Alfa 90 - B pillar Rust?

[Beatle]

Progress has been sporadic = S L O W !!!

RH sill had not had prior repairs, so looked worse externally but not actually as badly rusted, and  little simpler to fix (plus my confidence was up after having done the LH side).  I opted to go for practicality rather than neatness along the lower edge of the repair sections, opening them up so they will drain freely.  The repair area is mostly covered by the sill trims, so while it's a complex shape to work with, the ultimate finish is only critical on a small area.

Once you see how the base of the B-pillar intefraces the sill, you can see why they rust in this area

[Beatle]

More progress.  Now ready for a few coats of AR530 red, then copious amounts of rustroofing agent ............

[Brad M]

That looks like is a quality repair there Paul! Much better then my effort on our first 90

[Nate Dog]

errr...
as to the quality repair, Paul, the welding looks pretty good, but on the bottom panel shouldn't you grind that flat?

My 2 cents,  but if you dont and leave overhangs then surface tension will make natural welling points beneath each one and you'll be getting rust again?
Or is that just a shadow from the angle of the pic?

Anyway, if i'm wrong happy to be corrected.

Nate

[Brad M]

errr...
as to the quality repair, Paul, the welding looks pretty good, but on the bottom panel shouldn't you grind that flat?

It wasn't flat when it left the factory.

It is a notorious rust point on the 90, I believe for the very reason you stated.

[105gta]

I had a 90 with rust in the same place on both sides...

[Beatle]

You may be chasing shadows Nate...    

Basically that section of the factory B-pillar is spot welded to the outer sill.  The sill is one continuous piece all the way under the pillar so the result is plenty of metal-to-metal contact with very little in the way of effective drainage, and even less in the way of seam sealing.  The factory did apply galvanising to the metal, but after 15 years+, corrosion is inevitable.   

I copied the factory shape, but prised drains into the overlaid sheetmetal, in between the welds (which is what I believe you can see).  It's covered by plastic when the car is reassembled so while it ain't pretty, it is serviceable.

I've also worked along the underside of the sill to open up drainage.

On one side of the car the sealing around the seatbelt anchor point forms a dam inside the sill (I have a videoscope hooked to a laptop), on the other side I don't see any sealing at all.  So I suspect Antonio and Paulo got their destra e sinistra confused and double-dosed one side.  I've since remedied that water trap.

The whole car will get a good dose of rustproofer once I've tidied up a few other spots of corrosion. 

So the 90 may never be pretty, she should be OK to use regularly and in anger.

[Beatle]

I was quoted $700 to fix the rust in the pillars.  To date it couldn't have cost me more than $1200 in products and extra tooling to do it myself........   

[Nate Dog]

Lmao. 

Good work Paul.
Sounds like we repair cars the same way

Can't help but feel a little cheated whenever i get anyone else to do repairs on my cars. Despite the best reputation on earth and no amount of inspection on my part ever convinces me they've gone to the same attention to  details i would've gone to.

Keep the pics coming. Nice work on the repair

[shiny_car]

Nice work. I need to learn to weld! Na, leave it to you! 

[Beatle]

Ha ha, the photos don't do it justice Shiny_car.  I can't weld for s%$#@t!!!!  Thankfully though, I'm an expert with a 4" angle grinder.............

Nate: I agree to a point.  I find being that little bit anal sometimes means I stuff things up because I couldn't leave well enough alone.  You know how it is...I'll just touch that paint up with one more coat....or I'll just go over that sealant line one more time....      A pro does it once, does it quickly, then gets onto the next job.

When I ran all the wiring for my shed, the electrician who came to connect and test it all asked me if I wanted a job !!!i   I told him he couldn't afford me as I'm so damn slow (apart from not being qualified).

[Beatle]

Finally got the colour onto it.  I removed the masking, feathered the edges of the primer into the old paint so the lines wouldn't show through, final prep, then gave her 3.5 coats of auto acrylic touch-up paint from a spray can (two small cans).  Photos aren't clear (too much light) but it turned out much better than I'd expected on the visible-after-reassembled sections.  The rest I wasn't concerned about, and the hidden parts will all get a coating of lanoline/wax preserver before the plastics go on.

I'll leave it for the week then a light burnish/polish to finish.

Special mention to Steve (Four90s) for putting me on to the PowerPlus Milano Red PJ5124 which is a match for the AR530, or at least matches the shade on my pillars
http://wiki.r31skylineclub.com/images/f/f9/Paint-codes.pdf   

Not the best or most economical choice for paint, but damn convenient!!   Steve mentioned that it looked too dark in the shop, and he was right.  I bought the paint then returned with a C-pillar panel looking for a better match to the colour on the lid of the cans, to no avail.  Lucky I stuck with the ones I had because the colour match is excellent. Even the trial spray on white paper made the colour look very dark (plum) but by the third coat on the car the match is great.

Hint.  If you use more than one can keep the empties in case one of the spray nozzles blocks up mid-spray....

[Davidm1600]

Well done Paul. I think given what you were working with and I like your temporary spray booth    that the results look really well done. 

When cutting back to give it shine,  if you use 1200-2000 grade wet and dry paper with warm water and soap, that should work a treat.  Afterall all you need to do is remove any surface orange peel and after that should be good to go with cut and polish.  If by any chance you cut back a little too hard and go back to the primer below (and this can happen) especially when using spray can paints (I know from past experience), all you would need to do is re-mask as necessary and give the area another coat or two and do the same thing in cutting back. 

It is quite probable you already know about this sort of stuff but thought it might be helpful to someone.  Now I guess for the other side b piller repair or have you already got this completed.  Its nice when you can do you own repairs rather than having to pay others to do it for you.

[Beatle]

Thanks David, both pillars are (finally) complete.  Now some clean up required in the vent plenum/firewall before a soaking with rustproofer, and reassembly,  I was lucky enough to get a good surface finish out of the can.  It's always a risk.....wet enough so the droplets 'flash' to give a glossy finish with  minimal orange-peel, not so wet that it runs (refer to prior post about leaving well enough alone...).  It was a risk though, given the horizontal and vertical surfaces.

Shouldn't need more than polish to get a decent finish, and the rest of the paint isn't 100%  so I don't want to make the new part too obvious 

Another hint for the budding spray painters is to save all those old worn pieces of 1200 wet-n-dry paper.  When they are worn (and clean) they are perfect for final finishing of paintwork.