Rockerpanel Rust Repair Project (89 Hatch)

[89HatchbackLxi]

I did some bodywork on my rusty passenger side rocker panel the past few weekends. I couldn't find a replacement rocker panel for the hatch, so I decided to do my first body repair project.

Using what I learned from my autobody refinishing class I started taking this semester, I began my first attempt at repairing something on my own vehicle. Figured the rocker panel would be a good place to start, since it isn't as noticable as other parts of the car.

Since the bottom of the rockerpanel was too far gone, I decided just to repair what was left of the remaining good metal on the top. Here's what I started with:

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/1.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/2.jpg

And here's what it looks like now:

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/6.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/7.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/8.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/4.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/3.jpg

For my first repair, I think it actually turned out really good. I wish I would have had time to do the entire rocker panel, rather than just the top of it. However, the only visible part of it really is just the top, which looks pretty close to brand new now. :)

Materials used:
Mar-Glass Short Strand Body Filler
Evercoat Body Filler (for the pinholes in the Mar glass)
Rust-oleum Rust Reformer spray can
Rust-oleum "Red" Primer spray can
12 oz of custom mixed R-70M from paintscratch.com (These guys are GREAT at matching paint color to the vehicle's original paint code color!)
12 oz of Duplicolor Fast Drying Clearcoat

[Hondamonster]

shoulda got some progress pics while you worked! looks great though

[gp02a0083]

shoulda got some progress pics while you worked! looks great though

I did that with my thread for my gold hatch , hope it helps others.


Great job btw :rockon:

The Ever-coat products are pretty good, ive used them in shops before. Ever-coat's glaze puddy works great too.

Take more picts of your progress when you finish the other parts.

[89HatchbackLxi]

shoulda got some progress pics while you worked! looks great though

Well thanks! And actually, I do have a bunch of pics while it was in progress. Here's just a few, lol.

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/Refinish%20process/a.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/Refinish%20process/b.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/Refinish%20process/c.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/Refinish%20process/d.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/Refinish%20process/e.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/Refinish%20process/f.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/Refinish%20process/g.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/Refinish%20process/h.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/Refinish%20process/i.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/Refinish%20process/j.jpg
^^^My hatch covered in sanding dust. The rest of the garage looked pretty close to this as well. That stuff gets everywhere!

[89HatchbackLxi]

and a few more...

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/Refinish%20process/k.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/Refinish%20process/l.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/Refinish%20process/n.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/Refinish%20process/o.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/Refinish%20process/p.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/Refinish%20process/q.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/Refinish%20process/r.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/Refinish%20process/s.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/Refinish%20process/t.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/k554/Spartan_TK51/3geez/Refinish%20process/u.jpg

[89HatchbackLxi]

I did that with my thread for my gold hatch , hope it helps others.


Great job btw :rockon:

The Ever-coat products are pretty good, ive used them in shops before. Ever-coat's glaze puddy works great too.

Take more picts of your progress when you finish the other parts.

Thanks! And yeah, we've been using evercoat brand filler for projects in my autobody class, so I decided to use it for this project as well. I was actually gonna try using the EC glaze puddy too, however my class instructor suggested I use Mar-glass for that area since it was rusty so I went with that, but it seemed to work pretty well. I put WAY too much of it on though (as you can see in the progress pics) but at least now I'll know better for next time, lol.

I haven't seen your gold hatch project thread, but I'll go look for it now that I know it exists.

[gp02a0083]

just hope your auto-body teacher shows you the right way to mix filler. Common mistake novices make is the way they mix the catalyst with the filler, end up with bubbles in the filler. Mar-glass is good stuff too, i always hated working with glass it ends up hurting a lot.

This was a good learning experience for you, building up layers of filler is better than just one or two thick coats. Its less to sand in between and you will have fewer pinholes after when using a glaze coat puddy.

Here's the link to my old gold hatch:
http://www.3geez.com/forum/showthread.php?t=65378&highlight=gp02a0083+hatch&page=2

[89HatchbackLxi]

just hope your auto-body teacher shows you the right way to mix filler. Common mistake novices make is the way they mix the catalyst with the filler, end up with bubbles in the filler. Mar-glass is good stuff too, i always hated working with glass it ends up hurting a lot.

This was a good learning experience for you, building up layers of filler is better than just one or two thick coats. Its less to sand in between and you will have fewer pinholes after when using a glaze coat puddy.

Here's the link to my old gold hatch:
http://www.3geez.com/forum/showthread.php?t=65378&highlight=gp02a0083+hatch&page=2

Sweeping the filler in a left to right motion and/or sweeping it in an up and down motion is the way I was taught was the correct way to mix the two. Stiring it is what will allow the air holes to get mixed in, causing the pinholes... right?

And yes... the good-sized fiberglass sliver/thorn I got stuck in my index finger (through the gloves I was wearing) while sanding down the Mar-glass was a bit painful to dig out. other than that the stuff worked quite well, despite the excessively over-thick amount I used.

Just looked at the thread with your gold hatch project in it.. It only took you a half hour to shape new sheet metal into the right shape?? That's awesome! And yours turned out looking pretty much perfect. I still need to fill the side of my rockerpanel, didn't think to do that before I painted it, mostly because I couldn't get to it with the wheel there. But oh well. This was only a first attempt, and I'm happy with the way it turned out. I don't have any real tools to use yet at home so I had to do everything by hand. Like sanding. and more sanding... and even more sanding...... lol. Didn't realize how useful a DA is until then.

[gp02a0083]

Sweeping the filler in a left to right motion and/or sweeping it in an up and down motion is the way I was taught was the correct way to mix the two. Stiring it is what will allow the air holes to get mixed in, causing the pinholes... right?

Yupp exactly!


And yes... the good-sized fiberglass sliver/thorn I got stuck in my index finger (through the gloves I was wearing) while sanding down the Mar-glass was a bit painful to dig out. other than that the stuff worked quite well, despite the excessively over-thick amount I used.

I really hate how it hurts like that and you cant really see it. Body kits are the worst with the edges cut rough.


Just looked at the thread with your gold hatch project in it.. It only took you a half hour to shape new sheet metal into the right shape?? That's awesome! And yours turned out looking pretty much perfect. I still need to fill the side of my rockerpanel, didn't think to do that before I painted it, mostly because I couldn't get to it with the wheel there. But oh well. This was only a first attempt, and I'm happy with the way it turned out. I don't have any real tools to use yet at home so I had to do everything by hand. Like sanding. and more sanding... and even more sanding...... lol. Didn't realize how useful a DA is until then.

Thanks, I think it came out alright. You just have to take your time with it and a lot of F*ckin up happens. As for the wheel well area in your one picture, id show your instructor and ask him about making 90 degree folds on a curvature like that.
Your better off starting off with out power or air tools for sanding, DA's are really only good for sanding down and feathering the edges of the first coat.

[danny nr crew]

damn not a bad job man im also taking auto collision repair classes. but didnt your teachers tell you not to use a DA to sand down the body filler and not to use newspaper sinces its one of the worst things you can do. reason is because if you ever notice when you tear a newspaper all those little fibers it has well some of those get stuck in your paint and they basically ruin it but from looking at your pictures it looks pretty good man.

[mtaylor]

if the underside of your rockers is that bad you may want to slop some roofing tar under it, it sticks well to the rust and hardens after a day. it slow down the rust and it makes it look a hell of a lot better. i did that to mine, get some disposable gloves its nasty stuff

[89HatchbackLxi]

damn not a bad job man im also taking auto collision repair classes. but didnt your teachers tell you not to use a DA to sand down the body filler and not to use newspaper sinces its one of the worst things you can do. reason is because if you ever notice when you tear a newspaper all those little fibers it has well some of those get stuck in your paint and they basically ruin it but from looking at your pictures it looks pretty good man.

Yeah, I didn't actually use a DA on this, doing this just made me appreciate how useful they are in general. And as for the newspaper, I learned that in class right AFTER I started on this project, so the rust reformer and the body filler might possibly have a very small amount of fibers in them, however if they do it wasn't visible. For the paint, clearcoat and primer stages I put a layer of wax paper masking on top of the newspaper layer, using the newspaper as sort of a back up layer in case I missed something while masking.


if the underside of your rockers is that bad you may want to slop some roofing tar under it, it sticks well to the rust and hardens after a day. it slow down the rust and it makes it look a hell of a lot better. i did that to mine, get some disposable gloves its nasty stuff

I used some fiberglass reinforced bodyfiller on the areas that previously had any exposed rusty metal, that should be good for now. Just didn't shape it nicely or anything. Roofing tar seems like it would add a lot of weight to that area..

[danny nr crew]

okay thats good then at least your clear on how to keep it as clean as possible.

i need to get to work on mine pretty soon as well and start cutting out all the rust and patching it with new metal.

[obdriver6]

It turned out really good. Sometimes I wish I knew how to do body work.

[gp02a0083]

damn not a bad job man im also taking auto collision repair classes. but didnt your teachers tell you not to use a DA to sand down the body filler and not to use newspaper sinces its one of the worst things you can do. reason is because if you ever notice when you tear a newspaper all those little fibers it has well some of those get stuck in your paint and they basically ruin it but from looking at your pictures it looks pretty good man.


wouldn't be a problem with rattle cans, ive done plenty of body jobs with newspaper, yah just gotta use the waxy/ shiny ones like a best buy ad. Tack rags can also help.

[danny nr crew]

wouldn't be a problem with rattle cans, ive done plenty of body jobs with newspaper, yah just gotta use the waxy/ shiny ones like a best buy ad. Tack rags can also help.

yeah i learned to not do it with newspaper so im just trying to let others know whats the best way to prep for paint.