Repaired my bonnet

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millermilla
Posts: 182
Joined: Mon May 07, 2007 10:16 pm
Location: Burgess Hill West Sussex

Repaired my bonnet

Post by millermilla » Tue Jan 27, 2009 8:13 pm

The bonnet had quite a bad bit of rust on the nearside which had been left untreated and developed into a hole about 1 inch in diameter. I had been putting off repairing the hole as being in such a prominent place anything other than a perfect repair would stick out. My bodywork skills are ok by DIY standards but certainly not good enough to give the car the finish it deserves but seeing as the hole was starting to look quite nasty I thought I would at least cut out the rust and do the best I can until I can afford a professional spray job.


First job was to cut out the rusty metal. You can see in the pictures how the rust had gone right through the back and also affected the bonnet safety latch. Once cut out I used the old metal as a template to make a repair patch from some Zintec plated mild steel which I then spot welded in place before seam welding all the way round the patch. Once a satisfactory weld was achieved I then ground back the weld flat ready for filler and primer. I then made a small plate for the rear of the bonnet by the safety catch and welded it in place. As this repair was out of sight I did not bother grinding down the weld which also keeps strength in the weld as the catch needs to be strong.


To finish the repair I applied two coats of P38 filler rubbing flat each time with 240 grit wet and dry follow by a thick coat of filler primer which was wet flatted with 1200 grit wet and dry before applying 3 coats of top coat again wet flatting with 1200 between each coat. The final finish is ok but you can see it's been repaired as there is little chance of getting a decent colour match on 20 year old paintwork but it's good enough for the time being and much better than a rusty hole. The really annoying bit was the paint kept reacting after about 5 mins drying time. Everytime I applied the paint I got a near perfect finish only for it to react about 5 minutes after and no matter what I tried it didnt stop it. It looks like the paint boils i.e you get tiny bubbles in the paint which come to the surface? The paint only reacts on the section thats been repaired and has filler on? After trying 3 times I gave up. I will let it dry for a few weeks and try again with a different primer.

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Keith Miller

CampFreddie
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2009 12:30 pm

Re: Repaired my bonnet

Post by CampFreddie » Wed Jan 28, 2009 3:27 pm

Poor little chap! I didn't notice the rust spot in your original pictures until I saw this thread. He's looking a lot better now. Good Job! Have you got a close-up of the paint reacting?

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G96LUE
Posts: 466
Joined: Wed May 23, 2007 7:21 pm
Location: Walsall

Re: Repaired my bonnet

Post by G96LUE » Wed Jan 28, 2009 8:42 pm

I have to say i did spot the rust on your pictures but on the whole it still looked good.
From the pics above you have done quite a reasonable repair.
it will stop the rust growing and it is not that noticable now.
Well done.
Regards
Darren

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millermilla
Posts: 182
Joined: Mon May 07, 2007 10:16 pm
Location: Burgess Hill West Sussex

Re: Repaired my bonnet

Post by millermilla » Wed Jan 28, 2009 11:35 pm

Here's a photo of the paint reacting. At first the paint goes on fine with no reaction then about 5 minutes later little air bubbles start appearing beneath the surface and eventually the surface is covered in pimples. I tried laying the paint on thin, thick and with / without a heat lamp and it made no difference. The strange thing is the paint seems to only react where the new metal has been welded in?

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Keith Miller

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