alright the truck i bought was a construction truck so it has its dents and dings and like normal older trucks its started to rust threw ont he wheel wells... well there is a whole above the wheel well as seen in the pic below.... how would i go baout fixing something like that... does anyone have a detailed link or any pics on how to do so... i dont want to cut the fender out to fix something that small... but i want it fixed none the less





i was thinking about just slowly doing it with bondo...just try to build the bondo up aorundt he whole... then whent hat drys go closer in and then when that dries go closer in... untill its filled in...

 

To do it so it doesn't come back takes time, but is worth it.

You'll need to grind it down to bare metal, or sandbalst it. Probably could just cut the whole section out. Get some metal mesh and bondo. First spray it with a rust preventative like Por-15. Then start the bondo work. It will take a week or so and lots of patience. Put the metal mesh in there and it helps the bondy to stick to something. Once its all bondoed up i'd spray it with the Por-15 again. Then paint it with a good professional paint. I recoment www.expresspaint.com. I got mine from there. Its EXACT color match. Pricy though becaust its professional quality.

 

i agree.. normally with a whole in any case you need a backing to help fill in with... if you have any welding experience id weld in a plate of thin sheet metal to help in the ragidity of the bondo work..bondo can be strong but not structurley..and if you hit a bumb with the right amount of force it can jimmy the bondo loose and start cracking.... for something like what yoru talking about... id cut the whole out so its a clean even round whole...then get some boat resin and fiberglass matting... for a backing ... wicked strong and will stick to everything even butter... then use a small thin coat of bondo (what its really made for) to even it out and get a smooth uniform finish

 

alright i do have access to a welder... no say i wer to cut it square....and make a sheet metal piece slightly bigger then the square i gut and weld it to it and grind the welds then just put bondo around the sids so its smooth.... would that be a better idea.. the only thing with that is that it may be up to the curve at this point and i cant do that and with the bondo it would be easier to make that curve... so maybe ill put a screen mesh in the back and keep bondo'ing.... anyway... what do i have to grind the inner bed or just the rust on the skin

 

I just went through the same thing. I ended up getting a patch repair panel from rustrepair.com, cutting out the old panel and welding the new one in. This is a common area for them to rust out on. After cutting the panel out you wouldn't believe how much rust was on the back side. I'm now glad I did it that way cause if I haden't I wouldn't have know about all the hidden rust that would have came through at a later date. Ill try to post pics later.

 

You could also use fiberglass- which you can get at most parts stores that cater to body repair such as Orielly's, NAPA. Pretty simple to do and does not take up a whole lot of time.

 

if you weld it be shure to only use small tacks across from each outher if you get it too hot it will warp and youll have a bigger mess

 

keeping in mind when welding... excessive amount of heat = a butt load of warping...thats the problems ryan is speaking of

 

The part that will come back to haunt you is the part you can't see. If you have rust through on the outside, you have lots more hidden on the inside. These guys are all correct, just make sure you get the inside rust sanded off and treated when you do this. If you don't get it all at once it is like the Energizer bunny - just keeps going and going and going.......I fixed a hole like that on a Furd once with bondo and wire mesh, didn't get all the inner rust ground out, within 2 months rust appeared again......

 

well since i work in a body shop and have a little insight on this matter. we call people who fill the hole with bondo (mud) and screen butchers because its done improperly and it causes more headaches. heres why... like someone said you have to make sure you get all the rust out or it will rust out again. mud is a very pourus material and absorbs water very easily. so if it got wet in there before its going to get wet again and that mud is just going to hold the moisture agains the metal even longer creating more rust. the correct way to do it to get body repair panels as someone suggested (and it appears in your picture that its also rusting out down behind the wheels.) in your case id reccomend a body shop do the repairs even though the cost will be much higher. when you put in mud its should also be very thin...you shouldnt need much to make something straight. more than an 1/8" is way to excessive...you should be able to get it with alot less than that or its not straight enough to begin with. one major point is that "bondo" brand is JUNK. i would suggest getting something more expensive unlees of course you do the screen method then who cares anyways. remember...you get what you pay for.