longhorndude
longhorndude New Reader
2/23/11 5:09 p.m.

topic says it all

Junkyard_Dog
Junkyard_Dog Dork
2/23/11 6:33 p.m.

Call Blake or Willy at BTDT racing or visit the ebay store. They're good guys.

jrw1621
jrw1621 SuperDork
2/23/11 6:46 p.m.

"Best Way"?

Most stuctural - new metal or complete new tub.

Cheapest - expanding foam sanded down and painted over.

Tom Suddard
Tom Suddard GRM+ Memberand SonDork
2/23/11 7:03 p.m.

Sand down area

Cut out rusty metal

Trim replacement panel

Weld in

Grind

Sand

Paint

joey48442
joey48442 SuperDork
2/23/11 7:50 p.m.

My Process?

Step 1, Drive to Hotlanta.

Step 2, Meet metalman, buy tub.

Step 3, Rebody Miata over course of winter.

Step 4, No more rust!

Joey

kellym
kellym New Reader
2/23/11 8:24 p.m.

Fly to California, choose from 1 of the hundreds of thousand rust free miatas we have, drive home, foam/bondo over old rusty car and sell for more than you paid for your new rust free car from CA

willy19592
willy19592 Reader
2/24/11 4:59 a.m.

we have some very nice repair panels http://btdtracing.com/gallery/v/Parts/rear+quarters/

NOHOME
NOHOME Reader
2/24/11 6:05 a.m.

As someone who routinely restores rusty MG shells, I must say "Welcome to the club"!

Took ya 20 years, but if ever there was sign that the Miata will be a classic, it i s the fact that people are making rust repair panels!

Best way to repair is to cut out the rusty area and but weld in a repair section. Make sure you are able to coat the weld bead from the backside or it will be the starting point of new rust.

Raze
Raze Dork
2/24/11 6:36 a.m.

I'm with NOHOME on this one, WELCOME TO THE CLUB! Funny that 'the answer to every car question' now contains rust...

Sofa King
Sofa King Reader
2/24/11 9:22 a.m.

If the rust gets into the fender lip above the body line it is probably best / easiest to buy a repair panel. If the rust is below that, it is pretty easy to fab your own patch panel out of sheet steel. Home Depot carries suitable pieces for about $8.00. I have done 4 cars making my own panels and they all turned out pretty well considering my limited skills. I have even discovered that the cheap bead roller that I bought from Harbor Freight has a die that matches the body line of a Miata exactly!

Most of the rockers that I have done also required some replacement of the inner layers. also not too difficult, but make sure you cut out all of the rust and replace the structural layers!

mad_machine
mad_machine GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
2/24/11 9:35 a.m.
NOHOME wrote: Took ya 20 years, but if ever there was sign that the Miata will be a classic, it i s the fact that people are making rust repair panels!

Or that they rust in the first place?

Now they just have to belch magical electrical smoke

Keith
Keith GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
2/24/11 9:58 a.m.

Well, they don't usually smoke when the main relay goes out, but the car does fail to proceed.

It's amazing what a couple of decades of aging will do to a car. I realized last summer that my Dad's 1990 Miata is now older than my Mom's 1964 MGB would have been when I was in high school. And when I was in high school, a 1964 MGB was a old car!

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