Damn You Rust, DAMN You!

My left rear quarter has finally lost the war with time and rust. Pulled back my (not so) magical protective shield of aluminum tape to see this



Also, what looks to be about a half pound of dirt, rust flakes, sand and god knows what else came out:


Looks like only new metal will save it now. Thankfully, the rust has only gone as far as whats in the picture for the most part, inner quarter is still solid too, for the most part. Le sigh. Anyone have a good left quarter?

reminds me of my '73 Caddy rear quarters.

I would cut back all the rust, then clean the inner parts good with Naval Jelly or some such, then POR-15 it all on the inside. Then through the wonders of fiberglass and cardboard, cut out a carboard form for the back. Get it to where it fits real nice, then soak it with resin and maybe one layer of cloth. Then cloth over the opening with a couple layers of cloth. Rough sand it down, then either lay mover cloth to fill up depressions or use Bondo to smooth it all out.

Method used on the Caddy and my Austin Healey. THe Healey was done in 1980 and rust bubbles only started to reappear in 2009. Dad didn't have Por 15 either and it lasted almost 30 years. Lot easier than cutting in a new quarter.

And with the car being white, you should be able to blend paint down low where no one looks pretty easy saving a total repaint since I know you have a budget to adhere to.

Thanks. I might try that just to get me to WF. (The shame of my holy quarters would kill me). Is fiberglass hard to work with? Never used it. I have a new right quarter coming so I'll already be welding a bit, which is why I asked if anyone had a left one, if I'm doing one I might as well do the other .

As for paint, Believe it or not, the Dupicolor WA8554 is a dead ringer for my paint so I'll just rattebomb it again. I'm also planning to have the whole car painted (eventually..) so it'll do for a bit. That said, I suppose I can't be *too* mad. 17 New England winters and this is the only bad rust? I'll take it.

Justin wait until Texas Mike sees this.Dont know if his heart can take this much rust on a
wagon.Guess we will see,sorry for your damn rust buddy!

the secret to fiberglass work is knowing the right amount of catalyst to put in the resin. Too much and it sets up while you are still trying to work with it. Too little and it never sets up.....done it both ways, lol.

It's not that bad to work with, but you have to have a plan and prep done before you mix it up. Once it sets, it's sanding to finish so I always try to shoot for near finished form to avoid lot's of sanding. If you decide to try it out, lmk and I can give you some helpful tips

I have that left quarter patch I snipped from PaP a couple years ago. No rust...but not the whole quarter.

If you want it, I believe I can get it shipped to WagonFest for you via a buddy. Yours for the taking.

Chris

There you go Justin ,looks like it was cut out just for your wagon and the right color too boot!
Chris what did you do with tha gorgeous gold RMW with the TTs on it?Saw some old pics and didnt realize it was yours until later.Thats was a beautiful car>
Jim

brokecello wrote:

I have that left quarter patch I snipped from PaP a couple years ago. No rust...but not the whole quarter.

If you want it, I believe I can get it shipped to WagonFest for you via a buddy. Yours for the taking.

Chris

You have PM

If I can help transport let me know.

Tim

These wagons are too new to have rust like that!!!

Scary...


Fix it FAST!

I helped Lynol fiberglass his rusty quarter. The biggest pain was trying to cover a fairly large area without the resin soaked cloth falling apart. We didn't put any cardboard or anything over the large hole, just kind of threw it on there. In the end it did come out as an acceptable patch. It might be better to buy the fiberglass mat over the one made of individual fibers, that what I plan to use next time I try this.

81X11 wrote:

These wagons are too new to have rust like that!!!

Tell that to my wagon.

95BRMW wrote:

I helped Lynol fiberglass his rusty quarter. The biggest pain was trying to cover a fairly large area without the resin soaked cloth falling apart. We didn't put any cardboard or anything over the large hole, just kind of threw it on there. In the end it did come out as an acceptable patch. It might be better to buy the fiberglass mat over the one made of individual fibers, that what I plan to use next time I try this.

Uhhhhh... did you forget the giant piece of metal I put in there with rivets?? We put in some galvanized sheetmetal after cutting away all the rust and putting a rust preventative all over everything. Then we fiber-glassed over that, and it's done a good job of keeping water out, and no rust yet. The plan was/is to bondo over that and paint it. I figure it will look OK when done. Have to bondo it next week actually. Would I do this type of repair on my Custom Cruiser/other car I care about should it ever rust like this? I don't think so, but for the base-est model Caprice ever, I would -and did.

Lynol wrote:

95BRMW wrote:

I helped Lynol fiberglass his rusty quarter. The biggest pain was trying to cover a fairly large area without the resin soaked cloth falling apart. We didn't put any cardboard or anything over the large hole, just kind of threw it on there. In the end it did come out as an acceptable patch. It might be better to buy the fiberglass mat over the one made of individual fibers, that what I plan to use next time I try this.

Uhhhhh... did you forget the giant piece of metal I put in there with rivets?? We put in some galvanized sheetmetal after cutting away all the rust and putting a rust preventative all over everything. Then we fiber-glassed over that, and it's done a good job of keeping water out, and no rust yet. The plan was/is to bondo over that and paint it. I figure it will look OK when done. Have to bondo it next week actually. Would I do this type of repair on my Custom Cruiser/other car I care about should it ever rust like this? I don't think so, but for the base-est model Caprice ever, I would -and did.

I guess I did.