[ihc] My bubbles

[John Hofstetter <hofs@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In regard to the rust bubbles that I had on the tops of the fender 
wells on my Terra, I'm pretty happy with how I handled the problem.

With a half inch bit, I drilled out every rust spot, and in places 
where the drill holes didn't reach all the rust, I cut away more metal 
with a nibbler. I banged on the metal, and blew with compressed air 
until most, if not all, the loose crap was gone from the area between 
the inner and outer fenders.

Then with swabs, Q-tips and such, I reached inside the holes and 
swabbed latex rust stuff (Duro Extend is one) everywhere I could reach. 
Up, down, sideways and everywhere. I was going to do the same thing 
from the inside of the fender, but in those spots where the rust had 
gone through the inner fender, it seemed that I had OK access from the 
front side holes.

I then sandblasted through the holes I had made so that I would have 
bare metal opposite my outside holes for the epoxy to stick. (That 
metal was covered with latex, and the epoxy wouldn't have stuck to the 
latex) After taking the area on the outer fender to bare metal, I 
dented in all the rusted area so that I'd have something to fill to. I 
used Accraglas gel, an epoxy nylon putty, and forced it into the holes 
and then the dented area so that I had epoxy slightly higher than the 
surrounding non-rusted area.

I'm now in the process of sanding the epoxy layer to level with the 
fender metal. I will paint the exposed surface of the inner fender with 
latex and then Rustoleum primer, my version of IH red.

John Hofstetter
Ol' Saline
www.goldrush.com/~hofs