Holy crap!! I was expecting people to flame the heck out of me!!

I almost rebuilt the entire exterior of an Isuzu Trooper using this method. Then, after the driver'* seat fell through the floor, the same truck ended up with a hardwood floor (using scraps from the construction site I was on).

Well, John, as it turns out...unless he is willing to spend a couple grand on doing it right at a body shop, the patch-and-ride technique is his best bet, IMO.

YAY!!! SO THERES HOPE?!?!?!? w00t!!!!

Ok...killer.

yeah the foam and fiberglass idea is kinda exactly what I was thinking in the first place.

NOW. Problem. Its getting colder and I have NO heated garage to work in. And I don't THINK that foam, fiberglass or paint will cure when it is about 20-40 degrees.

ALSO, I use my car everyday, like all day. ALSO my mother and I are sharing it for right now so this really makes a real problem.

And I really wanted to get it fixed before winter came!

hmm, we shall see!

thanks very much John for the advice on that. Appreciate yah being positive!

But what about the wheel wells!!!! same kinda thing?

and the paint! for the love of god, that poor paint! can it be saved?

I wouldn't touch it, that'* not a terribly structural area of the car, but the more you mess with that, the more you're helping it spread sometimes. It'* an old car time to just let nature run it'* course IMO.

(And i have bubbles starting below my gas tank )

I doubt my plan would work on the wheel wells. You need kind of a boxed in area for it to work.

At a minimum, get some of that rust converter stuff on there, in the hopes it will at least slow it down for you. I got some made by PlastiKote at Fleet farm for less than 10 bucks.

Ugh...

John we can flame you if you'd like..lol

I like the idea though.. almost sounds like it'* possible.

damn im glad i live in a desert.

you dream to much

http://www.bonnevilleclub.com/forum/...ht=restoration

Owtch!

The only solution of number one and two, is to take the rusty metal out, as far back as you can, to good clean workable metal. Then, you make the replacement pieces by carefully bending 20 or 22 guage sheetmetal. You can usually do it piece by piece. Thats how I did my rear wheel wells. They were rotted out, right to the area where the bumper attaches. I cut and butt welded in replacement pieces, along with the inner part of the wheel well.

The hole in the door? Yeah, I remember when I had a nice hole in my passenger door still, same area as yours. I had to replace the rocker panel, and when i put a new rocker panel on, i completly rebuilt the door pillar on the passenger side. Still going strong.

My car has had many close flirtations with death, but I kept it going. Mostly the problems are due to the rot in all 4 wheel wells, both rocker panels, and some door bottoms. Alot of the work is done, but there is still some ahead. I am planning to do more work to it next summer, or continue on into winter while I work at the shop. The most recent work i did was the driver'* side rocker panel. I just cut out the entire panel, from front to rear. Then I put a new repoduction panel, (45 dollars!!) on, welded it in place. Once its painted, it will look good!

Anyways, its all on wheather you have the skill, and equipment to fix this kind of stuff. I have a mig welder, and a gas tank. I also have a shop size air compressor with paint and bodywork tools too. So, to do bodywork on my car, its cheap, compared to the guys who don't have the tools.

Anyways, its all up to you. Sometimes its best to let it go. Maybe you can find a Bonneville, in our years 86-91 that has a much better and workable body. And you could take it, and put a SC 3800 series 2 in it. lol. That'd be fun. Plus, you'd have like others have said, a unique car.

haha, well hey, a man can have some fun eh? I still think like that, if I only had the money, I honestly would either have a pimped late model SSEi or a completely restored and improved 88-91...i just like the body style, what can i say?!?!

but tim, thanks for that advice, I really don't have ANY tools, or anything to work with here...all my tools got left in hawaii....i always have to borrow tools whenever i want to do stuff! I can't even WASH my car here because these apartments management don't allow chemicals because all our waste goes into the lake this property is on...so eh, i always have to go down to the car wash area in town and i dunno, just takes away the fun of doing it at home, PLUS it gets expensive when i wanna do a good job...

anyways guys, I have basically decided to just let this one go when she dies...its really gonna be extremely hard on me, but when something hard to fix happens structurally, shes goin. And a new bonne is comin to town.

for now i will keep her maintained mechanically in tip top shape, which is the current mechanical condition. so hah, when the body goes, the engine will most likely be still kickin! so sad. but oh well.