Well, this is different... (rust)

[dlhoovler]

Doing some work on the Orange Car before putting it away for the winter--including changing out the brake hoses that were last replaced 17 years ago. The right front was particularly troublesome, especially since the bracket on the inner fender was moving around with a sickening crunch of rust while I was trying to loosen the fittings. After removing about 5 pounds of undercoating from this 3X5-inch portion of the wheel well, I found that the bracket is only barely connected to the inner fender anymore. I've never heard of this as a particularly bad rust point, and the car overall isn't a rust bucket, but I think the undercoating (applied when the car was new) may have worked against me here by trapping moisture between the bracket and fender; Ziebart gaveth and Ziebart tooketh away. I'd noticed the rust on the engine-compartment side, but didn't realize it was this extensive.

 

Unfortunately, since I can't weld (yet) and just need to get the car functional again, I'm probably going to wind up cutting out the bracket and surrounding rust, grinding the back side of the bracket flat, securing a patch panel inside the engine compartment with pop rivets or bolts, and then bolting the bracket to the patch panel, with liberal amounts of paint and sealer. I hope it'll hold it until I can get a more permanent/proper repair done down the road.

 

Just sharing for our ongoing documentation of places that rust on these things...

 

-Dave

[Cruzr]

The rust in that area is the result of the two drainage points on the bracket. The wax product probably clogged the drain, and the rust just got worst over the years.

Looks like you are going to have to patch the inner fender and then weld the bracket.

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[rcf925]

That seems like an excessive amount of undercoating, There was probably a brake fluid leak at some point that caused that

[Mike Self]

Hi Dave

I feel your pain--my '69 has rust in exactly the same spot--a legacy of 30 Ohio winters before I retired it from daily use.  Bring yours down some weekend, I'll unlimber my MIG welder and we'll fix it.  Your pop rivet repair is perfectly adequate for the nonce and will keep the metal lines from vibrating (and possibly fracturing).  

 

The rust was caused by the bracket being spot welded to the inner fender well and then covered by the factory schutz.  As with the trailing edge of the front fenders, when the schutz bond to the metal failed, moisture crept in and rusted the joint, which stayed moist due to the schutz covering. 

 

Another spot that does this is on the right rear quarter, about halfway between the wheel opening and the rear panel,  A small bracket is welded to the quarter panel and to the metal trunk floor, presumably to stiffen the panel a bit.  It's very vulnerable to rust, and will cause blistering and an eventual hole in that panel, seemingly without a cause until you look underneath the car and spot the remains of the bracket. When I re-did my '69 the first time, I simply cut the bracket away at both ends and welded up the hole--that was over 30 years ago and the quarter panel hasn't fallen off yet!

 

mike

[dlhoovler]

Thanks, Mike! I will have to take you up on that offer sometime--and maybe you can show me some welding basics in the process. By the way, the car does in fact have a rust bubble in the passenger's rear quarter as you describe, and the original front fenders had the rust on their trailing edges before they were replaced in 2004.

 

Outside of the above, there are a couple of spots of rust on the rear fender lips, the usual place on the nose panel where the factory radiator overflow dumped, a few spots on the rear outer rockers where the two panels overlap, and a small place on the passenger's rear wheel well in the trunk where the spring perch joins the underside. It's kind of a laundry list of the usual suspects, just thankfully none is too bad yet! One of these years I'll learn to weld and do a full rust repair and repaint, but not this year!

 

-Dave

[dlhoovler]

1 hour ago, rcf925 said:

That seems like an excessive amount of undercoating, There was probably a brake fluid leak at some point that caused that

 

Aw, that's nothin'! There was a guy who did rustproofing for decades in my hometown who clearly believed in the "more is better" approach. He shot his "proprietary" mix of goop absolutely everywhere under a car, including inside the hood and trunk. Afterward, a prop rod was usually needed to keep the trunk lid open. The goop probably added a hundred pounds or more of road-hugging weight to the car. Some local mechanics refused to work on cars he'd "treated." 

 

And they still rusted out. Brake fluid may have contributed to this spot, but it's certainly mostly the effects of road salt from its first couple of winters (after that it was retired from snow duty). And the salt formulations are only worse today. This is why guys from the Midwest/Northeast dream of California cars!

 

-Dave

Edited November 20, 2019 by dlhoovler

[dlhoovler]

Following up, the "temporary" repair is done. I cut out the rust, riveted a steel plate over the hole from the engine compartment side (with asphalt roof patch as an added adhesive/sealant), and bolted the bracket to the plate. Seems like it'll hold until I'm able to get it welded up properly. 

 

-Dave

[Mike A]

That works!