diy rust repair

[anonymous-user]

my car rear door inner sills are very rusty. my plan is to cut back the rust and either weld in a plate or just something else. any recommendations as i have never welded before.

similar to this

[E-bmw]

First you need to get the plastic trim off & get all the tin worm out to see what that leaves you with.

If there is enough metal to weld to you can hopefully get a patch plate made up, then practice, practice, practice until you are happy that you are actually going to be able to do it.

When you do, do it in small stitches to avoid distorting the metal, then grind back, fill to suit & paint.

Sounds easy if you say it quickly.

In practice, not so, it takes time, lots of time, if you haven't done it before, an area so obvious may well be years of meddling down the line before you attempt it.

Get a price at your local body shop, you may be surprised.

[DuraAce]

The Spruce goose said:

any recommendations as i have never welded before.

Practice.

Practice some more.

Get some scrap panels to test your weld settings, otherwise you risk making a real mess of it.

[Wait Here Until Green Light Shows]

It all depends on the future value of the car or if you're intending to keep it forever.
If it's a future classic, then get it done properly.
If it's just a daily driver and you want it to look nicer, then get the filler out and patch it up. If you wire brush all the rust off and then apply some POR 15 before adding the filler the repair can last a good few years.
I tend to use a small airbrush to blend the paint back in and add some 2K lacquer for added protection. If you can stop the air getting to the metal it won't rust...POR 15 is excellent in this regard.