To self repair or not to? that is the question

[jimmyhoppityhop]

Well where to start with this being my first post and all.
I bought myself a 340GL 1.7 saloon for my first car, picked it up from Warwick (i live in the south east of Devon) recently which I'm sure some of you were also inquiring about.


The obvious to what I've been reading is that she does have a rusty front valance as to be expected it seems and i sadly don't have a picture of that yet. The next patch is on the rear panel just above the bumper at the back of the car on the drivers side.


And sadly the last bit I think really matters at the moment is the rear arch on the passengers side, the old gentleman who drove it before me, scraped the the arch on a metal post four years ago, then covered the arch in some kind of oil to stop rust fully attacking it then left stopped driving for the last four years. This is really what i am most thinking would task someone like mines ability and want to know whats others really think. According to the MOT there is no other rust atall on the car as both of these weren't listed on it, just the valance.


Now the question comes into affect, i don't know whether to trust my own skills well more like learn a skill by doing it myself and to do the repairs on it or just fork out the money to have someone who actually understands whats going on. Evidently i need some help for ideas of what to do really.

[Ride_on]

Well only you can make the decision, it some ways it looks very easy to me, just the paint has been scraped off, no repairs as such just cleaning and refinishing.

Without any equipment you could use brush, cans and elbow grease and you can probably make a good job of it, but it will rust again as its not sealed. To make a permanent repair you need to mix 2 part sealer/resin and put that on with a brush or spray gun, you can't get this in cans and it is hard to buy in small amounts. Rust buster 121 is good. Then you could use cans and wet/dry paper to spray primer to get it flat, and a colour matched can from a paint supplier. It won't be great hard paint.

Alternatively a professional will charge maybe 150 to do it for you and it will be perfect.

What condition the valence is in you haven't shown, it may need welding.

[SteveP]

Ah glad someone bought this, I'd spoken to the seller before as he was only down the road from me. Shame about them defects, I would 100% recommend you sort them out before driving it in this winter weather as that sort of thing can deteriorate quite fast

Saying that, both of them look very superficial and if the rest of the car is rust free, it's well worth sorting it out properly

[Hell Driver]

That rust looks purely superficial, I'd get something painted on by brush asap if you intend to use it now. It's not very easy to get a good finish as a first time DIY job. You will always see the join but if your happy with a 95% improvement apart from the colour match then I'd have a go. The rear wing rust looks odd, like somethings been hacking at the paint! I think the arch will need a bit of filler and sanding as that looks like a bit of a long thin dent there. A true professional would want to do the entire side of the car....blow it in over the bonnet and boot and before you know it he'd be doing the whole car!!! ( I know, I've been there!). That's to get a PERFECT finish, due to the problems of matching paint, especially with slightly faded paint.

[Speedy88]

I've found using Krust rust treatment and then when painting using zinc primer is a good makeshift seal - this usually lasts a good few years for me. I've not had to re-do any areas using this technique. Yet.

Take the rust down to bare metal, Krust it, let it dry, use 3 layers of zinc primer and 5ish layers of paint. Should be ok considering the car that it is.

This will be much much cheaper than professionals.

[jimmyhoppityhop]

@Ride_on, to describe it, it's definitely starting to corrode as the along the bottom of the valance the paint has worn away and the metal itself is being attack with bits flaking off, you can see it faintly in the picture of the whole car where the corner of the valance is corroding. I shall see that i get a photo for you when its light again and not raining .

Also thank you for the responses and advice guys, I've never looked at paint before and have always been a spanner monkey really so it shall be a new experience for me. So the process would be to sand down the area till the rusted layer has been removed, then apply an anti-rusting agent, then primer, then paint on top? I will check what the paint code is on the car tomorrow as well so i can get a can made up.

Just to ask while i have an active thread, where does everyone buy their windscreen wipers and headlight wipers? after sitting for so many years dry and used mine have become somewhat brittle and will squeak for England .

[Ride_on]

Going by what you say, it should still be solid, but you won't really know until you've have a good poke with a screwdriver, in which case welding is best. Its a seam, and that maybe hard to get all the rust out without depaneling, a moisture curing encapsulator like rust bullet might do.

Wipers try halfords, they are fairly standard.

[macplaxton]

Wipers.

The front windscreen are both 18" / 450mm with hook end fitting. Any shop will do them. Got some in Aldi the other day (6 euro). I had some 4.50 Euro ones from Tesco, but they started to look very shabby, very quickly. I'd normally buy Bosch ones, honest.

Headlamp wiper blades are easy enough to get. I went to the main dealer as I was there anyway. Can't remember the length, but they are same as S80 on the box.

For both the above, if you have an aversion to wasting petrol and time getting these local, then there is always the 'bay and let the postie do the legwork!

[Ride_on]

I'd just add that while I mention 2 part paint, 2 part resin is fine for home use, 2 part paint based on isocyanate is not, it is very dangerous, and should only be handled professionally.

[kelvingenders]

Body work easy....have a go. Remember though that you may need to spend a lot of money initially

[kelvingenders]

I did a 8 week course in Australia of how to do spray panels contact for more info

[bogbasic]

Yeah, 8 weeks is heavy duty and investing in proper equipment is well-expensive. Aerosols just can't do metallic paint very well (someone told me it was because they don't have enough pressure) although they are fine for sills and door-bottoms which do not show up too much. I think it'd be cheaper in the long run to save up and get a professional to do it, if you want it to look immaculate. It will be cheaper if you do all the filler work and maybe prime it, but whatever paint you put on, a pro will just sand it all off first!

[jimmyhoppityhop]

Finally got round to be able to take pictures of the valance, idiotically taking two pictures instead of one but its dark now so i guess these will do haha.

http://i.imgur.com/yBl4Bx6.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/WK5cr8p.jpg

The images are a bit too large for me to post directly to the site so i will give you the link instead.