Well, I love cars, I love working on them, and I love driving them... but the one thing I have very little experience with is body work.

This is my wife's Hyundai. This dent was caused by a concrete curb around a culvert opening. Anyway, what I figured I need to do is sand all the rusted area down to bare metal and then fill/paint. Is there anything else I should do? I was thinking maybe apply a product prior to filling and painting that would make sure the rust is completely gone? Not sure what products are out there, but I know a lot of you are experienced in body work and even do it professionally.

She is mainly bothered by the surface rust, and as you can see the area is not visible unless you look under the car. Thanks for any advice you can offer.

 

I don't know alot about bodywork either but I think you have the right idea. After sanding the area use rust dissolving gel. Then after cleaning it thoroughly you can apply some heavy rust encapsulating paint like Rust-O-Leum. Once that dries then you can fill it and use touch-up paint. At least, that is what I would do.

 

Sounds good to me!

Something like this? http://www.permatex.com/products/aut...solver_Gel.htm

I have never used such a product, but I figure I can't go too wrong with Permatex, and it's only $5 at O'Reilly.

Thanks for the reply.

 

Any opinions on these?

http://www.rustoleumautomotive.com/p...ng-primer.aspx

http://www.rustoleumautomotive.com/p...al-primer.aspx

http://www.rustoleumautomotive.com/p...er-sealer.aspx

 

Bryan, just be careful how much filler you need to use. Generally it's used to even out small imperfections - not big dents. A large gob of filler has a higher probabilty of breaking loose and you're back to square one. If you have to build it up, do it in thin layers, sand then re-apply another layer.

You can use that permatex stuff, or some dupont metal conditioner to remove any rust before filling.

I'd go with the lightest color of the high build primer you can. If you drop into NAPA, they can prolly make you up an aerosol spray bomb (with one of the nice spray tips) for when you paint. Shake well - and remember: thin coat; allow to tack then another thin coat till you're happy with the result. Seeing how her car is metallic, you will likely notice any mismatch because of the way the flakes may lay down.

Sorry to see that dent there. Glad you're keeping the Mrs. happy. Is that an Accent?

 

Thanks for the advice Allan. I will check out Napa.

I have been putting off doing this for her for a while now. Fortunately rust doesn't develop quickly here. When I do finally get it done I'll snap some pics and post an update.

It is a 2004 Accent. It has been a great little car, she got it used in 2005 with something like 7,000 miles on it. It now has around 58,000 I think. The 104hp DOHC 1.6L amazes me sometimes!

 

Yup, them little Hyundai's just keep getting better and better. I have a 2007 Sonata. It had a nasty door ding in the passenger rear down to the metal. Everyone said it needed to be fixed and repainted or it would rust through. 3 years later all I do is wax it and it's just fine. Hmmm, $5.00 for wax, 450.00 for a fix/paint?? No brainer. Doesn't affect how the car drives.

Another solution to the problem, which you prolly have considered and it WAY easier and less messy? Clean the damage really well, use metal conditioner to dissolve the rust, then just primer and paint. After all it's in an inconspicuous spot anyway? And if she's not worried about how it looks, just the rust issue - I'd definitely take the path of least resistance on that one.

 

Bryan,
It's hard to tell in the photo but did the door gap get closed up along the bottom rear of the door? Just make sure the door isn't rubbing on the rocker. Unless you are going to pull or push the damage out, I wouldn't fill it with body filler. As Allan mentioned, it will eventually crack and that could trap moisture in it causing more issues. If the dent isn't too offensive to you, just clean up the rust and put some paint on the bare metal. This way the repair is only paint touch up. If you use filler and primer, the area that needs painting will get larger and the repair may not look as good.
Brian

 

[QUOTE=Allan R;443373]Yup, them little Hyundai's just keep getting better and better. I have a 2007 Sonata. It had a nasty door ding in the passenger rear down to the metal. Everyone said it needed to be fixed and repainted or it would rust through. 3 years later all I do is wax it and it's just fine. Hmmm, $5.00 for wax, 450.00 for a fix/paint?? No brainer. Doesn't affect how the car drives.QUOTE]

My one daughter had an 08 Sonata that she enjoyed and my youngest drives an 08 Elantra. Nice cars, dependable and that Elantra gets great gas mileage. The Elantra got a huge ding in the L/R door when it was less than a year old and I ended up fixing it as it looked pretty bad.

 

I enjoy my 07 Sonata a lot. It's the Limited model with all the whistles and bells, leather, yada yada...and the 3.3 V6. Lots of pep, but a little hard on gas (18mpg city, 27 highway. In spite of that I'd buy it all over again.

Surprisingly my wifes Saturn gets hellishly good mileage around town - 33mpg. Its a 96 and only has 90K miles on it. But that's about what you'd expect from a little 1.9 L SOHC 4 banger? Only thing I like about the Saturn body? Them flexible door panels. The gaps & fitment suck. I need to do a fishplate repair on the drivers side sub frame. It's got some nasty corrosion on the lower section. Planning on making a template from cardboard, picking up some 3/16" plate steel and cutting it out. If I can grind down the areas needed for welding, I'll find someone to weld it in - maybe a muffler shop. Should only need to be tacked. I can put seam seal around the rest and finish it off with some POR. Much easier than pulling the subframe and replacing it.

 

Bryan and Brian
Here's a product I was looking at for some time now. Either of you have an opinion? I'm thinking it could be great for restoring some metal parts like battery trays, wheels or even nuts/bolts. Your thoughts?

I was particularly interested in the comment that you could weld directly to a treated surface and that it forms a water based primer that can be painted directly onto.

 

Dang..this stuff is so good it's invisible! Talk about a hidden repair.

 

My bad, I forgot the link didn't I? Here it is (Gee, how many times now have I done this? I think I must be at the early stages of dementia). Now... what was I.. oh yeah! The video is pretty interesting.
http://www.therustdoctor.com/

 

My daughter went for the Sonata SE and it was nice. I went with her to look/buy it and she did a lot of research on it so she knew the car well. Dopey kid salesman (lot rat) didn't know this car any more than he could talk about building a lunar rover. He was quite embarrassed when a 21 year old girl kept correcting him every time he threw out incorrect info. It was something to see and definitely one for the books. We still laugh about it. She also worked him pretty good on the price too. She wanted to upgrade and she now has a 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The Elantra does 33 hghway and my youngest was complaining a little that she just got 27 mpg's because of a lot of city driving on the last tank. LOL! She's now talking about getting the 2013 Sante FE Sport as she wants AWD for her job. Sorry Bryan....we got off topic here.

 

I think this product (and there are others that are similar) have their place and probably do a good job. I have never used any of them so I can't speak from experience. The metal being coated would need to be solid and depending on the intended use, I'm sure this would be fine. I would have taken the panel he showed, threw it in the blast cabinet and took all the rust off of it and then coated it with epoxy primer. But this would cost more and would not be an option for those who did not have the same equipment. For some items that just need to be sealed to prevent future rust, I think it would be fine. But I don't think I would use it on any exterior sheetmetal on a car. Floor pans would be fine and a frame too. Not sure how well it would hold up to acid so I'm not sure if it would solve the rust problem with battery trays.

 

Thx for the input Brian. I also am a strong believer in removing as much visible rust as possible. But as you know rust is one of those nasty 4 letter words that is like a malignant cancer. What I thought was interesting was the products containment of rust and it's ability to flow into areas that wouldn't be able to be blasted. FWIW I don't think there's anything short of plastic that will contain battery acid and not rust.

I don't like the way the battery tray was installed in the Cutlass line. Especially the separate nut/bolt assemblies that always seize up due to weather exposure in the front wheel well.

I'm thinking of ordering some of that stuff and using it on the sub frame of my wifes Saturn after I do the fish plate weld repair. Rust Doctor claims it's impervious to UV/IR and under the car the worst it will be exposed to is heat very minor tranny leak and road spray. I do wash under the car with a pressure washer regularly.

 

Allan, I did consider that, and it is what I would prefer to do. I will start there and see how she feels about it. I told her of the potential problems you warned about with filling a larger area and the stuff cracking or falling out. As you mentioned later in this thread about rust being one of those nasty 4 letter words, that is my main concern.

Brian, the door gap did not get closed up from the damage. Looking at the photo it sort of appears that it did though. Thanks for the advice, I am pretty sure that's how we're gonna do it.

I don't have any experience with a product like this either. It sounds pretty good from the website though. I like that you can apply it by brushing or rolling it on, rather than needing to dip the rusted part. I'd definitely be willing to give it a try. Let me know how you like it if you do purchase some for your wife's Saturn... I'd like to brush it on and around the battery tray on my Olds!