Fixed some roof rust. Will it hold?

[doitdoitdoit]

Just got an 06 Jeep Liberty Renegade a couple weeks ago and noticed some rust bubbling up over the drivers window on the roof.

There was some paint chipping off the roof rack and after removing it to repaint it saw a little more rust bubbling around one of the mounting holes for the roof rack. I ground down all rust areas with a wire wheel and siliconed the roof rack mounts.

I know that the best way to repair rust is to cut it out and weld new metal, but I went with bondo anyway. I got some really great results actually, especially after seeing those huge holes under the bubbles.

How long do you guys think it will hold? The bondo isnt totally floating by the way, there is another layer of metal about a quarter inch under the roof panel.

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[uss2defiant]

paint looks good.
any more pics of the paint job over the bondo?

I've got some paint job to do too.
Any advise?

I think as long as you got most of the rust out it should be good.

 

[tommudd]

Cutting out and welding in a metal patch is more permanent, but as long as no moisture gets in behind there it'll last for a while .

 

[CactusJacked]

Rust never sleeps, it'll be back eventually.

 

[tommudd]

Rust never sleeps, it'll be back eventually.

Yep, only true way is to cut everything out back to solid metal and replace
but should get him through till spring :icon_lol:

 

[CactusJacked]

Yep, only true way is to cut everything out back to solid metal and replace
but should get him through till spring :icon_lol:

Being on the roof, it should last till spring. lol
I've done fixes like that before....on cars I was selling....to nobody I know! :happy175:

 

[doitdoitdoit]

So I guess I got till spring to practice welding... I have a harbor freight flux wire welder now which does great with angle iron and pipes but blows holes through thin stuff.

Anyone try welding a patch before? What welder to use?

 

[Paul M]

You'll be fine...looks like a good fix and should last quite a while. Moisture under the repair is what will cause it to fail prematurely, even if it's just a pinhole, but the paint should seal it off. Also, most decent metal primers have a rust inhibitor. Paint work is terrific for a small area repair.

 

[doitdoitdoit]

Hopefully sealing the roof rack will prevent more water from getting in.

I wanna say the reason the paint came out so good is I sanded to 600 grit before painting and used an airbrush instead of a spray can. With the airbrush you can control how much paint comes out as well as the size. The one I used was 20 bucks at harbor freight and runs off any compressor. I still plan on polishing the clear coat in a week or so after it cures

 

[tommudd]

If you are burning through thinner metals with your welder then you have it cranked too high .

 

[CactusJacked]

I've done a ton of panel repair using a flux core mig welder. The only blow through I experienced was due to the metal being too thin near the edge of where a rust hole was. The issue you may run into with your present fix is that rust is still embedded into the metal. Once the edges rust back a hair more, the bondo will break loose.