anyone know how to fix rust?

Question

the rear wheel wells on my car are rusting out and i want to find a cheap way to fix it without it looking like crap

Answer 1

It's hard to advise without seeing the amount of rust damage , but KBS Coatings offers products for rust repair you can DIY and save $$$. Visit their website for details or call for exact advice.

Answer 2

There is some other good advise others have mentioned, so I won't repeat it. There is one other trick which I haven't seen others mention yet:

If you have large areas which have rusted out, other than welding in new metal (the best, but most $$ method), you can fix it yourself. Buy some wire mesh, called "hardware cloth" at a hardware store, and some bondo (or equivalent non name brand body filler). Grind or wire brush out all the old rust and seal the metal with rust converter as others have mentioned. Use the wire mesh to "reconstruct" the area of metal which is missing. Use a ball peen hammer to create indentations in the edges of the existing metal, and drill holes in the indentations. Wire the mesh into these holes to form a good physical attachment. Make sure you peen the holes deep enough that you can get a coat of body putty completely over the wire mesh. The wire mesh will form a framework you can fill with body putty, and will act as reinforcement in much the same was a rebar does in concrete. When dry, shape the surface to match the angles of your car, sand, and paint. If you are not painting in exactly the color of your car, I've found it looks better if you mask the area being painted and keep all angles straight. I will still look obviously like a repair job, but for some reason it looks better than the cars you see with all sorts of odd shaped "dots" and squiggles of repairs.

Answer 3

First of all how badly rusted out are the wells now? If you are rusting through, - or just surface rust?? The secret here, - is you have to stop the rust in the first place! So if you have surface rust only, (meaning that it is not through the metal anywhere) then you can "clean up" the surface, and "touch up paint"... You can buy DupliColor "touch up sticks", which look somewhat fingernail polish tubes, - and have a similar looking brush, - if the "pips" are small enough. However this is going to depend also on how big the rust spots are. If this is just "stone nicks" from stuff being thrown up from the road, -then chances are that they are very small!

Now "wheel wells" normally refer to the part up inside between; the outer "fender lip", _ and the body! Which is usually painted black or some other dark color! -- So I am assuming this is what you mean. If you actually are meaning the "outer lip" of the fender, - which is the outer part of (painted) fender,- We then have the problem of wether it is rusted from the inside between the fender and the wheel well! This is going to have to be stopped somehow, or it will continue to eat out more and more, even is the paint on surface looks ok! Soon it will get a "million little bubbles", and then one day you will have a very large rust hole along a large area of the fender lip!! If this is what is hapening then you need to see if you can get in behind the "upholstry" panels inside the trunk, and get something down between the fender and the well inside to stop the rust there. There is a product called "extend" which is liquid, and drys to a rustproof surface, - it actually encapsules the rust, - so it can't "grow" anymore. . It works on outside, but it drys to a very hard surface, and it is hard to sand it out so that it doesn't show "lumps" under repaired surface! Where-ever it runs out through holes in the outer surface, you can wipe it clean, and it is actually water soluable, - if you get it before it hardens! Hopefully you can pour some of this all along the mating surface where the well and the surface meet However it will be hard to see where you are puting it , -as a lot of bracing and "double walling" covers at least half of that fender area up on most cars!

The actual wheel well (which isn't too visible from outside) can even be patched and smoothed out with "fiber base roofing patch material".. I used to live in Wisconsin, and I went over everything in fall to make sure all the rust holes didn/'t get bigger, - and keep the snow and stuff out of inter parts of body!

I you have "big" holes you are just going to have to stop as much as you can, and live with it, -- or you are going to have to take to a bodyshop, and have panels and sheetmetal in that area replaced If holes already cpoming through,- and rather large!
It won't be cheap, as the more they remove, the more they can see is bad, - or going to be bad soon!


If only on the outer edge of lip, - maybe you can buy a fancy "rubberized fender trim" which will at least cover it up for a while - till it gets so bad even that par rusts and flalls off, - so there is nothing to secure the "trim" to!

Answer 4

The right way is to cut or grind out the rust and weld in new metal.

you can do a temp fix by wirebrushing and sanding out the lose rust and converting it with rust converter and use fiberglass as a filler. Lasts about 2 years.

Answer 5

Go to a parts house and pick up some stuff called navel jelly usually in a pink liquid . it might be called something else now. wipe on real heavy and let it sit on the rusty area for about an hour. Then hose off.. Then sand area and prime it to paint... Used it on my 72' chevelle and the rust has never been back...

Below is the web adress of the product manufactor...

Answer 6

Sand thoroughly until you get to bare metal then paint over with a rust converter or a product called Por-15. to completley eliminate it.

Answer 7

rust is like a cancer you cannot stop it. either cut it out and mold it back and body filler which takes a professional so there is no easy or cheap way to repair it.

Answer 8

masking tape on the paint rustoleum paint color you select go to hardware store for help try walmart

Answer 9

Ketchup. Rub it really well.. trust me it does work.