DIY repair of rotten arches

Oleg, hello! Please tell me if I will do the right thing ... Three small holes have formed on my door (under the factory vibration isolation everything is completely rusty and as a result 3 holes, the car is 3 years old, Kalina2). I want to tin them, cover them with epoxy primer, then putty with a finishing putty, prime them with a regular primer and paint over everything. Tell me, will I do it all correctly in stages?

Hello. Can you please tell me how you missed the net?

The method is of course a working one, but by welding it can be done 100 times faster in labor costs.

here we are not talking about labor costs, but about reliability and the fact that not everyone has welding

Who repairs such things, those who have it)))

Epoxy would not be better?

Uncle Olezha, everything is fine, but the lack of students' workwear is striking.
A guy from Makhachkala comes straight in a weekend jacket to the garage

no guys in a robe go to and from work

Interesting and useful video, among other things, like everyone else! Can you use this method on the doors in the corners?

Welcome to blog my.housecope.com/wp-content/uploads/ext/2102!

Let's talk about replacing the rear arches of the car. Rear arches on some car models are a weak point, easily corroded. There are options when you can "cure" rust without changing the arches, but, as a rule, the owners of cars pull until the last, when drastic measures are needed. The need to replace the rear arches arises, as a rule, due to their through corrosion. In such cases, all that remains is to cut off all the rusty metal and weld in its place a new, non-rusty segment. How to do this, and what subtleties you need to take into account. Let's take a look at everything in detail.

First, we need to define the boundaries of the corroded area. To do this, you need to clean off the old paintwork in a place where rust is visible. An autopsy, as they say, will show what's under the paint. It is necessary to clean it, with a margin retreating from the zone with corrosion to the zone with normal metal. An autopsy usually reveals that there is much more rust than meets the eye.

Next, we need to cut off all the corroded metal. We use the "grinder", we cut everything down to pure metal. After the rusty segment has been cut off, the reverse side of the remaining intact metal should be checked as far as possible. Why do we need this? It so happens that the front part of the part does not contain corrosion, but on the reverse side everything is much sadder. Usually you just have to enlarge the cut area a little in order to weld the repair segment to the good metal on both sides.

Cut out segment of the rear wing Arch self-made from sheet metal

Further to us you need to take a repair insert somewhere for welding and restoring the arch. Here you can choose the following options:

1. Take the desired segment from the donor's rear wing.
2. Take the required part from the new repair panel for the rear wing (if there is one on sale for the car model being repaired).
3. Cut the desired segment from sheet metal (usually from an unnecessary body panel). It all depends on what shape you need the segment. If a large part of the arch with complex shapes, edging was cut, then of course it is better to take and cut out a similar part from the donor's wing. Again, it depends on the cost of the rear wing of a particular car.Despite the complexity of the shapes, it is also possible to bend the desired segment from, for example, an unnecessary hood. If a complex shape does not work out, then you can make a segment of several simpler ones by welding them together.
4. Another option is to take the desired segment from a new or used front wing. In most car models, the front and rear fenders are similar in shape. The front wing is usually cheaper and easier to find than the rear wing. Thus, we take the desired “piece” from the front wing and adjust it to the rear one.

Welding a homemade arch New renovation arch The front fender is similar in shape to the arch of the rear fender.

How do I cut a sheet metal patch to the desired shape?

You can apply this method. Take a cardboard, lean it against the cut area and the borders of the cut area will be printed on it. Now you can cut a stamp out of cardboard along these boundaries, and use this stamp to cut out the necessary patch from metal. It is better to slightly increase the borders on the metal being cut out, since it will need to be welded with an overlap.

Welding the repair insert

The next step is to weld the repair insert. When welding, you must not overheat the metal. It is better to weld with dots, starting from one end of the patch, then weld with a dot on the other side and at intervals, then decrease the interval. The point is that the metal doesn't lead too much.

After welding, you need to clean the seam from oxides and grind the weld seam.

Weld seam protection

Next, you need to protect the seam from corrosion. One option is an epoxy anti-corrosive primer. After the soil has completely dried, you need to grind it without rubbing it to the metal, then you can apply a putty.

The back of the weld is also important to protect. For this, you can use anticorrosive primers in aerosol cans. The most important thing is to get to the back side. If there is no access, then you can use a can with a long tube and a nozzle on it. One of these variants is "Movil". Very comfortable design. You can crawl into a hidden cavity by inserting a tube into a small hole. Movil is not the best option for protecting against corrosion, but the nozzle tube can be adapted to any other protection in an aerosol can.

Then you can proceed to the final removal of the putty, priming with acrylic primer, preparation for painting and the actual painting.

Many Premasya owners and others are familiar with this problem. Like any disease, it is easier and cheaper to treat it at the initial stage, avoiding the appearance of through holes. Otherwise, a donor organ transplant in the form of a wing patch will be required. Let's assume that everything is not so bad with us and it looks something like this:

True, this is a 2005 Corolla. - European, but the essence is the same. Let's see what can be done, if there is a desire, a warm room and a compressor with a spray gun, but there is no money or it's a pity))). If anyone is not interested in the secrets of body repair, you can go straight to the end, where you will find out how you can protect the arch from corrosion.
So, we take a drill with a wire disk and clean off the swollen paint, carefully look so that there is no rust left under the paint, otherwise these places will then rise:

You can then clean especially rusty places with a grinder, but be careful - the metal is weakened and it is easy to make a hole. We clean the transition of paint to metal with a sandpaper, so that there is no sharp difference in height. The transition is processed correctly if the layers of primer and paint are consistently visible:

To speed up the process, you can first take a coarser skin - grain 80, then go to 120 and finish 240, going over the area with each subsequent abrasive a little further than the previous one. At the same time, keep in mind that the risk of a rougher 220 will not close with soil, so do not climb far to it. The rest of the surface is matted with 600 sandpaper. It is more convenient to work with water with a fine sandpaper, so that the abrasive does not clog, so after that it is necessary to dry thoroughly with prof. a hairdryer, especially caverns from corrosion, can be heated up to 60-80g, the paint is not afraid of this. We wipe the surface with a napkin with a degreaser and putty. The main mistake of beginners when puttingtying is that they smear it with a thick layer in the hope of then cutting off the excess with a sandpaper. It will be correct to apply 3-4 layers in succession, gradually approaching the shape of the surface, it should look something like this:

On top of the ground, apply a thin layer of a developing layer of any dark paint, conveniently from a spray can. The dried soil is rubbed with 600-800 sandpaper with water, the developing layer will show if there are defects. The rest of the part is matted with water, sandpaper 1000 and then Scotchbrite. The result is a smooth matte surface:

We paste over, degrease, wipe with a sticky cloth from dust and can be painted.
A few words about paints. I do not advise you to consider cans in principle. And not only because the color does not match, such enamel does not protect the lower layers from moisture poorly. Therefore, it is better to take paint on the selection of car enamels. I will reveal one of the most secret secrets: no colorist can match a color 100%. It is believed in narrow circles that 70-80% of color matching depends on the colorist, the rest depends on the art of the painter. He will make a test paint, if necessary, paint the paint. A good painter will never paint end-to-end parts, a transition is made to the old paint, so often instead of one part, you have to paint two or even three. In this case, I had to paint the entire wing, make the transition to the door and bumper:

As a result, there will be no discoloration even under artificial lighting. Have you met, probably, cars that look normal during the day, and under a lamp in the evening, as if parts from different cars?

Corrosion of the arch begins with damage to the edge by small stones flying from the wheel. So that after the first winter the rust does not climb again, it is necessary to protect this place. We buy elastic bands to protect the lower edge of the doors for VAZ-08. Cutting off the excess:

We coat the edge of the wing with anticorrosive well on both sides and put an elastic band on it, once again we coat it from the inside of the wing so that the water does not get under the elastic band. Outside, we remove the excess with gasoline, you get this beauty:

What materials to use? I will say this, there are no frankly bad materials now, those that are more expensive allow reducing the repair time, it is more convenient to work with them, and the quality mainly depends on the efforts and skills. A typical representative of budget materials is NOVOL. Provided the technology is followed, it provides quite sufficient quality:

Here is such a repair, nothing too complicated, go for it!

Message Carlos85 01 Oct 2012 10:41

Restoration of rotten rear arches with fiberglass putty, followed by painting with a transition.

I will warn you right away that this technology will most likely not work for the front arches. The flexibility of the front fenders will encourage cracking in the filler or at the joint with metal, even if it is with fiberglass. The rear arch, due to the design features of the wing, is more rigid, the metal in it is double, there are few flexible places in it.
I wrote in as much detail as possible, I hope no one should have any questions.

Repair work is divided into 2 stages:
1) restoration of the arch;
2) painting.

Tools and materials for the 1st stage:
- grinder (preferably small and light - it makes work easier);
- polishing machine with adjustable speed (1000 rpm minimum);
- round rough iron brush for the grinder;
- flap conical circle for grinder;
- cutting disc with a diameter of 120;
- matting paste;
- coarse polishing wheel with Velcro for matting (like an adhesive tape-bright);
- sandpaper: P80, P320, P600;
- soap;
- brush 30 mm wide;
- water;
- plastic wrap (many) or newspapers (many);
- paper tape (plastic tape is worse - it sticks like a bastard and leaves traces);
- spray from window cleaner or upholstery cleaner (empty can of any spray);
- office knife (large);
- two-component filler with fiberglass (I took Body - green can of filler + tube hardener);
- two-component finishing thin putty (I took Body - a white can of putty + hardener in a tube);
- a pair of rubber spatulas (40 and 60 mm);
- rust neutralizer (phosphoric acid);
- movil;
- wire with a diameter of 2-3 mm;
- insulating tape;
- PPE (glasses, gloves, respirator, headphones);
- all sorts of clean jars;
- clean rags.

Tools and materials for the 2nd stage:
- compressor;
- a gun for soil;
- paint gun;
- polishing machine with adjustable speed (1000 rpm minimum);
- two-component acrylic primer (I took Reoflex - a pot of primer and a jar of hardener included);
- acrylic solvent R-12;
- paint to match your car (ordered from paint workers, 200 g is enough for these cases for the eyes and still remains);
- paint thinner;
- two-component acrylic varnish (I took Reoflex - a can of varnish and a can of hardener included);
- Velcro felt polishing disc;
- thin polishing paste;
- PPE (gloves, respirator);
- dust wipes;
- all sorts of clean jars;
- clean rags.

The arch is made of double metal, in my case the outer metal is rotten, the inner one remains, although it has already begun to rust. Everything, of course, depends on how badly the arches are rotten - the fiberglass putty needs to cling to something and fill the cavity between the two layers of metal.
Before picking up the grinder, I strongly recommend that you glue the doorways in the car with film or newspapers tightly along the contour along the line of the sealing gum so that the doors can be left ajar. It is better to remove the door trim or also glue it. Otherwise, so much dust will fly into the cabin that mom don't worry!
The rear bumper will have to be removed (well, again, it depends on the degree of death of the arch and on the area of ​​work).

So everything is ready to go. We put on the brush on the grinder and remove the paint from the arches completely to the bend, where the arch passes into the wing. We clean until shiny metal. We carefully clean the rotten area. Some kind of elastic is laid along the contour of the arch in the cavity, we pull it out from there, pick it out with an awl or a thin screwdriver, clean everything as much as possible and process it with a rust neutralizer (it is convenient to wrap the head from the spray on a can of rust neutralizer and spray it). Sharp edges of a rotten area can be cut and trimmed with a cutting wheel. If some pieces of metal fall off, we do not regret and cut them down, only hard and pure metal should remain. If the rust has not gone away after the neutralizer, we spray again. After drying, the rust neutralizer should be washed off with soapy water, then rinsed with clean water. For this I used a jar of soapy water and a brush. For cleaning - spray with clean water.

Everything is ready for the putty. Fiberglass putty takes 5 minutes to set, so I don't recommend diluting it too much. I recommend that you use it in a volume approximately from the palm of your hand, because the work is delicate and no rush is needed.
During the first run, the putty is carefully plugged into the void between the two layers of metal in the arch, you should not try to mold the arch at once in one run - it will not work. I badlyazhil three or four times on the arch. We sculpt with a margin, we do not regret, then we can easily and cheerfully remove the excess with a grinder with a petal circle.The spatula must be smooth and rubber, and the jar for loosening is plastic and flexible, because when the putty dries, the spatula can be crumpled and everything will fly off from it, the same with the jar.

When the arch is sculpted with a "hairline", the work of a "sculptor" begins. We put on the petal circle on the grinder and carefully remove the excess putty, forming the body of the arch. The grinder cannot be done smoothly, so we leave the work for the sandpaper. It is obligatory (obligatory) to skin with a block, i.e. we take a block with a section of approximately 60x40 and a length of 120 mm, wrap P80 sandpaper on it and skin. The block gives us a flat surface, just do not sand it with your hands. We got a rough surface of the arch, as always, not without jambs, so badyazh the finishing putty and cover the jambs. Finishing skin P320, then bring to smoothness P600 with some water. I think it's not necessary with a thinner skin, everything turned out well for me and the P600.

Particular attention should be paid to the transition from metal to old paint. Sand the transition so that the old layers of paint and soil smoothly flow into each other. Visually, this means smooth sanding. To control, swipe your finger - you shouldn't feel anything.
Before painting, the surface around the arch should be matted. To do this, we take a polishing machine, put a matting circle on it, smear the wing with paste and matte the surface with 1000 revolutions. It is important to mat the entire surface on which the paint and varnish will lie with an overlap. Those. we matt about 30 centimeters from the arch around (upwards right to the window), we don’t regret the area, the excess matting is then polished. In hard-to-reach places on the bend at the door, we matte with fine sandpaper and water. Matting must be done carefully so as not to wipe the old varnish through and through, but we do not leave any bald spots. After matting, the surface must be rinsed.

Now it is necessary to process the cavity between the two layers of metal in the arch with Movil. Movil should be bought with a flexible tube with a nozzle at the end to spray in all directions. We will stick in from the side of the trunk. To do this, we fold back the fabric sheathing to the bulkhead (it will be immediately visible - the gap between the inner wall and the outer wing metal). Movil's tube is short - you have to lengthen it. We cut it in half, insert any other tube into the cut (we estimate the length so that it reaches more than half of the arch. We wrap it with electrical tape and order it. We take a wire 2-3 mm in diameter, straighten it and attach our tube to the wire. Now we can push the whole thing deeper into the arch.We spray generously, not with jelly, the entire cavity of the arch must be processed.

And now the winter has passed. What happened to the arches you ask? They are safe! The only thing that I would advise is to paint with varnish at least 2 times. the coating is very weak (compared to the factory one) and is more prone to chips and scratches. For this reason, several "bugs" were opened - I covered them with "nail polish" - paint very similar to it for lubricating the body, in a small bottle with a brush. I had to additionally cover the inside of the arch with anti-gravel with a little overlap on the paint (about 1 cm), but almost invisible. Again, I advise you to do this immediately after the repair in order to more effectively protect the end - the connection of the two parts of the arch (inner and outer). The fiberglass putty holds up perfectly - tightly knocking. So such repairs take place, but on condition that they are made with high quality and accuracy.

Before working with the welding machine, you need to disconnect the power supply, that is, the battery. The problem we have is this, we need to heal the arch covered with corrosion.

First of all, we clean everything with an emery machine and cut out the damaged area with a grinder.

After the damaged area has been cut out, we treat everything with acid so that there is no more corrosion. We make blanks, cut out patches. Made of food grade stainless steel 0.8 thickness.

We scald from the inside and cover with baxitic soil. Carefully, even under the seams.

If it is not convenient for you or it is difficult for you to make a patch in diameter, you can use cardboard for this. Apply and press down around the perimeter of the cutout. You will have a trace, cut and apply to the metal to cut a patch according to your cardboard layout.
For in-depth processing, you will also need a Movil, a hose with a spray nozzle in all directions.

After all the treatments, take the first patch and insert its hole where the cut was. In order to be able to calmly control the patch, it is necessary to weld on an unnecessary screwdriver or a metal rod.

Due to the fact that you weld it to the patch, it will give you the dignity not only to regulate it, but also to press it tightly to the metal. And so we weld on all the patches.

Then it is necessary to clean everything up so that the plane is even and during painting everything does not stick out. We clean with a grinder and then go through with a special iron brush for a grinder.

With a brush, we clean everything inside the seams so that there are no deposits and in the future it does not oxidize and does not become covered with rust. And to be sure, we go through the circus again.
Next, you need to take 120 sandpaper and apply risks. After applying the marks, it is necessary to degrease everything.

After it dries, cover with baxitic primer. As the primer dries well, reapply the risks with 120 sandpaper. Then we apply a thick layer of putty.

Apply the putty tightly under the seam, and tightly without air. After sanding with a die, so that it is exactly without pits.

Degrease again before applying with the universal filler.

We apply a universal putty and on the applied risks from 120 sandpaper and on the remaining unfinished work, pores, align the edging.

We are waiting for the putty to dry and proceed to sanding. We will sand 240 with sandpaper. At the end, if pores remain, we re-pass it with putty and sand it.

Then we apply several layers of primer, let it dry for 5 minutes between the layers.

The end we will have is painting, paint over by color, and your arch is ready.

Car owners, as a rule, endure very firmly the troubles that arise during the operation of the car. For example, it is not so difficult to change the engine oil and filter kit once a year, or replace the bones and steering tips every two years. But as soon as rust appears on individual fragments of the body, the pep disappears somewhere and there is an obsessive desire to get rid of the car as soon as possible.

Perhaps this is the best option. It is known that if rust has already appeared, the metal will inevitably start to rot. Especially in our climatic conditions, when the air humidity is high enough, and in winter, reagents are added to the influence of the environment, which treat the roadway flying on the bottom, sills and fenders. However, the issue with the wings is easy to solve. Since this part is removable, it can be replaced with a new one and not waste energy fighting corrosion. But when the rear arches start to rot, things start to take a serious turn.

By and large, arches can be digested. This procedure is done in many car services in a few days. But all this justifies itself only if the car is planned to be operated for several more years. Replacing arches is not cheap because entails not only the installation of a new wing fragment, but also the painting of its entire surface. In addition, the wing will need to be aligned before applying paint, which also takes a lot of time and therefore costs money.

Of course, installing new arches is the best option for those who care about the appearance of the car and the high quality of the work done. But if the motorist plans only to suspend the corrosion, and not to eradicate it, which, in principle, is impossible, then, as an option, you can try to restore the arches corroded by rust and safely use the car for a while, as if nothing had happened. True, it all depends on the degree of erosion of the part.

The arch restoration procedure is simple in theory, but laborious in practice. First, you need to remove the old paint with the help of a grinder and special metal brushes and assess the condition of the metal. If it is satisfactory, you can start working procedures.The metal surface should be cleaned of rust as much as possible and then treated with liquid zinc. Of course, there is no guarantee that it will preserve the remains of iron, but it will not get any worse. Still, it will provide minimal protection to the metal.

The next stage is the most time consuming. Now you need to restore the surface damaged by corrosion with putty and bring out the shape of the arch. This is done in several passes. The putty is applied to the damaged areas, then you should wait for a while for it to harden, and the already hardened material is further processed. The time it will take to restore the surface directly depends on the requirements set by the owner of the machine for the quality of the work performed and the skill of the person who will perform it.

As soon as it is possible to achieve a positive result, you can start painting, not forgetting about the need to carry out the appropriate preparatory work. The procedure for painting refurbished arches is no different from how other parts of a car are painted. Those. first, a primer is applied to the prepared surface, then several layers of paint are applied, after which all this is varnished. At the end of the work, it is advisable to leave the car indoors for a day and refrain from traveling.

Of course, the proposed method of dealing with rotting arches is not a panacea. It is more suitable for those who can no longer admire the rusty sides, but also do not have the opportunity to carry out large-scale work or buy a new car. However, if all goes well, the appearance of the car will be satisfactory for at least one year. Well, there, you see, it will become possible to find another way out of the situation, for example, to sell a car or exchange it for another.