DSM Strut Tower Rust Repair

Well a typical problem with 2g DSM's is the dreaded strut tower rust.  Due to a design oversight, the sheet metal will rust from under the fender into the engine bay.  By the time its noticed under the hood, its usually too late.

Originally it looked like some bubbling paint:

And on further poking, prodding, and cutting....turned into this:

Prepped for surgery:

Cleaned up and box section cut out to be repaired first:

New piece cut and drilled for plug welds to internal baffle:

Welded and ground flush before top layer installation:

Top layer trimmed to fit and formed in a vice to match original angles:

View from inside the fenderwell.  Note some of the weld burnt through the original sheet metal.  The original metal was quite thin and I had some difficulty welding it.  It would probably be easier/better with a smaller 120V Mig instead of the larger 240V model I'm using.  I will be cleaning off all the seam sealer and installing new sealer.  I'll probably spray on some rubberized undercoating as well.

Close to finished, just some grinding to do:

Touching up some pits before priming and filling/painting:

It doesn't look like much, but this has been a 5-hour ordeal.  Very time consuming to clean up the rust and work back to good metal.  Then even more work to cut the new pieces and fit everything back to factory shape - or "close" to factory shape!



**UPDATE** 29 Sept 2013

Finished and painted the RH side.  The inner fender still needs new seam sealer and some rubberized undercoating.

Next up is the driver's side - which is even worse!!!