Rust Repair And Restoration - Busted The Rust

After that, we welded in the final section of missing sheetmetal just past the wheelhouse. We left extra material at the bottom that we will trim off at the point where it connects to the quarter-panel. Now we could begin to treat the area prior to hanging the quarter back on. We first took a wire brush to all the loose rust and scale.

We then treated the whole area with Eastwood's Fast Etch rust converter. It's really easy to use: spray or brush it on, let it sit for half an hour, and wipe clean with a towel and some Eastwood PRE solvent cleaner.

To keep this area from rusting again, we sprayed it with a couple of coats of Rust-Oleum. Then we clamped our outer wheelhouse in place with vise grips to verify that the quarter-panel fit over it correctly.

We clamped the quarter-panel back on the car and were grateful to see that the wheel opening in the quarter matched up the wheelhouse.

We pulled the quarter back off, drilled some holes in the mounting flange on the outer wheelhouse, and plug-welded it onto the car. This is as far as we got before we had to break off the attack to come back to the office and write the article. To finish, we will plug-weld the quarter on at the top of the bed, along the bottom at the rocker panel, and at the back by the taillights. But we'll flange- and stitch-weld it at the B-pillar. Once we grind the welds and Bondo the seam, our repair should be factory fresh.