Body repair - rust removed, advice needed

[ako]

I have worked on a whole bunch of different vehicles before, but never had the pleasure of repairing rusted areas of body work.

In the front corner near the door I have ground all the rust - it was about 1/2" thick.

This is what I am left with :







Although the back section is all corrugated it is still quite solid apart from the small holes you can see.

What is the best fix for this? I guess the absolute best would be to buy the replacement panel from SAV which is item 20-05-23 as shown here :



Unfortunately the LHS does not seem to be in stock or listed.

So what's the next best option? It is not going to be a show truck, but I don't want any rust to come back.

Is bondo going to be a bodge job in this location?

Thanks for any advice offered,

Mick

[Profpinz]

All the repair sections needed are fairly simple and any competent sheetmetal worker should be able to cut, bend and/or hammer form the required sections, if you can't do them yourself.
That badly corroded lower part shown, is a 3mm thick bracket (from memory), so it may be OK to still use it given it's thickness, but it needs to be solid, as it is welded to the upright front door mount section and helps provides a rigid mount for the door itself.
It's fairly basic in design so could be easily made with a little bit of bending.....you can use a vice. (Refer pic below)

When you cover the above mentioned bracket with the outer panel, I use a weld-through sealant inbetween the two surfaces.

[one2many]

Gday Mick,

You really need to take the door off along with the hinge and keep cutting, a fair bit more material needs to come out in all directions if your gonna have any chance of welding it and to stop the rust coming straight back. You need to take it back until the metal your cutting out isn't rust affected any more. Also try to cut it back in a way so that your sheetmetal filler pieces aren't going to be difficult shapes to make...ie. Straight edges and right angles where possible, try and keep any folds uncomplicated, luckily the pinz doesn't have a lot of curved areas. Also sometimes you can use a profile found in off the shelf formed and rolled steel that's readily available like the rolled edges found on many perlings, RHS etc. That being said it would probably be easier/better/neater and much less work doing as Profpinz suggested and have the pieces you need formed for you by a sheetmetal worker/shop.

When welding the sheet metal back in you want to just use tack after tack approach, trying to get a run/bead will just cause problems...blow holes, excess heat, distortion, when it starts to get hot move to another seam and weld there while previous area cools off. Fine grit sandpaper flappy discs for your grinder work quite well for buffing welds back but take your time and try not to burn the area your working... Don't let the steel change color "blue". Grinding discs won't reach all areas like corners etc. A narrow air belt sander works for tight spots but they can be a little frustrating. die grinder carefully.

Take your time with it and it will look like new, it can be very rewarding dealing with rust like this but it may frustrate you first...its my least favourite restoration job but worth every effort to do it right. And yes bondo would be a bit dodgy for this (or any) rust repair, it'll just make things worse.

Hey Andre I hear you do onsite farication work, when are you out and about next?

[ako]

Thanks for the tips fellas.

Only stopped grinding there because I ran out of wire wheel, it was late and I had my wobbly sandles on.

The other side is less rusty so I keep that intact for now to take reverse measurements from.

Cheers,

Mick

[Andre]

it may be a while before I get back around to the UAE.