Rust Repair Continues

I drove to Tampere on sunday and had a full day of working with my friend there. The Mustang still needed a few minor holes fixed and the driver floor replaced. The wheel arch had been welded so I decided to try leading it smoother while my friend concentrated on the welding.

After the small holes had been fixed, he ripped the old floor out and sand blasted the frame under it. Luckily it was in much better condition than the passenger side. Some minor pitting was visible but nothing needing immediate attention. After painting the frame he cut the new panel to fit correctly and welded it in.

In the wheel arch side the welds had already been cleaned.

I started by cleaning everything with acetone and applied some flux paste with a brush. Then I heated it with a heat gun until it turned bright. I moved from side to side trying to prevent the panel from getting too hot.

With the flux on, it was time to clean everything again and then start leading. Again I added a small section at the time until the whole weld was done.

With the lead on, I grinded it smooth.

Unfortunately when everything was done, my friend noticed that the sheetmetal had warped a bit above the top of the arch. I had to apply so much heat to the metal that it had formed a small dent. Hopefully it can be forced out from the trunk later.

The weld area is still not completely smooth and will need some filler to completely hide the fix. At least it won't need the half a centimeter it had previously...

And speaking of filler, we dug out some of the cracks from the front fenders. It was not pretty.

Again a huge amount of filler that had been poorly applied. A lot of it was completely detached from the metal below. The old paint had been incorrectly prepared so the filled was peeling loose. The driver side fender also had some poor old repairs and rust holes so it seems pretty certain that I have to replace them both. And the old owned had known this too as a new passenger side fender came with the car and I also managed to find the driver side close by so both are waiting in my garage.

We still need to paint the new floor and do some minor things before I can drive the car back home. Hopefully already after next weekend.

The amount of poor fixes and filler everywhere unfortunately seems to indicate that a simple overspray paint job wont do. Most likely I have to have the whole car media blasted to bare metal and work from there...