Rusty and Trusty - car chemo/build
dukevonDANK
Wagonist
As with older cars many have rust. People are terrified of it, it spreads, it is hard to contain, and it makes cars look like crap.
So instead of waiting an eternity for a clean RT, I bought the first one to appear on craigs list.
You can use a cheap ass welder from harbor freight...but their chinese flux wire is straight doo doo and is hard to work with for the inexperienced (me) but the whole purpose of buying this car was to learn how to weld sheet metal and do body work.
She was rusty in the usual places, rear fenders...
Gotta get some of these...
So first thing is first, rear bumper and tail light removal....
Rear window rust hole...removed trim piece and filled with flux core wire
It's important to knock down all the high spots with a grinder, then go over it once with bondo, then prime, then a clear coat helps if you're in a humid climate and have no inclination of repainting the car in a hurry.
Had some of this...
And this...this was my old rear drain...it was custom made courtesy of the great white north where this car came from...
So ya gotta get the scalpel..
It's important to buy good flux core wire (Lincoln at Home Depot) or your welds look like mine...who cares, that's what the grinder is for, and of course bondo...
This is the passenger side after...
Now the driver side...looks like baghdad
So I did a little more of this...
Made it look like this...
You can see I'm only 1/4 way done...the front side of the rear fenders are eaten up as well as the rocker panels...but I cut those out from Iboyma's wrecked wagon...
This is next...I may do a build thread, but I doubt anyone gives a F about a mini-me anymore...i didn't...but now I kinda need to...
I hear there's not much you can do with these heads, but a little port matching never hurt...
But this might be good for mpg, probably nothing else...we'll see...
So instead of waiting an eternity for a clean RT, I bought the first one to appear on craigs list.
You can use a cheap ass welder from harbor freight...but their chinese flux wire is straight doo doo and is hard to work with for the inexperienced (me) but the whole purpose of buying this car was to learn how to weld sheet metal and do body work.
She was rusty in the usual places, rear fenders...
Gotta get some of these...
So first thing is first, rear bumper and tail light removal....
Rear window rust hole...removed trim piece and filled with flux core wire
It's important to knock down all the high spots with a grinder, then go over it once with bondo, then prime, then a clear coat helps if you're in a humid climate and have no inclination of repainting the car in a hurry.
Had some of this...
And this...this was my old rear drain...it was custom made courtesy of the great white north where this car came from...
So ya gotta get the scalpel..
It's important to buy good flux core wire (Lincoln at Home Depot) or your welds look like mine...who cares, that's what the grinder is for, and of course bondo...
This is the passenger side after...
Now the driver side...looks like baghdad
So I did a little more of this...
Made it look like this...
You can see I'm only 1/4 way done...the front side of the rear fenders are eaten up as well as the rocker panels...but I cut those out from Iboyma's wrecked wagon...
This is next...I may do a build thread, but I doubt anyone gives a F about a mini-me anymore...i didn't...but now I kinda need to...
I hear there's not much you can do with these heads, but a little port matching never hurt...
But this might be good for mpg, probably nothing else...we'll see...
Comments
I've been here a while, just trying to figure out what I wanted to do with it...
x2
Definitely start another thread for your motor build. Still lots of people doing it...
Good start though.
Window was already scratched to hell, so I'm not concerned.
Its hard to screw this up when it already looks like this, so there is nothing that can't be ground on or melted on.
The motor is in pieces (obviously) I have rod bearing and main bearing measurements I pulled from the rod and bearing identification chart from my Haynes manual. Getting those from Honda, as soon as my parts guy gets back to me. Also need to order timing belt and tensioner.
And a set of ARP head bolts from Iboyma...
I miss that wagon </3
Iboyma's lights on my car, next to his car....
Had to cut more, figured it'd be easier to just cut the whole section, which I eventually did
Test fit
Permanent fit
After a few taps on the rocker cover, and seeing the rust, I was prepared for what I found....sort of...
Thanks to iboyma and Beatrice
Thought this was funny
This car is actually the reason I had to learn to weld (always wanted to), so it was really worth the $1250 I paid for it.
HOLY ROOF RACK!!
What was the previous owner hauling? sheet rock?
Seriously, props for learning as you go. As for the mini-me, go for it. that is what I am doing. I bought mine as an alternative transportation to my Ram, so economy is the name of the game ya know
here we are wasting time at turn 7 (the hairpin)
Luis, I will certainly look into it
One question, where you found those rear fender sections? I'm looking for them everywhere but cant find...
You are going to have to get them from another wagon.
you gotta cut with fine tooth reciprocating saw and jig saw at times....or hack it up like me...
cutting from the donor car took a while too.
Harbor freight welder too!
If so, then it's something for you to google, but in a nutshell it's what you use when you don't have a mig welder with the inert shielding gas.
The less bondo you use (cutting holes and welding in new metal) the better. If you do everything right, the rust won't come back.
You have to weld new sheet metal, that's what this thread is all about butch!
This is what I had to do...it's like cancer surgery, gotta get all the bad stuff out and clean it up
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some more dry fitment, using self tapping sheet metal screws is a good idea to hold it in place. if you can use a drill like a man[IMG][/img]
Welded and ground down
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I didn't take too many pictures of this side, because welding while laying down facing up sucks and I was in no mood for pictures, it was hot and I wanted to get it over with.[IMG][/img]
But seriously guys and girls, I taught myself how to do this. Anybody can do this with the right amount of patience and time.