Re: (ET) Welding a deck with some rust

["Chris Tromley" <ctromley gmail com>]

Car restorers know that if you don't get all the rust out it's likely to come back.  If you have a wire welder a good repair is not that hard.  (Even a stick welder used with finesse could work.)  Fortunately ET decks are made from fairly simple shapes, so after you cut out all the rust it should be a simple matter to form some sheet metal of similar thickness to fill the gap.  I'd make it a close fit and use butt welds, since an overlap is an invitation for water infiltration leading to another rust repair.  If you're in an area involving compound curves and don't mind a bit of Homer Simpson-style elegance, just close the area with flat sections and straight welds.

 

JB Weld can also be used, as above - not over the rusted area, but to bond in a patch.  In this case you need a doubler.  That's a strip maybe 2" wide that bridges the joint.  The benefit of epoxy is not in its own strength, but in its ability to bond to another piece that provides the strength.  Make sure the epoxy wets all surfaces of the joint to exclude water.  You can add some insurance by adding some pop rivets through the doubler to deck and doubler to patch (rivets sealed with epoxy), which also serves to fixture the whole thing while it cures.

 

Chris

On Wed, Apr 2, 2008 at 3:31 PM, Tim Humphrey <hump evgrin com> wrote:

 

JB-Weld ?