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RUST REPAIRS PAGE 7
Friday night, January 21. I finished the last bit of sanding on the left rear arch and wanted to get some good epoxy primer on the bare metal before I had to deal with any surface rust.
The primer went on smooth, but showed a couple of spots that will need a little more sanding. But, the good thing is all the metal has primer on it so that gives me the time I need.
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Saturday I will head up to Conroe to buy another tube of glue. The next big step is the right dog leg. Now the fun begins!
Monday, January 22.
The following photos show the 4 steps I took on each section. Right or wrong, this is how I attacked Mr. Rust!
Driver's dog leg:
1. Remove all signs of rust inside and out, prepare with POR-15 Metal Ready, flush with lots of water.
2. Paint POR-15 inside and out. I used an airbrush to get into every corner.
3. I used used BONDO brand - Dynaglass. Fiberglass resin with large fiberglass strands throughout. File before it gets hard. Only takes about 15 - 20 minutes.
4. Fill with POR-15 StraightLine body filler. Sand, sand, sand..... Prime with Epoxy primer.
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Lower Nose Section: When I removed the bumper you couldn't see any signs of rust. No bubbles, etc. But, I hit it with the grinder looking for problems and look what I found.
Lower Nose: Same basic steps a above.
1. Remove all signs of rust inside and out, prepare with POR-15 Metal Ready, flush with lots of water. Used air nozzle to blow out all loose pieces of whatever the heck that stuff inside there is. I also used a needle grinder to open up the holes to get inside and make sure as much rust as possible was removed.
2. Paint POR-15 inside and out. I used an airbrush to get into every corner.
3. I used used BONDO brand - Dynaglass. Fiberglass resin with large fiberglass strands throughout. I used a pick to push the strands inside the holes. File before it gets hard. Only takes about 15 - 20 minutes.
4. Fill with POR-15 StraightLine body filler. Sand, sand, sand..... Prime with Epoxy primer.
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The windshield area is the biggest challenge so far. Not only because of the damage, but because it's not hidden behind a bumper and needs to seal. I tried to purchase some new metal for this, but no one in the States has this section. I had bought windshield repair metal The Bus Depot, but it didn't reach down far enough. I first tried to make a repair piece out of the metal left over from the wheel arches, but I couldn't get the curve right. I was using the windshield repair piece from The Bus Depot, when I realized, if I rotated the piece 180 degrees, and turned it upside down, it was basically the correct shape. Thinking this was my solution, I cut out the sheet metal. Once I had it in place, it didn't fit as well as I wanted. In the end, I used it as a backer and used the Dynaglass to build up the profile.
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1. Tiny bubbles
2. Look what was under that shiny red paint!
3. Metal cut out and using the flange tool to make a place for the metal to attach. I glued the section in the FUSOR 180 glue.
4. Dynaglass, then StraightLine filler.
5. Epoxy primer just to cover the bare metal. It still needs lots of sanding and shaping. I would recommend just removing the metal, treating everything for rust and using resin/fiberglass filler, then body filler. Replacing this piece of metal is very difficult since you cannot purchase a piece from any of the VW vendors I contacted. Allan Schofield shows this piece, but at $110++ and two months of shipping plus the cost of the shipping, I think repair not replace is the answer....