[Riot Racing]

I purchased some extra doors for my 54 chevrolet 210 deluxe to use as a patch panel. How do you recommend I deal with this rust?
I have dealt with cancer and surface rust, but nothing in between like this.



The plan is to cut a straight line about where the paint was stripped off to. Then cut this same amount out of my current door and place this patch on the door.


Sounds easy, but will probably consume alot of my time

[2vmodular]

in the salt belt northeast, we'd call that light surface rust. you should be able to etch that rust away with naval jelly



if the rust turns out to be thicker than expected, you might need to wait for the naval jelly to dry, wire wheel off the rust that the naval jelly loosened up, and recoat with naval jelly again.

[deadbodyman]

I wouldnt cut those doors at all..instead go to the local metal shop and have them make a universal door bottom, its just a piece of metal with a 90 degree bend and a 1/2" lip,those tri 5 door bottoms are some of the easiest doors to rebuild ever made. I can go into a lot more detail about the ends and how to weld without warping it but thats the basic idea...Or you could just mount those doors on your car,clean them up and paint them.... they look great a tri 5 door of any shape is worth something,dont ruin them.

[armentrout]

If you don't have holes, just pits clean them good and shoot it with feather fill

http://www.evercoat.com/productDetail.aspx?pID=70

[wyomingclimber]

I just dealt with a lot of pitting on a '52 Chevy pickup and if those pits are as deep as mine I can assure you that naval jelly and a wire wheel won't penetrate far enough to get the rust out. Also, Featherfill really won't cover them properly (you'll have to start with a skim coat of regular body filler.)

It's possible that you could build a vat and soak it for a few days in a rust remover like this: http://www.rustremoval.biz. but I can't guarantee it would work.

That's not a whole lot of surface area, if I were you, I'd just buy a cheap spot blaster like this. and have at it. Shouldn't be much more than an hour's work.

If you go this route, keep in mind that sand is pretty toxic.

Good luck!

[Riot Racing]

Gentlemen,
The first picture shows some minor pit holes and this I can probably just use some filler and solve my problem. But, look at the second picture, there are several holes that have eaten through the metal and have started a 1/16th-1/8th dia hole. I think I will drill these out and make some patch pieces and weld those in.

Deadbodyman:
These doors aren't from a tri five car. It's a 54. The doors I bought to make my patch panels are doors that someone tried to make a choptop car and ruined. So, there are no top frames to the doors which is why I got them for a discounted price.

[2vmodular]

naval jelly can eat away heavy rust scale. the phosphoric acid gel works really slowly so you'll have to be really patient if you've got a lot of rust. here's a link to pictures of what i accomplished with this stuff over the course of a few days:

Rusted Wheel Rim Flange

there could be an access issue with that rust if it's coming through from the back side of the panel. so maybe phosphoric acid in a liquid form would be better than in a gel form for this application.

Originally Posted by wyomingclimber

I just dealt with a lot of pitting on a '52 Chevy pickup and if those pits are as deep as mine I can assure you that naval jelly and a wire wheel won't penetrate far enough to get the rust out. Also, Featherfill really won't cover them properly (you'll have to start with a skim coat of regular body filler.)

It's possible that you could build a vat and soak it for a few days in a rust remover like this: http://www.rustremoval.biz. but I can't guarantee it would work.

That's not a whole lot of surface area, if I were you, I'd just buy a cheap spot blaster like this. and have at it. Shouldn't be much more than an hour's work.

[wyomingclimber]

Originally Posted by 2vmodular

naval jelly can eat away heavy rust scale. the phosphoric acid gel works really slowly so you'll have to be really patient if you've got a lot of rust.

I had a different kind of pitting. Very deep, with really steep sides--looked like someone had worked over the metal with an ice pick. I swear I went through a half gallon of naval jelly, applying it, covering it with plastic to keep it wet, hitting it with various wire wheels, etc. Nada.

Based on a later post, this guy seems to actually have holes. That's a completely different ballgame. I think a cutting wheel and a welder is probably what he needs...

[armentrout]

If he has holes time to get out the ziz wheel! I agree!

[2vmodular]

looking at the http://www.rustremoval.biz website, i'm suspecting that their rust removal products use phosphoric acid as the active ingredient. the peices of metal treated with their product have the characteristic dark grey color to them. and the msds sheets mention phosphorous vapors.

[millercustomfab]

Ospho or any of those type products. Sand with 80 to remove the residue, clean, and a skim of metal glaze or similar product.

[scrot]

Originally Posted by 2vmodular

looking at the http://www.rustremoval.biz website, i'm suspecting that their rust removal products use phosphoric acid as the active ingredient. the peices of metal treated with their product have the characteristic dark grey color to them. and the msds sheets mention phosphorous vapors.

NO.
It works by chelation. It reacts with the rust and dissolves it. I've actually used that product. It works as advertised.

[swvalcon]

If your going to pacth your door why would you use old metal to do it? Get a new sheet of tin and cut the length you need lay the edge over a 2x4 or a peice of 1/4" steel and made a 90 degree bend and you've got a door bottom. I bet I've made 300 of them over the last 40 years.

[deadbodyman]

I agree 100%...The problem is ,if it has holes anywhere that have already broken through that you can see, theres holes that are ready to pop through somewhere else that you cant see... the best way is to replace the whole bottom...(with new metal) if it was anywhere else like a roof or trim holes I would suggest you use Ospho and epoxy before any filler...one thing you can do to "completely" remove rust and see just how bad it really is ,is to build an electrolilitic rust tank with a 12v battery charger and some sodium carbonate (wash soda not baking soda)....Its very easy and cost less than 20.00 to build ..."NOTHING" removes rust as well as this...it'll get the inside as well as the outside and in between the folded lips that even media blasting cant get at... in 24 hrs...just fill the tank with the solution ,put the door in the tank, hook up the chargerand walk away,its easy, Ive done this and was very impressed...It'll even get rusted nuts and bolts loose.These are the only pics I have on hand but the process works on anything thats rusty...
Once the rust is taken care of and you have bare (unprotected )metal ,what I do is scrub in some ospho and let it dry then use an epoxy primer (only) to seal it up...

[2vmodular]

on something like thick like a steel wheel or a car's frame, you can get all sorts of oddball rust pit patterns. there's lots of metal there to corrode, and not only can rust go straight down, but it can also go sideways in between two layers of "good metal".

on thin sheetmetal, it's difficult to get inaccessible rust going sideways between two layers of "good metal". when the sheetmetal gets corroded like this, it becomes really weak and one of the ultra-thin layers of sheetmetal covering the rust will tear off when you hit it with a wire wheel.

Originally Posted by wyomingclimber

I had a different kind of pitting. Very deep, with really steep sides--looked like someone had worked over the metal with an ice pick. I swear I went through a half gallon of naval jelly, applying it, covering it with plastic to keep it wet, hitting it with various wire wheels, etc. Nada.