Rust and Welding in new panels

[BuddyP]

Working on my drivers side front toe panel right now. How critical is it to grind off rust to where you are going to weld the new panel onto. I ask this because there is a spot that is pretty much inaccessable to grind it all out. I do plan on dipping the shell though after this is done.

[restomodbird69]

it needs to be clean where the weld will be,if there is rust there it will compromise the weld.

[mikey]

Rust is like cancer. If you don't get it all it will return. Get a small siphon feed sand blaster works great for small areas.

[toxicz28]

You can't weld rust, especially on sheet metal. It heats up faster than good metal, and just blows away.

[MrQuick]

Yeah, I agree. It all needs to be cut out and replaced. It will spread come back and you will have a hard time getting weld to stick to it.

[BuddyP]

what I meant was suface rust. I'll look for a small spot sandblaster and hit it with that. It is going to be dipped after the panels are welded in anyway.

[toxicz28]

Just a question. Why not dip the car before all of the metal replacement is done? There is a good chance you will have more holes after the dip.

[BuddyP]

May still do that. My original intensions was to get the floor and trunk floor done, then dip, then do the rest (rear valance, qtrs, ect.). Plus, I don't have the money to get it dipped right now, but do have some time on my hands. It's always one or the other. But I may still just fit the panels the best I can then dip and weld after.

[gearbanger]

It would suck to get those panels in and then have it dipped only to find out that you got the new panels all welded up perfectly to other rusty panels.

If you are for sure dipping it, then I'd just chill and do that first before anything.

[DRJDVM's '69]

Dip it first.....then you know exactly where you stand. No point in doing a bunch of weldin to other panles that may need to be replaced

[BuddyP]

The panels I'm welding to are solid for sure. I ended up buying a spot sandblaster, I'll clean up the panel edges with it before I weld. But will probably only do a couple panels then get it dipped before I get into the major stuff.

[qwik1320]

I would have dipped first but looking at your other post and the pictures of the car as it sits now (with a lot cut out) I wouldn't chance lifting it into a dip tank.

I've been using a flap disk and/or heavy duty scotch brite wheels to remove the surface rust before welding. So far I haven't had any really badly rusted areas though.

Just be careful, grind away too much "rust" to get clean metal and you'll play hell trying to weld without blowing through...especially a butt weld.
Guess how I know that :hammer:

[Sparky67]

Actually, I found that using a wire wheel on a mini right angle air die grinder tends to work better. Although, you need to have face shield because wire wheels weren't designed to be used on air tools. The clean and strip wheels from either Norton's or 3M also work good on electric drills. The only problem is that you will get into areas that are too tight, so I use the mini right angle die grinder. You can get carbide bits to work with this tool too. I use this specialized die grinder with a carbide bit. It looks alot like a tool that you would use to port heads for the hard to reach areas.

Jeff

67 RS Camaro

[Jim Nilsen]

If it is truly just surface rust and it truly is good solid metal you can get some cloth backed sandpaper(belt sander sanding belts or emery cloth) and just fold it over and sand it by hand. 80 or 100 grit will work fast enough and you will go far enough in to not affect the weld and then you can dip it later. If you are doing butt welds it will only require you to go in from the edge about 1/2 in. all of the other ways sound like less work but it doesn't always allow you the access you need but your finers will fit just fine and it will take you less time than you think.
Good luck with it all and use gloves to make sure you don't get cut. The cloth back is usually pretty tough but you can cut through it if you use it long enough. Just use small pieces to do the job that are just big enough to hold on to.


Jim Nilsen