Changing the windshield and back window. Pulled the glass got new rubbers then took a spoon and scraped the gook off Sunday. Tonight I wire wheeled with the die grinder then hand sanded with 100 grit. Cleaned it up with laquer thinner. Now I'm ready for bondo on the rusty pitted areas and a few pin holes. A few areas are rusty red and will not sand up shiny. Should I just bondo it as is or should I treat the rust first with rusty red priemer? Oh yeah this is not a show truck and I'll be useing a rattle can finish. Thanks RKD.

 

if you don't get rid of the rusty metal it will just come back.
I would also recommend using fiberglass instead of bondo.

 

x2

Grind until you're seeing good sheetmetal, then grind a little bit more, otherwise whatever you missed will eat right back through again. That's the problem with cancer: you've got to grind out a little of the good to make sure you've gotten all the bad.

 

"rusty red primer" is plain ol' snake oil. There is no cure for rust unless it is chemically converted, all of it ground out, or cut out and replaced.

It's time to invest in a welder.

 

Wow! Truth hurts. If I cut out that much rust I,ll have 3 or 4 three inch sections by 3/4" missing. Now I,m beyond my skills to repair. Welder huh. Think a $90.00 harbor freight would do it?

 

Yeah, sometimes we gotta write out reality checks!

The Eastwood Co. has some decent, low buck MIG welders. Welding is a skill that pays for itself in spades over a lifetime. Invest in a good machine, like a Miller 140, and pay yourself back.

I'd prolly charge $250 just to fix your rust holes. Simple rust, like at door corners, is about $80 each, floor pans is $300 each (plus the cost of the pan)... see how fast that adds up?

Btw, a Miller 140 is about $750.

 

Maybe post some pics of what you are talking about to show the areas that have pin holes and pitted rust. It "might" not be as bad as we think. However, if there are some pin holes, chances are there is a pretty good area of thin sheet metal there. Keep grinding or go to harbor freight (or anywhere else in your area) that has one of those small hand held sandblasters (if you have an air compressor) and sandblast the areas. The sandblast will get those pitted rust areas. One thing about rust, is you'd be surprised where thin sheet metal is. I recently sandblasted my rockers and a couple small holes opened up and before I did that there was nothing but what I thought was surface rust which I had already ground out.

Since you invested in all new rubber, I assume you want the repair to last a little while. Otherwise, the other thing you can do is get some Tiger Hair Evercoat reinforced fiberglass body filler and repair. Just make sure all areas are down to bare metal. That stuff is strong and waterproof so it will last awhile, but again you don't know really how much area is involved and chances are if there is thin metal surrounding the pin holes and pitted rust areas than those areas will start to fail and then you are back where you started with the possibility of a larger repair.

FYI, I bought one of those eastwood MIG 135 welders that HIO mentioned and it works great. Downfall is, yes they are cheap but won't weld very think metal, but good enough for the thin stuff. I've replaced cab corners, wheel arches, part of the floor pan, small holes with metal patches, etc with it.