rust fix!

[BBudensiek]

hey guys. I have a 1996 Chevy 2 Door Tahoe and ahve some rust on the lower section oft he 1/4 panels and on the rockers. I'm tryign to find a good place that is not to expensive or does someone on here know how to fix it? i do not want it painted or anytrhing just newmetal put in.

Also who knows how tot ake off the fender flares on one of these?

[AutoMods]

unless you plan on keeping it a long time. or it has a lot of money in mods/upgrades. I think the money it will take to fix it won't be worth it on an older vehicle

[BBudensiek]

it jsut has a rust hole about the size of my fist on the drivers side 1/4 panel in fornt of the rear wheel :( and i ahte rust. I plan on keeping it for a few years maybe longer. I jsut hate teh way rsut looks. Should i cheapo fix it by filling with expandafoam than fiberglassing over that than body filler over that... just wondering

[Clinical]

Unfortunately my oldest PM's disappeared in the forum change but someone here did bodywork on the side and had said they could do some rust repair on my old third gen firebird for me, I ended up being in Cedar Rapids a couple weeks later and while up there I had him look at it and his price was really good.

No chance in hell of me remember now though, was like 3 years ago haha.

[Larsons Fox]

The only way to fix it properly would to be welding in new rocker panels and lower quarter patch panels. The rust is 3 times worse on the inside than what it looks like on the outside. I probably wouldn't worry about it unless you have a couple grand laying around or you find someone willing to do it for free.

[BBudensiek]

i had a body shop here in waterloo look at it and they quoted me $800 to do it.... that may not be alot i know lol. But i bet if i find someone cheaper that does it on the side id have it done instantly. Just dont know if i wanna spend $1000 on a truck thats only worth $3000- $4000. So are you saying dont do the cheapo home filler fix job? :P

[oVa-Boost]

if you did it the cheap way it would only last a month or 2 or less before it started to bubble or see rust again it wont last, it would almost not worth fixing it the cheap way and bondo will hold moister as well if you didnt prime paint and cleared it

[BBudensiek]

what i would do is than about 4 inches up on the bottom of the truck i would paint bed liner over it. So than it ha sa thick hard surface over it to not get hurt or anything... Think that would work?

[oVa-Boost]

bed liner will work just duraglas the hole smooth it out and prime it and scuff hower long your going to put bedliner on so it has something to stick i'v seen this done before many times or duck tape the hole lol

[Deimos]

JB weld. I got some extra bed liner if ya need it.

[BBudensiek]

jb weld the hole? and dont u guys think bed liner would hold up good?

[BBudensiek]

plus what is duraglass? is it jsut fiberglass?

[Deimos]

my bedliner is the kevlar kind pretty tough stuff

[oVa-Boost]

duraglas is a type of fiberglass thats in a can and you just mix with hardener but if the hole is kinda big you would want to put something behind it or stuff something in there to hold it in place because if you dont it just falls in the hole but yes bedliner will work and hold up

[sparkles]

Bedliner

[BBudensiek]

Demos is your bed liner the roll on kind? Bcuz I want to put on 2-3 coats so it gets nice and thick... so than there possibly isn't a chance of it breaking in again.. hopefully

[Larsons Fox]

Moisture is going to get behind it no matter what, so whatever cheap way you do it won't last long. Trust me I've done them all.

I would recommend putting some metal over the hole. If you cant weld it, use some self tapping screws and grind the heads of. Then get some short strand fiberglass filler to put over the top. The fiberglass filler won't absorb moisture as fast as regular filler and it will be stronger. Then you prime it and block your scratches out. Paint is optional. You could undercoat or bedliner the bottom half of the truck also.

[BBudensiek]

and just screw a piece of metal over it larson? dont u think that would be worse than filling over the hole....

[Larsons Fox]

Worse than filling the hole in with a half gallon of mud? No, it's going to be stronger. Also filling the hole with expandafoam is a bad idea. It will just hold moisture in.

Almost 95% of the time rust comes from the inside of the panel.

[BBudensiek]

i also read about spraying the inside of the panel with POR-15 ( a rust preventive paint that is made to paint over rust) and than after u do that out aluminum tape over the hole and fiberglass over the hole jsut make sure no moisture can get it. So pretty much tape it off good..

[sparkles]

If you're not going to do it right, just leave it alone. It's Iowa. You have a 15 year old truck. Get used to rust.

[BBudensiek]

rust just pissses me off.....

[BGjohnson]

You could do what I did with my pathfinder. You'd need a welder though and something to cut metal. It was when I first got it, been holding up for about 8 months. Some tiny bleed through rust spots where the weld had pin holes in it. It's too bad I don't have before and after pics, but I will give you the run down.

Here's what I did. I had small pocket rust just starting behind my rear door, on and above the rocker. I know I'm going to have to do this again and do a better job so I didn't do it 100%.

Anywho. I ground down all the paint to see where the rust spread and how much, found out it spread a little ways down. Ground surrounding paint a few inches. Cut out my rust.

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k65/bgjohnson/2011-09-03_14-50-24_365.jpg

I sprayed in primer ( should have used weld through primer ) in the cavity.

Made three small pieces to go where I had cut out the metal. Had a really big problem with the contours, I would grind the weld down and get to a thin spot and grind through. Try to weld and it would blow through, did this about 5 times. Then I ran out of gas and had to weld the rest up with no gas :(

Here's the finished product

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k65/bgjohnson/2011-09-03_17-12-57_248.jpg

I then used seam sealer on the gaps and did a few heavy coats of zinc primer and painted it with rustoleum white paint. If I cared more I would have used a lightweight filler, proper paint match stuff ect.. As it sits I give it 2-3 years before I have to do the other side and cut out a wider portion of the metal and do it right.

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k65/bgjohnson/2011-09-04_11-22-38_2.jpg

At the same time I prepped and spray from the rocker down with bedliner all the way to the pinch weld ( you can see it in the pic ), took off the fender flares and bed line coated under the fender flare , Then undercoated it completely with a special gun for undercoat.

The great dane is happy his truck looks better http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k65/bgjohnson/2011-09-04_12-11-31_960.jpg

She's ready to do battle with winter!

Your tahoe probably has rust on the entire rocker on the inside and needs a patch panel. Which really isn't too bad to do if you are just going to bed line coat it.

[BGjohnson]

I forgot to mention, when I go mudding, the rockers just shed the mud and I just have to hit with a hose to get it all off. I like Aarons idea for short hair fiberglass ( I mean he does do this shit for a living ;) ) It'd last you a bit until the whole thing rusts through completely.

[Larsons Fox]

Very well done Chris. That's about the best way of fixing it without replacing the entire panel. You will always have some tiny pin holes that you can't see in the welds. Using short strand fiberglass, seam sealer, and a can of amber rustproofing on the inside will help reduce bleed through.

Keystone makes aftermarket rockers and patch panels for those chevy trucks. They run anywhere from $50-$150 range. I would at least try to weld in some new metal for support. If you don't have a welder do like I said before. Don't try to be "that guy" with aluminum tape.

Good luck and please post up pics.