IMPALADAKID

So I was besides myself when I discovered the rust on the lower inner door. I was even more mad when I found the rust had started to migrate to the outside panel on the drivers door. I was even more angry when I found out that the car is still under factory rust through warranty, but this repair is not covered.
So, I decided I had enough stuff lying around to do the repair for free, and only used what I had. I purchased nothing to do this job.

Actual cost would be about $75 or less for materials.

First, the rust.


Sanded down with 40 grit to expose the rust. You can see how the rust has wrapped around the lower part of the door to the outside skin. Took about 45 minutes for both front doors.


Sanded down with 400 wet, and wiped everything down with brake cleaner.


First up is the rust converter. I removed the rubber plug seen in the pic, and sprayed this inside toward the hing side of the door, watching it travel in the drain holes, and migrate to the inside of the rusty lip. I also sprayed it in the drain holes, and finally on the exposed rust. I let that sit one hour.



I then primed it with self etching primer, and put seam seal on the door where it should have been and let that dry up about a half hour.


Then I primed it with some primer sealer, and let that dry about a half hour.


Then I sprayed some adhesion promoter, followed by a dust coat of base color, then a thicker second coat of color, and let that sit 15 minutes.


Then finally I sprayed the clear. And then I let it bake in the sun with both doors opened for an additional 3 -4 hours. I had to move the car three times to keep sunlight on both doors.


I did not mask anything, as this is not my first Rodeo. I have been painting cars for 22 years. I would advise anyone doing this job to mask, and mask well including the outside lower door.

I hope this helps anyone wanting to do this them self. A true repair done in the driveway.

The black I sprayed was a Marine paint for Mercury outboards. Everything else was Duplicolor products, and the seam sealer can be purchased at any Napa or Federated auto parts store.

sleeper

Billy- Cool, how has your experience been with the Dupli-Color Rust Fix ?

I use Por-15 to kill rust.. Just curious..

Billy

KissMy08SS

GM dealers use a tool on an air hammer to seperate the skin from the door frame itself. Then grind the rust out between the two and rust proof it between the twn panels.

The way you did it looks really good...but the rust will probably come back pretty quicky because the problem lies between the skin and the door frame.

HHR SS 818

Very nice job, with great pics.
Thanks for taking the time to post this.

IMPALADAKID

I have been using the duplicolor rust converter for years with great results. I have POR too. But I decided not to use it since it will not get the areas I can't see. The converter is better for this. Also the POR likes to sag and run a bit. I did not want to deal with that here.

That is why I sprayed the converter on heavy. To let it migrate in between the lip and inner panel. I also sprayed it heavily in the holes and watched it run past the last hole, and migrate in there too. I am confident that the converter reached everything. I saw a stream build up in the drain holes, then disappear as gravity took over.

Oldblue

should work fine the rust converter seeps in nicely into the seams, great job nice post , this is exactly what my GM body shop did for mine and there has been no rust showing since repair almost 2 years ago