I know what you're thinking "and put more damage on my freaking car hell no!"
NO. reason being is that rust spreads like cancer and isnt detectable all the time. so while youre fixing the most obvious piece of rust, surface rust could have spread more outwards and is planning its next attack.. ive seen this a hundred times
so just food for thought

[rjl]

I had my Accord fixed in the shop last spring. Here are pics of the quarterpanel and fenders before/after. The rusty spots were cut off and new pieces were welded in.



There were actually pieces of metal missing here:



These rustworks I did myself:

[aleks77]

this DYI can also be used for simple body dents too right? i mean its pretty simular.

[williamsvt]

im using this DIY right as we speak...i hope do be done with bondo and primer on thursday and then paint over the weekend.

[Boston1accord]

Wow

Thats cool I had some rust but I had a Parkinglot mechanic fix it and he did it the same way and told me to buy that spray to prevent any further rust. I have a little rust on my door that I'm going to do myself.

[Accord_exR]

can i use any kind of clear coat or do i need to buy the expensive auto spray clear coat?

[B-Nod]

Hi

Alright My rust is bad on both sides.. I took out int inside trunk and its on the inside walls also this is massive Re Sclupting..
there is even a hole LOL...

So i took it to someone he said 400$ he would re glass it?
IS this a good idea? or should I have metal replaced... Or does it matter...
The hole quarterpanel is rusted along the wheel and the lip is gone...
I mean this is bad I will take pics if peps want but...
What about Glass rebuild instead of using Welding and metal?
Any info will help as I am taking it sunday to have it done ty..

[Dhorn33]

I just spent the weekend fixing the rust on my 93 EX. Mine was a lot worse than what is shown in this thread but I think it turned out pretty well. Here are some things I can add:

- I used aluminum patches and short hair fiberglass to fill in the holes. I tried to completely fill the area behind the hole with the fiberglass - and then put some of the aluminum mesh to try to reshape the outside contour. I have been told that Bondo absorbs water and should only be used to make to smooth out the panel - not to fill holes. I think fiberglass is better suited for that.
- If you have a 4 door you can get a pretty good look at the inside of the usual bad area if you go in through the trunk and remove the antenna and the ABS unit. I had to go in through the backside in a few areas to rebuild the panel. Once I caked on a ton of fiberglass I sprayed the inside of the panel with rubberized undercoating to try to minimize future trouble.
- My car is a 93 EX Arcadia Green and the duplicolor touch up paint actually matches pretty well - with the clear coat. The finish is slightly different but I think once I have buffed it out it will look pretty nice. It sure beats looking at rust holes!
- If you have to rebuild the lower part where the bumper mounts you can use the aluminum mesh and fiberglass and it actually is pretty strong. Make sure you try to stick to the original contour as closely as possible or the bumper won't line up right. (ask me how I know this!)
It is super easy to remove the rear bumper to get better access to the entire panel to check other areas for damage and repair them. The extra 5 minutes this takes is well worth the time.

[Scubasteve_dan]

More shine

I found a good way to get more shine out of the finished paint blending. After you apply your paint, you should gently wetsand with 2000 grit paper, then you put on your clear coat(I did 4 thin layers with wetsanding between each coat), and after the clear coat spray you should take some rubbing compound or polishing compound and use a small applicator pad of some sort to buff it smooth. You may have to do it a couple of times to get that hazy look to go away. After that I used Meguires #5 new car glaze to polish it more.

DO NOT use a foam buffer wheel attached to a drill like I did unless you know how to do it right. I messed up and burnt the stuff a little bit and had to sand it of, this ruined my paint blending too(I'll have to do it again) . Rubbing it in with a microfiber cloth seemed to work good, I'd recomend that over a buffer wheel for newbs like me. Anyway it looks almost just like the original shine, so if I didn't mess up the polishing the first time around I would've had a nice rust repair. This is a really good diy, just make sure you have all the right tools and use common sense and it should turn out pretty good. Sorry if this was too long, I just wanted to recomend another method of shining things up more.

[cp[mike]]

this is a recent picture of the original car from this DIY. it even had been redone a couple times since this guide.

[img]http://www.****.com/pics/92exr/000_1297.JPG[/img]

[trcsbrian]

this is a recent picture of the original car from this DIY. it even had been redone a couple times since this guide.

[img]http://www.****.com/pics/92exr/000_1297.JPG[/img]

Thanks for the update mike . How often had you had to do it since you got the car? and is it rusting on the bondo or going straight to the metal? cuz im afraid that the rust is just going to keep getting higher and higher and its really gonna hurt that panel really badly. Just something I thought up right now since I plan on doing my own DIY as soon as the weather gets a bit better and as soon as the money comes.

[cp[mike]]

Thanks for the update mike . How often had you had to do it since you got the car? and is it rusting on the bondo or going straight to the metal? cuz im afraid that the rust is just going to keep getting higher and higher and its really gonna hurt that panel really badly. Just something I thought up right now since I plan on doing my own DIY as soon as the weather gets a bit better and as soon as the money comes.

as i understand it, steve had redone it a couple times since the guide was made. once i got the car, i only skimmed over it with a layer of bondo and paint, without actually grinding away the rust. didnt see the point in spending too much time on it, knowing it wouldnt help any.

bondo doesnt rust, the car just continues rusting where it left off, where the bondo meets the metal.

this DIY repair job is in NO way permanent. all it does it makes it look good and cover the rust, itll only hold you over until the rust pops through the paint again.

[rexload]

damn, that looks bad. I seriously thought it would have lasted a little longer. I thought he cut ALL the rust out of there?

[Alex13mod]

Well I did mine so far only needs to be painted now. Prob a lil more sanding..And um I need to get a exact paint color for this. So um once i get paid ill get the paint.

[Hondatuner998]

Great Diy for small amounts of rust. But me I have the end all be all worst rust