[NiftyMonte]

So i finally had a weekend basically to myself at home and since its spring i figured i should clean up the car and put the wheels on and.... clean up the rust!!! This is no fix nor will it last long but "It can't look any worse"

My bro and I decided to grind down the metal, fill with some bondo and primer/paint it. I was nervous when he took the air grinder out and how coarse the disk was but once he got started i got more comfortable. We started just grinding down the rust and paint to get it semi smooth and we found several holes and knocked off some metal. Then we did 3 coats of bondo, sanded between each coat, threw on a coat of primer and gave it 2 fresh coats of paint. Im going to give a shout out to the DupliColor color match spray paint, its amazingly close to the factory color and when it dries it looks factory. I am going to add another coat of paint today and wait for tomo/possibly wednesday to use a little rubbing compound and then spray some clear on.

It came out better than we both expected and we were pleasently surprised. Its not perfect by any means but its better than it was and "it couldn't look any worse".

yea yea, this thread is worthless without pics so i will try and find my card reader and get the pics uploaded.

This post has been edited by NiftyMonte: 22 March 2010 - 09:05 PM

[1996A-Z34]

This thread makes me want to bust out the sandaper and do the same to my monte. Clear coat is gone so I shouldnt need much sandpaper My car needs a total redo on the exterior

[NiftyMonte]

PICS!!

Starting off, just taping it up




Then did a little grinding on the drivers and that passanger side but didn't get pics of the passanger side


First coat of bondo on drivers side


First coat on the passanger side with some metal screen to fill in the holes and reform the fender.


second coat on the passanger side


second coat on drivers side


then we taped it off again and threw some newspaper around it


The painting supplies (needed no where near this much but primer was buy one get one free and i only bought one can of color the others i had from prior projects)


Coat of primer


First coat of color


After the first coat of color you could still kinda see the primer so we threw another one on.


And some after pics with just two coats of color and the tape pulled off. This is under florescent light at about 9pm.

[jaybaum96]

This really makes me wanna do mine over again. I know it sounds dumb, but do you think you could do a detailed response on how you got it to look so good. Mine looks like garbage. haha.

This post has been edited by jaybaum96: 22 March 2010 - 09:07 PM

[1996A-Z34]

I am going to pick up the paint tomorrow! This has me psyched up now!

[NiftyMonte]

i will try my best to remember what we did

-Taped it off
-Used a variable speed air grinder with a sanding disk (no idea what grit, around 60 is my guess)
-Ground down the paint and rust until we got some shiney metal or until we didn't want to grind it down anymore
-Sanded the metal and paint in order to create a smooth transition from the old paint to the clean metal, 80 grit paper i think
-Mixed up our bondo and filled in the holes, let dry for 30 min
-Sanded with 80 grit paper to knock it down and get it semi smooth
-another coat of bondo
-sanded with 80 again
-another coat of bondo
-sanded with 150 grit and then 220 grit to get as smooth as possible before primer
-taped it off and covered it to get ready for primer
-sprayed with medium coat of primer and let dry for 45 min
-sanded primer with 600 grit and made sure the transition from old paint to new primer was smooth
-wiped down with a little cloth to get all dust off
-Sprayed with coat of red then let sit for 20 min
-hit it with another coat and then unmasked it all

Thats where the pictures end

I am going to spray another coat on later and then use some rubbing compound to take down all the over spray and the harsh edges from the tape. Then i will hit it with a couple coats of clear coat and then some polishing compound and get er shiney again.

hope that helps

[jaybaum96]

sounds like im going to be putting some time down on getting this rust to at least look better. haha. I think we should start a "member with the most rust near your gas door" thread.

[jaybaum96]

btw, what kind of metal screen did you use?

[Cully77]

damn, you had it bad!

Nice work, and yeah I'd much prefer your results over rust holes!

[Brendensmonte]

It looks great whats the exact color name of the paint u used and did u put a clear coat paint on after the coat of red, reason I ask is my back bumper is faded out and I wanted to try and fix it the best I can my cars the same color. Oh and if anyone knows how to take the back bumper cover off that info would be great.

[NiftyMonte]

jaybaum96, on 22 March 2010 - 09:52 PM, said:

btw, what kind of metal screen did you use?

it was whatever was in the can of bondo i bought. it had a sticky back on it so it could be easily positioned. thank god it was in there or else the passanger side woulda been terrible to bondo. just go to menards and get the small can of bondo, i believe its called a starter kit. it comes with bondo, hardener, the metal mesh, and a small applicator knife.

[NiftyMonte]

Brendensmonte, on 22 March 2010 - 10:01 PM, said:

It looks great whats the exact color name of the paint u used and did u put a clear coat paint on after the coat of red, reason I ask is my back bumper is faded out and I wanted to try and fix it the best I can my cars the same color. Oh and if anyone knows how to take the back bumper cover off that info would be great.

the paint color is torch red and the code for the duplicolor spray paint is DSGM510. I keep tellin myself i was meant for this car because my birthday is may 10th. A lot of places will carry the small touch up pen in torch red but i've only found one place in rochester, mn that carries the spray can.

I haven't put on a clear coat yet cause we ran out of time.

This post has been edited by NiftyMonte: 22 March 2010 - 10:13 PM

[1996A-Z34]

Brendensmonte, on 22 March 2010 - 11:01 PM, said:

It looks great whats the exact color name of the paint u used and did u put a clear coat paint on after the coat of red, reason I ask is my back bumper is faded out and I wanted to try and fix it the best I can my cars the same color. Oh and if anyone knows how to take the back bumper cover off that info would be great.

GM TORCH RED- I know what you mean about the faded bumper Makesme queazy thinking about it. My monte is torch red as well and I try to take care of it etc but the clear seems to just wipe off! lulz.

Just go to any auto store and get primer,GM TORCH RED and auto quality clear coat. You shoud be good to go

[zipper778]

Man, now you got me wanting to do some painting on my Monte. I've developed a little cancer (not nearly that bad though). I might have to do this seeing how good yours turned out. Maybe it's just the pics, but I can't tell where the old paint ends and the new paint starts.

Great job Nifty!

[BigTony]

I sure hope you used fiberglass body filler not bondo and are just saying bondo cuz thats what ppl refer to it as...

[NiftyMonte]

zipper778, on 22 March 2010 - 10:41 PM, said:

Man, now you got me wanting to do some painting on my Monte. I've developed a little cancer (not nearly that bad though). I might have to do this seeing how good yours turned out. Maybe it's just the pics, but I can't tell where the old paint ends and the new paint starts.

Great job Nifty!

the pics do make it look excellent but there is a tape line at the front that will need to be sanded down and some overspray that is visible but overall you are right, it does look awesome

thanks, much thanks to my brother who did a lot of the work.

[Cully77]

Your car is currently hanging on my wall for the March photo

[NiftyMonte]

BigTony, on 22 March 2010 - 11:15 PM, said:

I sure hope you used fiberglass body filler not bondo and are just saying bondo cuz thats what ppl refer to it as...

nope, bondo.



why would i use fiberglass body filler on sheet metal?

[Flop]

I thought that these cars do not rust. There are no rust traces on my Lumina.

[jaybaum96]

NiftyMonte, on 23 March 2010 - 07:17 AM, said:

BigTony, on 22 March 2010 - 11:15 PM, said:

I sure hope you used fiberglass body filler not bondo and are just saying bondo cuz thats what ppl refer to it as...

nope, bondo.



why would i use fiberglass body filler on sheet metal?

I agree. Bondo works best IMO. Yeah you might have to re-do it once in a while, but still is amazing what you can do with it.

[dykzeulb]

Body filler is fine, if you dont mind re-doing it once in a while, with it being in rust holes, similar to how nifty has it, it can be expected to fall out, but that is the nature of the beast. The fiberglass filler, has strands in it of well... fiberglass, it tends to hold better together when being installed in actual holes, gaps and so forth. It is for fiberglass and sheet metal repair, I prefer to keep any type of filler to a minimum, but I stand behind 3Ms body shop products.


Nifty,

Looks like it turned out really well, thankfully I didn't have any rust on my Monte Carlo. As I said before, though, it is a strong possibility that it could fall out or flake in the next 1-2 or hell maybe even 5 years, but none the less, it looks WAYYYYY better than it did prior. Props for the good work!

[7801MonteMan]

A metal patch panel would've been the ideal or best way to go. But what you did is very acceptable I've had some people come to me for repair work and they did the samething minus sanding the rust. Just spread the "bondo" right over the rust. Looks great from what I can see in the pictures. The best GM red eva TORCH RED FTW !!!

[BigTony]

jaybaum96, on 23 March 2010 - 09:35 AM, said:

NiftyMonte, on 23 March 2010 - 07:17 AM, said:

BigTony, on 22 March 2010 - 11:15 PM, said:

I sure hope you used fiberglass body filler not bondo and are just saying bondo cuz thats what ppl refer to it as...

nope, bondo.



why would i use fiberglass body filler on sheet metal?

I agree. Bondo works best IMO. Yeah you might have to re-do it once in a while, but still is amazing what you can do with it.

Bondo absorbs water
Fiberglass does not
Thats why you don't use bondo

[BigTony]

dykzeulb, on 23 March 2010 - 12:10 PM, said:

Body filler is fine, if you dont mind re-doing it once in a while, with it being in rust holes, similar to how nifty has it, it can be expected to fall out,

Thats why you use long strand fiberglass. followed by short strand... The long strand fills and holds great and the short is easier made smooth

[jaybaum96]

bondo absorbs water if and only you dont paint over/coat over it correctly. I have seen alot of cars that have ridiculous amounts of bondo, and you cant even tell.

[mrl390]

Fiberglass filler is definately a must when doing any kind of rust repair (unless of course you cut the rust out and weld in a new piece of metal). Not only is it stronger and holds better in the hole, but it inhibits rust alot better than bondo. There is a very good chance that any bondo used to fill a rust hole, or even cover a rusty spot that isnt yet a hole, will bubble up or just plain fall out. Like Big Tony said, Bondo absorbs water and can actually make the rust worse in some cases.

Filling a hole with any kind of filler other than new metal really isnt acceptable in any body shop, unless asked for by the customer. There is nothing wrong with doing it for yourself to save some money, but bondo should never be used to do rust repair, plain and simple. Bondo can be used OVER fiberglass filler to smooth out the area since fiberglass filler is very course.

Not to sh*t on what you did Nifty, it looks pretty good for such a quick repair.

[NiftyMonte]

ok, yea i get it you guys, its gonna fall off in a couple of years and i will have to redo it. guess what, the car will be 15 years old in may, i don't care!! if this last for a year so be it, i will do it next year and have a great weekend with my brother again. we could have cut out the entire fender and welded in a new piece of sheet metal, we have a full shop stocked with every tool we need and my brother is a professional welder but again, the car is 15 years old and in need of body work over the entire car, not just the fenders, so it might as well be done at the same time.

So yea, let me say this again as i did all weekend "IT COULDN'T GET ANY WORSE!"

[Cully77]

Yeah, seriously guys this is a thread called "it couldn't look any worse" haha

If nifty was doing a frame off restoration here he'd probably weld in new sheet metal. And maybe if he was planning on keeping it longer, and was doing a less extensive renovation, he could use fiberglass filler. Bondo will probably do just fine in his application.

But hey, good info all the same.

[mrl390]

I cant speak for others, but my post was more informative towards others than critical of Nifty's work.

[Cully77]

mrl390, on 23 March 2010 - 07:51 PM, said:

I cant speak for others, but my post was more informative towards others than critical of Nifty's work.

no no, you're all fine... It's just my opinion that the fix fits the circumstances.