Fiberglass or Welding????

[Guest Anonymous]

I'm trying to restore my 81 280ZX which has been sitting aroudn for 10+ years...anyway I got the engine going temporarily so now I'm gonna try and work on the body...the only problem is there is alot of rust on it... I have replacement doors, front fenders and hoods but I need to grind the rust out from the rear panels and other verious places in the car...my question is after I have gotten the rust out should I weld metal back into the holes that the rust created or should I go with fiberglass and fiberglass the holes since the rust has eaten through the metal in many places..... getting a replacement body will no be easy unless someone has a good one they want to see me for say 300 bucks and lives near B.C.....so yeah any advice would be great...thanks in advance...

[blueovalz]

I would attempt the welding before the glass work. Fiberglass would do a good temporary job (this is my opinion). I say this because of all the fiberglass-to-metal repairs I've made (or used to do), the rust eventually starts back up again at the metal/glass interface and eventually turns ugly again. It may take a few years with a good repair, but it will be back. The smaller the repair, the more durable it will be, but broader areas of repair will cause problems later on. The expansion coefficient (with temperature) of fiberglass is much greater than metal. Thus, the larger the glass repair is, the greater the stresses on the repair. The larger repairs exposed to heat (even the afternoon sun on it) can cause eventual separation from the metal (not to mention that vibrations can exacerbate the situation even more) with time much more easily than the smaller ones.

[Guest Anonymous]

Welding..........but try to find another car, you may not find one right away but believe me they are prevalent on the west coast.. Rust is a very difficult time consuming problem to eradicate. I recently cut up an old rust bucket and was continually surprised at the areas the rust existed and the structural damage the rust had done.. Terry is right about the areas under the body putty being a breeding ground for more rust. I saw this first hand when cutting into body panels.