Hey, I own a 97 Eagle Talon but as you can see it has some rust on the passenger side just ahead of the rear wheel. Below are 4 pictures that give you a pretty good idea of what I am facing. Sorry that the car is dirty, but I think it is clean enough to see what is going on. I have only a little experience doing body work(fixed a dented fender on an older car) but would like to do it myself for both monetary and experience reasons. So my question is how would you fix this? Would I have to cut all that out and somehow luckily bend some sheet metal to weld in its place?

Thats deep man.


I will post some ideas for you tomorrow, im too tired to do so right now. But, we can fix it, dont worry.

Before I get detailed tomorrow though...

are you looking for a cheap easy fix to get you by for a few or are you looking for something to actually last you awhile?

I would like to do it right but I also only have limited funds, quite a bit of time and no need to drive the car but not too much money.

Well, there are 2 ways you can go about this.

The cheaper way:

Grind as much rust out of there as you can. Lay down some masking tape over the areas that you are repairing. Get some fiberglass matting and lay the matting over the entire area and fiberglass it. When it cures and hardens, pull the whole mold piece off. Remove the masking tape from the back of your fiberglass mold. Now put your mold back up to the car and trace the area of where your going to be molding this piece onto the body and trim the areas. Get some SEM or 3M glue and glue/rivet the new fglass piece onto the body. Scuff the glass down to get out any air bubbles or whatever. Then just get some body filler and mold the piece into the body and over the fglass. Sand it smooth, prime and paint it. This is an easy and cost effective way to go about fixing rust, but the longevity of it is questionable although fglass and is very tough.

The more expensive and long lasting way:

Get a loaner car and cut out the entire section that is rusted and weld it onto your car, then body filler over the welds and straighten out the body and then your good. I am not even going to get more in depth into this way unless you really want me too...

Originally posted by eclipse982nrRST
Get a donor car and cut out the entire section that is rusted and weld it onto your car

fixed, I don't think anyone would want their car that they loaned someone cut up for rust repairs on another vehicle.

just glass it man, I've seen fiberglass repairs last 15+ years when the original surface was roughed up to bare metal for a few inches around the damage.

I would like to patch it with something that would last as this will be my project car. I am up to trying to see how bad it is then cut out and weld in a new panel, the problem is that I would almost certainly need to shape the panel myself as there aren't too many of these cars up here let alone ones that I could take the panels off of(legally anyways lol).

I do have some access to some sheet metal benders/rollers through school(mechanical engineer) and I am thinking about going to look at a cheap electric welder(one that runs off of a 110v 15a outlet) that should be good enough to weld a new piece in.

I also have another 98 talon with a good body so that can let me check my panel shape that I am making, is there any way to use fiberglass or something to build kind of a mold to help shape a body panel like this? I have never worked with fiberglass and no nothing about it really.

Oh no no no no no

Yuck, son of a bitch.

I should have just sold the car...

Ok, now instead of how to fix my rust, lets play a different game, how to fix the hole...

I don't think I will be using fiberglass...

Anyone got a spare side of a car laying around that a buddy in need could have for shipping(depending on what shipping costs...)

Btw the carnage you are about to see was done with a slight tap of the foot and then with bare fingers...















I guess I could just use the engine for my build like I had planned and then throw that into my other car. I wanted to have 2 running cars when I got done though, argh. Let me know if I can even fix this...

Honestly that looks pretty bad man. That is a common rust area for 2gs.

!

Its scrap now pretty much...unless you have the money to do A LOT of cutting and welding....

One more question for now, what is that metal that is rested through on the inside. Is that part of the box rail/frame? I am having trouble figuring out if it is supposed to be structural.

Thats just the side of the car. If you take out the interior panels where your 6x9s are, you should be able to see right thru to the outside...

Originally posted by 740 turbo brick
Thats just the side of the car. If you take out the interior panels where your 6x9s are, you should be able to see right thru to the outside...

Awesome, I was kind of thinking that, I wasn't quite sure though. I think I can still fix it, I wish I still lived on the farm and had access to a torch, grinder, welder etc. We will have to see.

As of now I plan on cutting everything rusted out of there(hopefully there is still a car left when I get done...) and go from there.

holy crap!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've never seen an eclipse that bad. Porsche 914's are known to do that but WOW

Damnnnnnnnn!! I just cringed, why you let it get like that? Rust is some powerful s***. First time I ever saw a 2g rust through the plastic like that.

Originally posted by 96TurboGS
Damnnnnnnnn!! I just cringed, why you let it get like that? Rust is some powerful s***. First time I ever saw a 2g rust through the plastic like that.

I just got the car not quite 2 years ago. It had already started to rust there(probably nearly as bad just not as visible from outside). I had a guy that could fix it for a reasonable price last year but didn't have the money.

Originally posted by 740 turbo brick
Thats just the side of the car. If you take out the interior panels where your 6x9s are, you should be able to see right thru to the outside...

Cool. Sounds like a nice escape route in case you need to bail from your car in a hurry. :wavy

I decided to take out my back seats and plastic etc to take a look from the inside. I couldn't see very much that was helpful except it did let me know how far up the panel the rust goes which happens to be only an inch to 2 inches max further then the whole is.

What was interesting was when I decided to check on the other side of the car.

This pic is the piece of metal that is directly in front of rear wheel.


The panel itself, cancer just starting, looks worse then it is thanks to dirt/dust in there too.


Camera turned to see more.


Along the side up towards front of car is clean.


From the outside the hole in front of the wheel was barely noticeable and required my to kind of scratch around with a screwdriver. If you are at all afraid of rust I would take a really close look at that panel or do what I did and look from the inside.

I should be able to just vacuum and then give it a good brushing and maybe something for anti rust then fix the hole, glad it isn't worse.

Holy shit! The side skirt hold water inside, I'm afraid this will happen to me :(