Derek

voila! No more lock cylinder.

The panel adhesive has been ground back and I'm ready for the bondo.

It's not pretty but it gets the job done.

I decided to do away with the door lock cylinders. I'm installing a keyless entry system so this will be one more level of security. Once again panel adhesive makes quick work of a difficult job.

Here's the 1/4 panel patch I glued in. You can see how using a guide coat helps you see what your sanding and what needs more work.

I put a coat of duraglass down first. Then I top coat with bondo. Duraglass is much stronger than the bondo and is waterproof as well. The bondo I chose is Rage extreme. It was expensive but it laid out easily and sanded like butter. Only do a few areas at a time so you can work the bondo during its optimal sanding period. Also do a search on guide coating and use it!!

All the rust has been treated with ospho, dried overnight, and then re-sanded. I then painted the really rusty sections with por-15. Now this is the tricky part. If you wait until the por is dry the primer won't stick. The ideal time is when the surface is still tacky but wont leave a trace on your finger when you touch it. Then I sprayed a coat of epoxy primer over all the bare metal. I used Southern Polyurethanes products and couldn't have been happier.

Couldn't be simpler!

Here I've sanded back all the rust and treated with Ospho.

This was a tricky repair. Here is where the panel adhesive really comes in handy

The roof and deck lid were showing signs of surface rust under the paint so I decided to strip the paint down to the metal.

I stripped the clamps and screws this morning and man am I happy with this repair. It was a whole lot easier than welding and has rigidity about it that you don't get with spot welding.

I made a backing plate out of the left over material I cut from the patch panel. I screwed the backing plate to the inside of the ¼ and then screwed the patch panel to it. I then disassembled the piece and got the adhesive gun ready. I reassembled everything but this time with adhesive on all of the contact areas. I made sure that I had a large enough bead so that it would create a water tight seal as well.

I'm splicing in a repair panel on the bottom of the ¼ panel. The black stuff is por-15

When it came time to start repairing the rust my 240Z body I was trying to figure the best way for me to make the repairs. I have a full metalworking shop including a tig, mig, and spot welder so I had a few options to play with. I had been using some pretty awesome adhesives on my foundry patterns and thought I would investigate it more. My theory on the adhesives was that it would be better in two ways. The first would be no metal fatigue from the weld and the second would be superior strength because of th increased contact area. I did some research on the web and found that panel adhesive is some pretty spectacular stuff. I found plenty of tests where the metal would tear before the adhesive would fail. I purchased some SEM 39747 panel adhesive and an application gun.

As you can see by the next few pictures there is quite a bit of rust to repair.