hello all im kinda new here and new to restoring a rotted 1967 chevelle,anyways heres the question on the pitted spot (after i get the rust out of it) what should i do with it i know i can cut itout and replace it but there is so much of it ,like the quarter panel is in good shape but then you have a 1 inch by 1 inch spot that is pitted i was wondering if i should use fiberstrand or bondo and kinda wondering if it will even stick to the metal and hold up this car is a very big project so im going to need all the help can get from you guys any help would be great :thumbsup:

I think bondo will be ok.. Just take your time and do it right..

A 1 inch spot sounds pretty small to me (but at one point you says there's so much of it). If the rest is sound, then the two most important things are 1. getting rid of the rest of the rust (a wire brush and navel jelly may be all that is needed) and 2. the structural integrity of the remaining metal. If you wire brush it down to clean metal and it's still very solid, then epoxy it and use filler to fill in the small pits. If you don't remove that rust it'll come back no matter what you do. If the metal is rusted through and not structurally sound you might be able to make a repair patch or buy a repair patch. Common rust areas (around the wheel opening, lower quarter panel behind the rear wheel etc) may have patches available so you can repair only the bad metal and save the rest of the panel.

A picture would help greatly.

Remove the rust, remove the rust, remove the rust! Don't paint over it, don't "convert it," don't bondo it or you'll be doing it again in 12 months.

Good luck and let see some pics.

Could you clarify "pitted".
If you mean small indents in the metal from surface rust, Just clean all the surface rust, scuff the bare metal and use a quality filler or glaze.
If you mean small HOLES from rust, The problem isn't what you see, Its what you can't see. Usually when the metal rusts to the point of pinholes, It means that the rest around the area is paper thin and rusting on the inside as well. This will need to be cut out until you find good metal and then patched...

its not pinholes and if i push on it it seems to be solid,just pits in metal like its been sitting under a tree for years and for the roof i think it had a vynal top on it at one time ,after im done with it im planning on putting another vynal top back on,is that a bad thing if there is some kind of filler on the roof putting a vynal top backon

If the metal isn't soft, and there is not a big area, here is what I would do.....
Get a Spotblast gun. you can pick one up for about $50. It's a small handheld sandblaster that has a rubber boot on it for blasting small areas. Use that to blast away the rust. Clean the area after your done with a wax & grease remover, then apply some good PLASTIC FILLER such as Evercoat Rage Gold, not that cheap Bondo brand crap at Pep Boys.
My 69 had a little pitting in the roof and that's what I did. I put the vinyl top right back on it. Before you do this though, make sure the area is prepped and painted like the rest of the car is.

who has this spotblast gun i could use something like that to.:hurray:

Eastwood has them.

Do the pit marks look like these sandblasted floor pans, or kind of like it.



http://www.1969supersport.com/sb30.jpg

Clean the area after your done with a wax & grease remover, then apply some good PLASTIC FILLER such as Evercoat Rage Gold, not that cheap Bondo brand crap at Pep Boys.


Hey Tom.....my paint supplier advised me to put a coat of epoxy primer on this bare steel ~before~ I added the Rage Gold. He said this initial coat of epoxy primer would seal the metal from moisture under the filler. Does this sound like good advice?

You can do that. I did it that way with my Charger. The epoxy seals the metal so it won't flash rust. You can do filler work right over the epoxy. I like to lightly scuff the area to aid in adhesion.

yes there is spots that look like them in the picture and some maybe a little worse and thanks to all you guys for some answers that is great how fast you guys answer here thanks again:thumbsup:

yes there is spots that look like them in the picture and some maybe a little worse and thanks to all you guys for some answers that is great how fast you guys answer here thanks again:thumbsup:

Your welcome. Heres something to look for. Back to the picture of the floor pan and supports. Your looking at the bottom of a 69 chevelle floor pan, support. One of the problem areas that is hard to see sometimes is where the support is spot welded from the factory to the floor pan.

So go inside the car looking down at the floor board, take the carpeting out and find the spot welds that go across the floor, every two or three inches there should be a line of them for each floor support.

If theres rust between the floor support and floor pan, it will be between the spot welds. If it has a lot you will be able to see where the metal is raised or swollen in those areas.

I would look at all the supports, on mine I had one really bad area that was about 5/16'' thick rust and scale, just take your time a look those areas over.

Now looking underneath the car looking up at the floor supports, if you have rust between them it will look almost like extra metal in between the support and pan, and if you scratch it, it will look shiny almost like metal itself, but its rust scale.

Get a good strong light and give those pans and supports a good looking over.

I've had a couple of these fourty year old muscle cars and heres what I noticed. If its a midwestern car (rust belt ), and it hasn't had a frame off restoration which included reworking or replacing the floor pans.

They will leech out rust from in between the supports and pans. I could clean my garage floor then take the car for a ride and park it on the clean floor, then it might set for a week or two, meanwhile somebody gets in it and looks it over, shuts the door and opens the hood and what not.

Then maybe take it for a ride and when I get back and go into open the garage door and walk out I will see these little tiny rust dust spots, yet I had cleaned the floor the last time I brought it in, and nobody had been working in the garage.

I had a 69 dodge dart, and old original grand spaulding 440 dart. I go to start it up one day and it didn't want to start, then it backfired really bad and split both mufflers right down the side, my buddy was outside the car in the garage and he couldn't hear for a few hours.

So we go for a ride and when I go to pull it back in the garage you could see the outlines of where the rust had fell out of it onto the floor.