Hi guys, I’ve been doing work on an HR I just picked up 2 months ago, the body is immaculate and the paint is in amazing shape for its age. The only thing is there was some bubbled up rust on both rear wheel arches, upon investigation the fender seam was exposed and insulation material was getting wet. I took out as much of the rust as I could to get a better look. So far I’ve grinded out the left side, the rust near the bumper is through the fender in a small area but it doesn’t go much past up the inner fender which is good, the front of the arch is in a similar situation.

the problem is, I don’t know how to weld and reached out to some people who can weld but they aren’t up for the job. There is a guy in my city who can do it, but I’d prefer bringing it in the spring, but right now I really want to get it worked on and leave it not exposed.

is there any decent way to do something to get the arch repaired within a reasonable budget. I picked up some fiberglass bondo, bondo mesh, paint matched rattle cans, clear coat, primer, etc. and am tempted to try my hand at it.

what do you guys think? T









he rest of the body is fine, it’s 272,000km, the engine purrs and I did a full service and cleaning and want to keep it until It gives out or swap in another engine. I got it for $6.9k CAD and it’s starting to have meaning for me.

 

The driver's side look pretty severe. You can try using a rust converter in the short term until you can secure a shop that can do a proper repair. I don't know if you can buy patch panels for 350Zs, you may need to find a donor if you want a "good as new" repair done.
Good Luck!
-Icer

 

You can cut it away and recreate it with fiberglass/bondo. If you go over the rust it will end up cracking or rusting through the bodyfiller in a few weeks or months
Cutting it away and then recreating the shape with aluminum tape/cardboard(to ridgid up in between the tape)/aluminum tape...you can get creative here, whatever works, fiberglassing from the inside and then body filler to smooth the outside; I've made many repairs on cars using this method with success.
You really have nothing to lose by trying it yourself and you can make it perfect this way, but you need to grind much more and I'd take off the bumper before going further.

 

I’ve been slowly working away at grinding out the rust in my spare time, fabricating replacement patches, welding them in (my first time welding), bondo filling, sealing, undercoating then hopefully painting soon

 

Good luck!