How to approach this?

[HRD]

I'm totally new at body work.
The pictures: #1 is the front of my inner fender panels and #2 is the side of the inner fender panel. These panels are good except for the fronts of them.
There is no patch panels that I'm aware of that could be welded on to get rid of all the pitting that is on front of them.
The bottom third would have to be replaced to get high enough to have good enough metal to even weld a patch on the front of them. That I have already done on one.
But...How do you cover/smooth the rest of the upper 2 thirds of it? Are can it be done?
I'm not building a show winner but would like for it to look decent.

[mongocanfly]

I would just replace them if possible...if your wanting to just smooth them and there's no other damage then I'd sandblast them...epoxy prime and skim coat body filler over them...

[MARTINSR]

If they are solid, but just severe rust pits as it looks to me, sand blast and then use Polyester primer on them. Polyester primer in four coats can bury a dime taped to the surface, no kidding. Polyester primer is basically "sprayable bondo."

So, it is MUCH easier to finish off than if you were to spread filler on it. Polyester primer is not for everything, but exactly what I would use on something like that.

Feather fill is what I would go with.

http://www.evercoat.com/evercoat-primers/us/

Brian

[mongocanfly]

Martin...would you not want epoxy on the bare metal first?....

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by mongocanfly

Martin...would you not want epoxy on the bare metal first?....

Yes, that is the "Best" way, but if it's clean metal spraying the polyester primer over it is not a big deal either.

The way I look at it is about 99% of body shops across the country don't use epoxy like that, before bondo that sort of thing. It's never been a "standard" but you are very right, it would be the best way to do it.

Good catch.

Brian

[mongocanfly]

Haha...I don't know about catching....I'm still learning all this stuff myself...

[Macdaddy1]

I use liquid sander as my polyester primer and Marin is correct it will fill all of the pis in flat and make them baby butt smooth.

[sevt_chevelle]

Originally Posted by MARTINSR

The way I look at it is about 99% of body shops across the country don't use epoxy like that, before bondo that sort of thing. It's never been a "standard" but you are very right, it would be the best way to do it.

Brian

What products and procedures that a "collision" shop use doesn't always translate into the "restoration" shop.

Production body shops don't epoxy because 1. time constraints 2. insurance companies won't pay for it.

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by sevt_chevelle

What products and procedures that a "collision" shop use doesn't always translate into the "restoration" shop.

Production body shops don't epoxy because 1. time constraints 2. insurance companies won't pay for it.

I hear you Eric, but that doesn't change the facts.

1. Spraying a quality epoxy primer over your bare metal before filler or paint prep is the best way to treat bare metal.

2. 99% of body repairs across America aren't done that way and survive.

Applying the epoxy steps up the game quite a bit. Plus when doing stuff around the garage that are going to be a multi year project, epoxy over the bare metal allows you to work those years without issues.

Brian

[HRD]

Thanks fellows for the replies.
They are replaceable after markets available.
As stated, I'm new at this and/but I willing to learn. If I screw them up, I'll go that route and replace them. These are hidden somewhat and won't be that noticeable I'm thinking. Going to patch the lower third and smooth out the upper if that's possible. I'll be undercoating the back side so that'll help cover things there.
I'm new at welding too, but I'm gonna try. If I can do a decent job on these before I get to my body panels it'll give me a little more confidence.
Ordered a gallon of the Feather Fill® G2, Friday. Got a 2.0 sprayer I hope will spray it. Done a little bit of spraying, not much. A few file cabinets and such.
It does say this in the data sheet,
NOTE: All bare metal areas larger than one inch in diameter must be treated with a high quality self-etch or epoxy primer.
I will be putting epoxy on first and planning on just spraying this on the fronts to fill the pitting out smooth.
Practiced blasting today and wore my tip out in about 5 minutes. (New at this also) Now I got to figure that out.

[MARTINSR]

Yeah, I am thinking real sand blast tips are ceramic and don't wear.
I have done that before, then I got one with a ceramic and it's still being used years later. But come to think of it, my big sand blaster, I don't think it has a ceramic tip, but it may be lined inside with ceramic, I will check it out when I go out today.

Brian

[HRD]

Like I said I'm new at all of this.
I've had a setup similar to this https://www.northerntool.com/shop/to...3483_200693483 for years but never used it. I was using very fine sand. -44 grit size. Just trying it on that old trans cover to see what it was going to do. 5 minutes and the tip had wore those cuts on both sides of it.
I really don't know what tips I should be using.