Rust

You didnt remove enough metal from around the holes and you didnt weld in new metal, filling is always only a temporay measure. You can sometimes get away with it on upper panels, but you must never fill floor or sills, even front panel is a no no. Buy a mig for under £100, learn how to use it safely at college £75?, save yourself a packet.

Jono

Did you treat the bare metal to ensure that the rust was removed?

Bare metal is treated with a phosphoric acid then etch primer then primer then paint.

rm

Jono is right... The only way to repair rust holes is to either completely replace the panel or cut out all the rusty metal and weld new metal in place. Filler should only be used for cosmetic purposes over sound metal on structural parts of the car and for temporary repairs only on non structural parts (precious few of those on a Mini).

Also the main reason that rust has started to show through again is because body filler has a habit of sucking up water like a sponge where it is exposed to the elements, such as the underside of the hole you filled!

I bought a MIG welder for £150 5 years ago, it has saved me a fortune. The genuine Heritage body panels for the Mini are extremely cheap, but labour for fitting body parts to be welded is astronomical. A good body shop will charge you in the region of £350 for parts and labour to fit a wing and A panel, but the parts will be approximately £75 if you fit them yourself.

It's a really satisfying experience to repair & restore your own Mini, I always take great delight in telling people that I welded and painted the car myself when I am complimented on the condition of my Riley Elf. I'm not in the motor trade, I sell door handles for a living!!

Regards

Alan Thomas

Thanks guys,

I suppose it's a case of it doesn't do exactly what it says on the tin. The red oxide paint says it acts as a primer, you can paint directly onto bare metal and finish with a top coat. As does the filler.

Cheers

When I fill, usually after welding, I clean the area with a metal brush, put on two coats of hammerite, right on the bare metal. leave it to dry hard over several days. then use finnagans pink antirust primer, then apply filler, sand down, spray primer, then several coats of gloss. I havent had rust come through for years after wards.

Jono

While panel replacement is the best solution I have bodged things, if I had small rust holes I used to scrape off the loose paint, then get a spiked panel beaters hammer & bash the hole & bend the surrounding area inwards, making the rusted area a few millimetres bellow the level of the panel, then throw in a load of easy sand plastic filler, this is best obtained from a motor factors as it is only about £15 a gallon, treat the rust with a rust killing primer like zinc 182 by David's, also if you can get to the back of the hole paint this too after filing to seal out any damp, waxoil black underseal is quite useful for this,

Steve.

You can if you had some bare metal underneath it. If you have a hole or some rust then you can't.

The Muffin Man

what do you do if you have rust in the sill ???

Stephen

"The Muffin Man" wrote in message news:4295e422$1 snipped-for-privacy@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com...

Inner or outer? Outer sills can be patched from the outside, if the sill is bad however, simply cut the hole outer sills off and get a proper narrow sill replacement, this should be like for like, dont use a wide sill, this goes over the original rusty sill, and although handy for an mot, next year your car will be even more rotten than before, only you wont be able to see it! Inner sills are a bit of a pig, but again you can patch them and this can be easy to disguise with the carpet, so it doesnt have to look perfect. If the inner is badly perforated, the only sensible way to cure this problem is to remove both outer and inner and rebuild the sill and maybe the door step from scratch. People like me love Mini bangers, because we can get a car in for a friend, do a good job, but it dosent have to be perfect, whereas when i do my own it can take weeks to perfect, sometimes removing what we have welded in because it looks crap.

"Stephen Hetherington" wrote in message news:4296a04b$ snipped-for-privacy@clear.net.nz...

As others have said, your problem is water getting onto the back of your repair. Despite what has been said here, you can make a good repair with filler or, better still, GRP. I always favoured the latter and have rebuilt many a Mini headlamp area by building up the profile with glass matting and resin. Filler is then used to get the final profile. It can take ages. These days, I would probably opt for a new panel but when you're a student in the pre-MIG days, GRP was the best alternative. Filler is porous, so is rusty metal, so if you didn't seal the back of the repair, water was always going to penetrate. Rusty metal may look OK but frequently has pinholes that let water through. A GRP repair is waterproof and I always laid the matting well over the area onto sound metal. A good coating of underseal always followed.

John

Cut it off and weld a new one in place.

The Muffin Man

"Stephen Hetherington" wrote in message news:4296a04b$ snipped-for-privacy@clear.net.nz...