Been working on my red Dolly over the past couple of weeks and I'm not happy with myself. I think I've taken a few short cuts that will come back to haunt me... Whilst working on my red one I've been looking at my yellow dolly, and thinking about how much that's gone down hill since I've owned it. If I'd have tackled things when they first came about I wonder what it would be like now? The arches for example, when I looked at the car they were split a bit, but now there bulging! The sills, similar story...
But I'm afraid of body work... It's one of those things I can see making a car look worse and kind of aggrivating the grot...
How do I stop all the little tiny problems turning my car in to a restoration project a few years down the line? Help, it's scaring me
from a bodywork point of view you have to tackle the spots before they get BIG. by the time they've bubbled up under the paint you can gaurantee whats actually under the paint is twice as bad as what you see on the surface. DONT use filler to repair, use metal, filler is meant for smoothing repairs/defects prior to painting.
I think you should look at protecting now what is good first by using some Waxoyl or similar product. Then work methodically and start with the jobs that need doing first for safety or MOT standards. Looking at previous posts i think you are running away with yourself a bit and need to slow down, and i don't just mean your driving.
Have a look at maybe a small repair and cut this area out to get rid of the rot. Use some of the available panels if you are a member to save trying to shape them yourself, but learn to get a good fit , neat welds and how to finish the area with a skim of filler and paint. Don't worry about a show finish just, you can get a decent finish for a repair from a can and think about a respray later.
You have bags of enthusiasm and you just need to put this into learning the skills. Been there, done that myself and still have lots to learn which is why i use this forum, i have now completed inner/outer sills , boot floor repair , chassis rails etc.
Mike
80 Sprint ,
Have got to say, some people don't rate Waxoyl, but I think it is the reason my car is so sound. I first Waxoyled my car way back in about 1991 - 10 litres (2 full cans) - sprayed into every nook and cranny - things were a bit easier since the the car was a bare shell at the time. After that, I did no further treating until I got the car back on the road in 2002 - since then I have given it a couple of 'top ups' - the car still has (almost) no rot, though the bottoms of the doors are starting to bubble slightly.
I think that spending a bit of time doing something like Waxoyling very thoroughly really pays off, saving so much pain later on.
Yes thank you Alun, I know not to hit things now... But the arches and the sills... Thats just rust... Adn the rear vent panel, rust is beginning to appear there... What can I do now it just a small bubble?
What I've done on mine is carefully grind out the rust or use Jenolite (depending on severity). Then brush on Bonda Zinc Primer. That's it! OK it looks crap but you should be able to flat it down and spray over it with an aerosol for a semi decent finish.
Just to speak of my experience. I ground out some large rust patches on the boot (in the rain ) and painted over whilst wet with the Bonda gear. OK I wiped it with my cuff first
Three months on and no further treatment and there is no sign of anything coming back through. I'm not saying it will last for ever but imagine how permanent it would be if I did it properly
Rust starts from a break in the paint and spreads underneath it. Sometimes its starts deep in a seam joint where there was no paint. It especially likes newly welded stuff. It also likes poor quality steel. Your red one being early should actually fare a bit better than your later one cos the steel quality is a bit better. That means it will take 6 months to rot through a bad stone chip rather than 3.
ANywhere you see a paint scab...grind it off. An 80 grit flap wheel on an electric drill will do the job. Give yourslef half an inch of bare shiney steel round any scab and then treat it with something. Jenolite is good but any phosphoric acid based remover is also okay. Then paint with something zinc rich. Ive just started using this Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80 stuff and I must say so far I'm impressed. Bonda Primer wn the PC test a few years ago and Ive always rated Finnigans number one.
Then move to a drier area...
Jonners
Note from Admin: sadly Jon passed away in February 2018 but his humour and wealth of knowledge will be fondly remembered by all. RIP Jonners.
Stay on top of it is the key. Accept that you can't afford a pukka looking job but one day you will be able to. The main thing is to protect the metal until that day arrives.
Get onto that scab in the rear vent now, treat as advised above and rattle can it over. Correct masking is the key to making patches look acceptable. Masking tape and newspaper cost bugger all but the smallest overspray on chrome, rubber or glass will stand out a mile. Also keep it clean and polished, you'll be amazed at how the water just falls off a polished car.
I've let blue go for years and now there is rust breaking out everywhere. I used to like driving round in a car that looked a bit sheddy but if you turned it upside down you could eat your dinner off it. At a glance it looked a mess because the doors were/are a state but if you looked hard you'd realise that there was not one spot of non trivial rust on the shell. It's not like that any more and I'm going to pay. Such a shame because the bits I got to recently look so damn good just out of a can and I know they'll last 5 year min before they need another half days treatment. If only I'd given her a handful of half days every year for the past five she'd still be ok.
I did pay to get one bit done a couple of years ago. The new sill I put on the near side was starting to surface rust. So I paid for it to be sand blasted and repainted. It was a cheap job but I had no time and having done nothing for 6 or so years I'd convinced myself to be afraid of bodywork. I should have done it myself. Sure the finish was nice on the day but they didn't give it the attention to detail I would have done, some metal that got hit by sand overspray didn't get treated at all. The rear of the sill bottom lip was blasted but got no paint and nor did the black get put back on the sill. Lesson learned, I'll do it myself again as soon as I can. This time the finish won't be great but it'll last 5 years instead of 1.
Adam, you must of seen some of the post's iv put on the board over the last few months about the innerwing/wing re-build on MWK?
I had my first car off my mum and dad at 14 and got it roadworthy for my 17th, now i didn't know jack about cars....never had one never worked on one till then, all i did is have ago and learnt that way, ok i asked advice on what to buy but the main work i did myself, i self tought myself to weld, fill, prep and paint, i also tought myself about engines!!
At 17 i went to college and done a bodywork course for 3 years, something that id strongly recommend to you if your really that worried about body work, my course was Crash body repair but the basics are all the same, this enabled me to top up what i self tought myself and i passed all 3 years which now makes me a qualified crash body repairer, even though i only did the course so i could do my own cars!!
Have a look at some local colleges about a body work course, some even do night courses, ok they might not teach you everything there is to know but it might give you the basic's and confidance to do your car!!
Im 24 now and MWK was the first real body work id done in 5years, but i love doing it and im happy with the results!!
Have ago with something small and see what you think, may not be 100% to start with but we all start from somewhere mate!!
Yup, dissolve most of the rust with jenolite then add zinc primer is my tried and tested method - there are bits on my car that I treated this way 16 years ago and they're still fine.
I tried loads of so called 'rust killing paints' in the past - all complete bollox - Jenolite plus zinc primer is the only one I know that works for sure.
I'm in the same boat so thanks for encouraging words guys! I was intending to deal with some of my rust bubbles this weekend, been putting it off due to general fear and after arsing up over xmas. Don't mind the final look, my car has so many dents and scratches already, just want to stop the rust in its tracks and keep her ok. It does sometimes feel like a mammoth task, I worry that my lack of care and time will end up making things worse (my valance and wing ends have already deteriorated in the last 8 months of ownership). I am also halfway through undersealing at the moment. I don't have indoor work space unfortunately but someone here said a while back to get the bodywork done over the summer, which is sound advice - harsh scottish winters outdoors for my old lady!
Yes thank you Alun, I know not to hit things now... But the arches and the sills... Thats just rust... Adn the rear vent panel, rust is beginning to appear there... What can I do now it just a small bubble?
) and painted over whilst wet with the Bonda gear. OK I wiped it with my cuff first 
