The car needs a paint job, so would my best bet to get metal fabricated for this and weld a new part of the fender on? Or bondo it? What would you do if this was your car? The left part I punched through when trying to clean off the rust. I spray painted for temporary protection.

Happy to say though, this is pretty much the only rust issue my car has.


Click to view attachment

This is bad preparation before painting from the previous painter.
Media blast it and see how bad it is. Cut/replace and weld.

Niklas

I would grind all the areas down to bare metal, making sure that all the rust is removed. Then I would weld replacement steel to replace the rusted metal. Also, I would coat the areas around the rusted areas with rust converter, prime and repaint. This is the only way to do a first rate repair.

Don

Unfortunately your rust is problably worse than you think. It will look much worse in the area below the fender where you can't see. Weld in good metal after you find out how much rust is there. It looks like you may have to cut a section out to find what lurks underneath.

I had rust in the same spot. There is two layers of steel. I cut out and replaced both. Not very hard if you know how to weld.

But I don't know how to weld...never done it. I've seen it done and have access to a welding machine. Can a newbie weld or is it better to have a pro do it?

Also, where does one get metal that will fit right in? Or is that part of the process, bending it to fit the cutout?

all pros were once newbies. Practice on scrap and ask many questions. There are some gifted welders on this forum that are full of good info.

Dr. Evil is right. We all had to start somewhere. Practice ALOT before attempting this on your car. It's a tight space on the metal underneath the fender, you're very close to the gas tank, and the lower area is exposed to the door jamb/interior. There is nothing real structural about it if you don't have to cut into the windshield frame.
I did because the PO left a void where the windshield frame meets the cowl! He just filled it with bondo, that bastard!
I started with 16 ga. sheetmetal and matched the curve of the fender by tapping the metal over a
pipe until it matched. Take you're time fitting a piece after you get rid of all the bad metal. Well I say if you practice and get comfortable, go for it. You might even enjoy it, get good at it and save alot of $$ on future projects!

That won't be your only rust there - pull the front deck lid seal out of the channel & look at it up there & all around the channel, then pull both cowl/fender T-seals & look into the joint/crack - there will be more.

There is also high probability there is rust elsewhere on your car - it's a 914!

In my opinion that is all coming from the bottom side of the fender, but maybenot. The previous paint job may not have had any sign of the rust coming through. On the cowl it may have been rust under the paint and the paint wasn't stripped so the rust wasn't removed but just painted over. You can cut those pieces off and see whats what.

I can see under the fender on the left part inside the door, and that rust is limited to just the fender. Can't really see under the bubble area, but as far back as I can - the metal underneath looks fine.

Unfortunately I don't have enough access to a welder to practice until perfection before attempting on the car. It's at work.

So another question, can any body shop (non-classic car) fix something like this? Or should they have experience with 914s? I do know of a classic car body shop place in my area, but they do Chevy/Fords. Is that knowledge transferable to a 914?

It's amazing what you can find lurking under the immense amount of paint covered seam sealer on these cars. It may look alright in there, but I bet you could plunge a screwdriver through from under the fender in the crook of the door, through the fender itself, and even the side of the cowl.

I've taken my front fender off in its entirety to get access to that area, and I can tell you it's pretty scary all the layers that come together right there.

I've made repairs to that area; I'd echo the notion that the rust is likely coming up from underneath. Realize that the metal is double-layered in that area, so looking underneath from the door cowl area will only show the lower portion -- the only way to see the extent of the rust damage is to cut out the bad parts, determine what is rust-damaged, and then weld in new sections.

I can't speak to the abilities of the Chebby-Ford body shop, but they can likely take a look at those rust bubbles and let you know if they wanna tackle it. Obviously, experience fixing rust damage on 914s would be ideal, but that might not be possible. Be sure to ask for references for similar rust repair work that they've completed.

Good luck!

Taking off the whole fender is quite a chore. Probably best bet is just to start cutting off the obvious bad area, see what's underneath, then go from there.

Quick body work noob question....since you obviously can't paint under that fender - is new metal welding in pre-painted on the back side or coated with something to prevent rust?

As bizarre as this sounds, you would be better off saving up your money and buying a welder.

I bought a welder a few years back and I have done so much with it since then. I've welded stuff on both of my 914s, repaired the hanger on the muffler on my 95 Audi, welded holes in a VW bus muffler and an old BMW muffler.

Oh yeah, I didn't know how to weld when I bought my welder. Now instead of being really bad at it, I just suck a little bit.

Just when I thought I was done doing some rust repair on my 914, I found more and had to keep welding.

By the time you pay someone to weld for you, you may have paid for a welder.

You're a 914 owner - The poor man's Porsche. DIY! It's the code of the 914 owner.

More than likely if you keep your 914 you will need to get a welder and learn how to use it or take on a second job to pay a shop to fix it.

Yep, I moving on to my second one. Bought the 110 Sears wire feed($300). Going to move up to a Miller ($650). Infinite controls, rather than 4 settings.
I've had the Sears over 10 years has served me well. Still works great.

Rust has a way of lurking for a while, then showing it's uggly head.