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One Approach To Minor Rust Repair - 1956 Dodge Front Fender
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56D500boy
Posted 2021-09-03 1:33 PM (#614727)
Subject: One Approach To Minor Rust Repair - 1956 Dodge Front Fender



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From past experience (high school and university(1967-72)) 1955 (and 1956) Dodges like to rust out at the lower rear corner of the front fenders (bad design allows crud (mud and slush) to get packed in there, behind the wheel well liner and do its nasty thing = rust. I remember doing a repair on the 55 Dodge using newspaper (to pack the hole), fiberglass cloth and Bondo in probably 1968. It ended up looking okay but still a very crude repair.

Fast forward to my 1956 Dodge and last week. I was doing something else on the left side of the car when I noticed the first sign of rust break through at the bottom of the fender. (OH NO!! Not again!!). Minor rust spots on the paint (which I had applied in 2018).

So I immediately resolved to stop the rust in its tracks. I could feel up behind the fender and could tell that it wasn't serious (no rusting on the inside of the fender) so I attacked the outside with 100 grit sandpaper and got the paint and primer off in the effected area, going down to bare metal. At that point I noticed some signs of previous minor repair (some spot putty - was that me in 2018 or somebody before me??). I decided to leave those little bits of spot putty and treat the area with Rust Check brand "Rust Converter" (which has been difficult to find until recently). Two coats of that.

After the Rust Converter did its thing (turns rust black) and was dry, I sprayed two coats of high build primer over the effected area.

When the primer was thoroughly dry, I sanded it with 220 grit Wet and Dry (dry). I saw a few minor imperfections so I applied some spot putty in those areas. When that was dry, I sanded it with 220 grit, wiped the area down and applied another couple of coats of high build primer.

When the primer was dry I gave the area a light sanding with 220 followed by a better sanding with 400 grit (dry). Wiped the area down and applied the first of two or three coats of my light blue ("Wedgewood") top coat. In between coats (when they were dry), I sanded with 400 grit and wiped the area down before applying a nice wet (but not too wet) coat of colour.

Eventually I will wet sand the entire fender with 800/1000 grit and then polish with Mequires No 4 and No 9 machine polish.

Time will tell whether this time I have stopped the future breakthrough of minor rust spots.

(I have plans to paint the back side of the fenders with a colour-matched enamel brush paint (I got a quart made up for just this purpose))

Not saying that this is the way for everyone, just documenting what I did for future reference.

Here are some photos:

(NOTE: Any big grey spots that you see in my photos aren't grease spots - they are unremovable dust particles inside my little Sony "garage camera")



Edited by 56D500boy 2021-09-03 3:44 PM




(56DodgeLowerLeftFrontFenderRepair_DownToBareMetal.jpg)



(56DodgeLowerLeftFrontFenderRepair_BareMetalPlusRustConverter.jpg)



(56DodgeLowerLeftFrontFenderRepair_PlusHighBuildPrimer.jpg)



(56DodgeLowerLeftFrontFenderRepair_PlusTwoCoatsOfTopCoatOverSandedPrimer.jpg)



Attachments
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Attachments 56DodgeLowerLeftFrontFenderRepair_DownToBareMetal.jpg (108KB - 86 downloads)
Attachments 56DodgeLowerLeftFrontFenderRepair_BareMetalPlusRustConverter.jpg (151KB - 89 downloads)
Attachments 56DodgeLowerLeftFrontFenderRepair_PlusHighBuildPrimer.jpg (71KB - 85 downloads)
Attachments 56DodgeLowerLeftFrontFenderRepair_PlusTwoCoatsOfTopCoatOverSandedPrimer.jpg (55KB - 81 downloads)
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