Rusted through rear quarters. Need advice.

[onebad93gt]

Have a 93' Grand am GT 4door. The rear quarters have rust above the wheel wells. It's rusted through in spots, and the lip crumbles away. I do not want to get rid of the car, it is like new otherwise.

I noticed the fron fender holds the same shape/curve as the rear wheel well does.

Would cutting out the rust, and then cutting a part of the front fender in the exact shape work? Do I need a stitch welder to weld in the new panel, or can I used a regular stick welder on it?


If anyone can comment on my fix, or show me the proper way to fix this I'd appreciate it. Body shops 6+ around here quoting me $550+ for an unpainted fix. I cannot afford that, and would rather do this myself and learn/pickup some new tools for future use if needed.


Sorry to be long winded, and for begging on my first post but I'd really appreciate some help. Thanks for any info.

[Nighthawk243]

http://www.gaownersclub.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=75509&highlight=Rest

Joes' is a 1995, which is pretty close.

Basically what he did was cut new steel and then bent it to conform to the fender using pliers/channellocks. It would be more worthwhile to use new steel.

[onebad93gt]

Hmm thank you for the link. I wish my rust hole(s) were that small. The rust is bad 2" up and across the entire wheel well.

Now that I see how he was able to weld the panel in, I'm picking up two new fenders for $52.50 a piece and will do basically the same thing he did on a much larger scale. Will already have the metal formed just need to cut the new pieces from the new fenders and weld them in the rear quarters much like he did.

I haven't welded sheet metal before and I'm worried about warping or burning huge holes right through. Going to try and practice some stitch welds for a while on 18g sheet metal before I do it on the car. I'll post some pics of my progress if anyone is interested.

His fix came out very nice I'm hoping for the same results.

[Nighthawk243]

For welds, make sure to space them far apart at first, then do fill in later, again, spacing them apart. You don't want to put too much heat one a single area at once.

Also, a little bit of windex cools down the metal pretty well... I had to use a healthy amount of that when using the ol' Detroit heat wrench on my ball joint nut in the recent control arm switch.


Anyways, if it isn't completely flush, you can always just use a little body filler to make it smooth. But the trick is to do the main metalwork well enough to need as little as possible.

[Big Joe]

Originally posted by Nighthawk243
http://www.gaownersclub.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=75509&highlight=Rest

Joes' is a 1995, which is pretty close

I have a 94 ;)

I want to see some progress pics on this :D

[Nighthawk243]

Originally posted by Big Joe
I have a 94 ;)

I want to see some progress pics on this :D

Eh, technically so is mine (Made December 2004) :lol:

[Big Joe]

well if you want to get crazy mine was made in 93 sometime

[onebad93gt]

Okay I'll post back with before and during progress pics. I have to wait for my fenders to be delivered first. I hate downtime!

I will have progress pics up as soon as the parts are here. I'll throw in shaving the antenna hole off to if anyone is interested.

[TA^Guy]

If you haven't welded sheet metal before a few tips are to keep the welder turned down. Worst part is, the weld doesn't penitrat and you turn it up a ntoch at a time until you get it right.
Just tack a few spots and let it cool with a damp rag or something, then tack a few more.
Go around until it's all stiched in.
Now most people are worried about warpage during welding but they forget you can warp a area with grinding to, so a little at a time with time for it too cool off.