May you Rust In Pieces….

[Chris]

Hi guys !

I live in the eastern part of Quebec,Canada, so we have loads of snow in winter and they use calcium alot to melt the ice on the roads… our cars get rusty very fast.

Now, I’d like to fix the rear fender lips (right term ?) on my car as it’s falling in rusty dust very fast.

Here’s a pic of the driver’s side :
http://i43.tinypic.com/v7ckjn.jpg

Any tips or tricks to fix that ?

Topic

[Flemming Jacobsen]

Grind the paint down, cut the panel off and get a replacement panel would be best solution, unless you want to fix it on the cheap?

[Chris]

Knowing the car is 220 000Km, it’s a 2002, it won’t last another 10 years unfortunately (Most reliable car I owned so far…)

Are there any remplacement lips I can get somewhere ?

[gregjacobson]

hi there ,
in my youth in the rust belt( northern michigan ) . on multiple ford trucks, we would cut the rusted part of the metal out . taking time to remove ALL of the surface rust that we did not cut out , properly sand the paint off up to 4″ around area to be fixed( bare metal !). after your prep job is completed . i would find a piece of sheetmetal , we have used old road signs , old car hoods , anything thin… make a patch as close as you can to the piece you cut out … but BIGGER . find a way to slide the metal UNDER the existing quarter panel , taking time to line stuff up as close as you can . using sheet metal screws or rivets , secure the patch UNDER ( i cannot stress that enough 🙂 )the metal you cut out . using fiber glass body filler put on one layer of filler over the area , let it set up . now this is important to get a result you like , either grind the rivet heads or carefully remove the sheet metal screws. continue using fiber glass until it is close to the original ( possible 1 or 2 more coats) making sure to cover the small holes you created . then it is to the normal non fiber glass filler , prime , sand , paint , ect ect … now that i am an adult and actually restore cars and am i painter by trade i would “NEVER” :whistle: DO ANYTHING LIKE THIS 😉 .. and it is fairly labor intensive ,especially forming fiberglass filler .. BUT if you take your time you can make your car look substantially better . it will never be a permanent fix , but i have done it with good success when either i was broke or the vehicle was not worth a whole lot of money ..good luck

[Author]

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