Door Rust --- In need of some thoughts and opinions!

[shealy]

Below is the picture of what I'm up against. There's three rust spots on the drivers side door panel (just beneath the window), roughly the size of quarters. I assume the best plan of action would be to sand them off, body filler and re-paint over top. I have a few concerns though, such as matching up paint to the door. Also, I don't mind if I have to get rid of those line decal things (not too fond of them anyways), but if I rip these off, won't the paint under be a bit darker from not being exposed to 19 years of UV?

Basically, I'm looking for any opinions or suggestions at all! Not really sure how to approach this one....

Thanks in advance

-Steve

IMG_0333.JPG (142.22 KiB) Viewed 2896 times

[pajerochris]

IMO you should sand and repaint that stretch thats the same colour so there are no irregularities. would look good too, but more money then just doing the spot obviously

[shealy]

[quote="pajerochris"]IMO you should sand and repaint that stretch thats the same colour so there are no irregularities. would look good too, but more money then just doing the spot obviously[/quote]

Do u mean paint the whole decal section that goldish colour? Or rip it off and paint the area same as the door colour?

[tonydca]

I'm not expert painter, but IMHO, since you are seeing rust starting under the decals, it might be the decals themselves trapping moisture underneath and starting the rust.

So I'd be inclined to pull 'em off and repaint the whole area anyways especially if you aren't keen on 'em to begin with.

[pajerochris]

I was just thinking repaint that strip a solid colour and remove the decals.

I'm not expert painter, but IMHO, since you are seeing rust starting under the decals, it might be the decals themselves trapping moisture underneath and starting the rust.

So I'd be inclined to pull 'em off and repaint the whole area anyways especially if you aren't keen on 'em to begin with.

I agree with tonydca - a nice blue or white paint along the area where the decals were would be a reasonable fix.

[shealy]

Yeah I think regardless I'm going to have to rip those decal strips off. Hopefully they come off easily!. I guess it would be too hard to match the door colour, so now I'll have to figure out what to paint that strip!

[vixentd]

I would assume that you do not have a welder to replace the rust with some patches so the other way to do it for reasonable is:
1. Remove the decal by using a heat gun and carefully peeling it off while you apply heat. A hair dryer might also work.
2. Using wax remover or xylene scrub the area down, otherwise you will end up sanding the wax, grease and glue into the repair resulting in fisheye when you repaint.
3. Using a small grinder completely remove all the rust, apply rust converter, fill and paint. However, it may be best to cut out the rust using a small wheel on a grinder as the rust will be from the back side and just return if it is not all removed from the back side.
4. Without welding in patches you can carefully tap in abound the edge of each patch area you have cut out.
5. Cut several pieces of fiberglass cloth so that they are about 1/2 inch bigger on all sides than the hole you have cut.
6. Using waterproof short strand fiberglass ( Everglass) filler apply about 1/4 inch to one side of the cloth and then press over the hole, with the filler side going into the hole. You may want to remove the inside door panel to apply the patch from the inside with the filler then facing out.
7. Take your finger and on the outside edge press down firmly and squeeze the filler all around the edge of the hole and pull it tight.
8. When it dries in a few minutes apply a skim coat now over the outside edge of the cloth which does not have any filler and let dry.
9. Sand and cover with finishing two part glazing putty.
10. Prime and paint.
11. Any vinyl decal shop can remake the decal for the door.

Note - This repair will last perfectly for many years and the rust will not occur as it has all been cut out. Make sure that you remove a large enough area so that there is none left around the repair other wise it will return.

Al alternative is to cut the patches out of metal. Make sure you have a lip all around the hole you have cut out. Princess auto makes a cheap tool that will give you a 1/16 inch or so lip. Apply structural adhesive to the lip and press on the metal patch. 4 small screws are drilled into the patch and lip to ensure the patch is flush with the rest of the metal. Once dried the screws are removed and holes filled with waterproof bondo/ filler. Many new cars are now built this way.

[tonydca]

Yeah I think regardless I'm going to have to rip those decal strips off. Hopefully they come off easily!. I guess it would be too hard to match the door colour, so now I'll have to figure out what to paint that strip!

If you are repainting, no need to worry about the surrounding paint area, so a heat gun up close and personal would probably help them off a lot.

And if you want to match the colour, I think a lot of body/paint shops now do colour matching where you bring in a chunk of the original stuff and they match it. My father-in-law's previous car had a gold/sandstone paint that was matched up unbelievably well. Couldn't tell unless you really looked.

Of course, racing stripes are good too

[pajerochris]

holy, sounds like vixentd knows their stuff :P nice step-by-step