Best "poor man's" way to fix a small rust hole in the roof

[AJMBLAZER]

No, this isn't on mine. My buddy has a '89 Toyota Camry wagon with the typical bad late 80's paint and it has some crust around the windshield edge on the roof. Not bad but not looking sound. We both think that once that gets hit with a wire wheel or sand paper he'll find at least one small hole.

-Low budget
-No welder or welding skills
-Going to be painted over but not right away beyond some rattle can to top coat it.
-Probably going to doob some Rust Bullet on it when we have the crusty stuff gone. Then go onto the priming, hole patching and top coating.
-Would like it to not be ghetto fab. He keeps talking about just cleaning it up and filling it with "body putty" which he is insisting isn't bondo but I keep having nightmares of my '86 Blazer with the cracked roof and crumbling rear window ledge and all the other craptastic body work I've seen involving bondo used to replace metal.

Suggestions?

 

[tRustyK5]

Wire wheel, and JB weld. Sand, skim with a light coat of body filler, sand, prime, and paint.

This is an '89 Camry, not a concours show vehicle right?

Rene

 

[KirsL]

Agree with the above. A good metal filler once cleaned up will do the job. Simple and it works.

 

[jonrpick]

Probably harder than the bondo/body filler method...

I did this in the last week on a drum shell that I'm converting from a marching snare drum to a tom tom.

I needed to fill many holes from various bits of hardware that won't be reused. I put blue painter's masking tape on the underside of each hole to seal it, then mixed up some "professional strength" 2-part epoxy that I got at Home Depot. I poured the epoxy into the holes and after it set up, I smoothed it out with the flat side of a 1/2-round file.

Using the ol' "finger test", I can't feel where the wood stops and the epoxy begins. It worked much better than expected.

But like I said, it's probably equally effective, yet more complicated than just using body filler.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Hahaha, I suggested JB Weld and he said no so fast it was funny. I'll throw this at him and see what he says.

 

[tRustyK5]

It sounds hokey, but JB is actually some pretty tough stuff! I trail fixed an oil cooler line on my 6.2 with JB and some heat shrinK tube. The "trail fix" worked so well I ran it like that for 3 years. This was on a motor that regualrly made 70+ psi of OP cold, and a solid 55 psi hot. It never did leak again...

Rene

 

[rufusbooth]

I have used this to fill in pin holes in areas where a patch panel was just not going to happen. If you spot blast the rusty area this will fill the small pin holes, waterproof so water will not allow rust to start again and it is metal reinforced so it is way stronger than you average "bondo"

http://www.eastwood.com/metal-to-metal-filler-quart-with-hardner.html

 

[K5_Fla]

JB works wonders... always keep some in the truck

 

[K85 Octane]

x2 on JB
used it inside a quad motor to divert oil from a passage out to an oil cooler that was never there before.

still running strong

 

[Stomis]

If JB is off the table then kitty hair is premixed chopped fiberglass they sell in a can. It takes hardener like bondo but cures like glass and is strong as hell. I used it to re-attach the inner fenders to my floor in my samurai after I realized I dug out all the rust with no way to fix it.