Rust Carnage and Fixing (Finished! 8/19/10)

[LeSabre in Buffalo]

Here's some rust carnage on my 1999 Buick LeSabre. It's not pretty. Fortunately the inner rockers are in okay shape. Unfortunately the structure is getting eaten away, so this car isn't much longer, despite what I can clean up.

I've cut away much of the rusted outer rocker, and have started cleaning up the inner portion. I'm wire-wheeling the really loose stuff, and will hit it with a compressed air source to blow out what I can't get with the wheel.

The plan right now is to prep and POR-15 the stuff I can see, fish around with the daubers they sell for the stuff I can't, hope enough is covered by enough coats, and then put slip-on rockers on somehow. Welding is out since there's no good metal to weld to underneath, so rivets and body adhesive will have to suffice.

Now for some carnage pictures. This is after cutting away the old panel, and starting on the cleanup. They're in no particular order.

[PRD2BDF]

Holy crap. I don't know how much longer that ol' car has...

[LeSabre in Buffalo]

Good news: the replacement rockers arrived today. They sent me 2 passenger panels instead of a drivers and passengers. The passenger panel can be formed to fit the drivers side, though. So that's good.

I'm POR-15'ing right now.

[GM Collector]

Hey dude, I am in the same boat.

Hidden underneath my car is a nightmare. Here's my pics.

Driver side looking toward the rear



Passenger side looking towards rear



Passenger side showing engine cradle mount



Drivers door jamb



Passenger door



Passenger side rear sway bar mount



Driver side rear sway bar mount



Rust spreading from rot hole on top of the wheel well in trunk



Rear of the backseat



Inside passenger rear wheel well



Under backseat on passenger side



Driver side backseat floor rust spreading from the rocker



Surface rust on the trunk floor



Did you end up going with fix my rust?

[LeSabre in Buffalo]

Yes, I did. The panels were shipped quickly, and look to be decently-made, if a bit thin, and needing holes drilled for the door weather stripping. I held them up to eyeball the fit, and they match. These will also be cleaned, and POR-15'ed to outlast the car. I'll get pictures of the panels shortly.

[Jrs3800]

Wow you guys and the Salt States.... Brutal...

[laxmangl]

they dont call it the rust belt for nothing.

[LeSabre in Buffalo]

Yep. Love the road salt, and drain on the wallet it causes.

Today I hit the rust with rust converter, as I wasn't impressed with Metal Ready. I'm letting it dry, then stripping the interior tomorrow, putting in towels over the holes, and hitting it with more degreaser to clean up everything. Then when everything's dry, it'll be POR-15'ed. I can't find my paint mask, so I'll have to pick one up.

I also think I'll run to Lowe's for some Peel and Seal to apply over the rust holes to seal them better than otherwise could be done. And some panel adhesive from a local auto body supply store, as I think that's the best way to get a water-tight, permanent bond over the rust.

This is adding up to $400-500, and a lot of time. Oh well, at least it's worthwhile for having the car survive another few years.

[Jrs3800]

That is True Dave... I had no idea the rust was soo severe..

[gorin002]

thats metal it rust i this rust from inside,anny other parts with rust
i notice all door ?

i had bit of rust advice me buy liquid convert rust in to sold metal thats what i had

[sandrock]

If a Florida car looked like that, it would be junked. I dare not show any pics of my rockers as they are right now...you would kill for what it looks like right now

[LeSabre in Buffalo]

LOL! Brad, your car's underside can be eaten off of. Sadly, there are LeSabres driving around Buffalo looking worse than that. I see 1-2 a day with rockers looking far worse. Looking at one up close told me how deep to cut the outer skin, lol!

What was happening was the rocker skins were holding water in there, so it rusted everything. There's a nice pile of rusty metal beside the car, and two lines of rust chips (too big for flakes, waah!) where I cut away. Pictures will be up in the next few days.

And I found out a friend of the family who did auto body in high school (just graduated) is available, so I'm soliciting some more educated advice. I hope this kid can weld...

[spydog]

wow that is in bad condition whar du u guys live? how meany miles are on the car? i live in wisconsin and am on my 4 th bonneville and the rorst rust i have had is the gas door but all bonneville gas doors rust out

[LeSabre in Buffalo]

I live in western New York. There's a lot of salt used here....

I picked up some Lord Fusor body panel adhesive from a local body supply shop. If you haven't heard of panel adhesive, it's what body shops use to put new panels on after collisions. This compound is Ford, GM, and Chrysler recommended, and will let the metal fail before it fails. It's dangerous stuff, so gloves and a respirator are highly suggested.

Interior is out, I'm about to clean everything up, and wait for the POR-15 to dry to put the panels on.

[LeSabre in Buffalo]

More pictures. I'm grinding and prepping. The rust is far worse than I thought. I may put in some panels into the inside to reinforce and sandwich the rust so it has some structure underneath the pretty new skin.

Picture time:



This was a bear. Thank the deities for impact wrenches!


Fender area:




Fender bottom:


Some progress:


Time to get back at it. There's a lot left to do.

[enslow]

Wow, you've got some rust in some structural areas too. (Driver side looking toward the rear image). I was wondering if you could section out the rusted area to restore the affected areas. I suppose you could, but here are the official sectioning for the inner door frame:

http://www.goodwrench.com/gmgoodwrenchj ... _616KB.pdf

(p. 3-4)
I have a funny feeling this is not what you really want to do....

[LeSabre in Buffalo]

I tried cutting out the inner metal. That's some tough, tough metal! My angle grinder didn't dent it. So I got some fiberglass cloth, POR-15'ed the metal, laid some fiberglass over it, then coated with more POR-15. The POR-15/fiberglass combination is supposed to be pretty strong and long-lasting.

That was about it for tonight. I'm letting the fiberglass cure, then attacking the rest tomorrow. Hopefully the panel will be on and curing by this time tomorrow.

[LeSabre in Buffalo]

That fiberglass cured nicely. It's very hard now.

The metal is soaking in the Metal Ready now. The whole POR-15 system is a pain to follow for large areas, and takes a lot of time.

[LeSabre in Buffalo]

I was busy putting POR-15 over the inner rocker, fiberglassing the holes, painting more POR-15, then shaping the panel, prepping by grinding, more prepping, read the adhesive instructions, prep some more, then:



I had about 12 clamps on the panel. The clamps were on overnight to be sure.

And...


Panel on, waiting for another coat of clearcoat. It's close enough in color ;-).

[PRD2BDF]

You should paint the entire lower rockers (around the car) the same color that way, it looks like it was intended to be that way.