Alrighty........That snow woke me up to the fact that I have that other C pillar rust repair to get to. With the snow mostly gone & a trip to the car wash yesterday.......time to take a look while the weather is decent again....


So.....Some ones idea of a repair......



This is like unwrapping that unwanted birthday present from your creepy uncle....



There she blows, in all her untouched glory......without picking, it extends into the interior......AWESOME!!!...



I'll admit, for a minute I thought about getting some more of that flexseal tape...but that wouldn't be much fun. Might have to work backwards on this side, it's pretty bad....a number of bends and curves are supposed to be there.....we'll see, I may just do away with the bends, curves, indents and make it as smooth & straight as possible. I'm back to useable metal without trimming, any more than that the wheel needs to come off.....not going to happen today!



I expect better results than this guys!

 

Experiencing MAJOR rust out in this area...it doesn't end, more to follow.

 

It never does that is one of the chronic rot spots on the D1/RRC

 

Yeah mines bad there , I just did a band aide to hide it , the way I look at it is I could build up another d1 with a clean body faster than patching this rust bucket that keeps on rusting

 

Well........This one wont rust there again......While extremely frustrating and I really don't enjoy rust repair, the challenge is always a skill's sharpener, this one more than most. Picking at it last evening after work....it just kept going and going.....it was a puzzle to repair....I ended up doing it in strips & pieces filling in and building out. Again not wanting to 'gut' the interior, on most of the interior side I used 3/16" rivets as well as some light welds, didn't burn it up. The lower inner wheel well body mount was gone on this side as well....just repeated the previous procedure. This side was WAY worse than the other, additional spots needed attention......all in all, I think I have 9 hours into the repair.


That upper, roll down transitional lip has to be there, but the large dimple for the child safety lock does not.








New fender to body connection






Semi cleaned up..



Upper internal patch work & seam sealer..



I didn't photograph all of it, but hopefully you get the general idea....

 

In the end, considering the damage....I'm pretty darn happy! I doubt my rear door will rattle open again....that rear quarter was just floating. Very solid now and just in time as we're looking at 4 days of rain ahead. Inside and out, I used Duplicolor Bedliner spray to seal it up & finish it off. Black can formula in the wheel well, blue can for the xposed entry surface.













With that distraction gone, I can continue with some storage ideas......also need to fab up a gas tank skid/retainer....mines almost rusted in 1/2.

 

Looks great , I bought a aluminum gas tank skid cheap from a rover place in Texas , but with your shop I am sure you can form one

 

Thank you and yes, brought in some fresh 1/8" steel diamond plate a week ago, I'll be using that. I won't build a fully boxed skid, this thing will never see that type of terrain....maybe some mild stuff down the road, but I doubt anything to justify a full blown skid.


In the wheel well, had I feathered out the seam sealer with some xylol, the photo would have been a lot better.....it's much better than that picture suggests..

 

I need you to pack up your welder and come north for a weekend...

 

Can we wait and do it when your in Georgia? lol....
Heck, you'll probably be driving right past me going there.