Anyone here up for helping me sort the bodywork on my car?

[atpbx]

The cheap fiesta I picked up the other day has bubbly rear arches and a bubbly offside sill, Thing is the rest of the car is sound, my plan was to just run it this winter till the mot runs out and get another one. The rest of the car is in such good nick and mechanical condition, it just seems a waste, and it will sail through the next test, seems a shame to let it rot away.
I would do it myself, but I am notoriously crap at anything body work related, I'm just no good at it, I know what I'm supposed to do, It just gets lost in translation between my brain and the bits of my body doing the work , so I've got some pics up, give me pointers, or even better who wants to do it for me? (I have real money I will pay)


Here are pics:
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/4092/photo103d.jpg
http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/7550/photo100t.jpg
http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/1610/photo102m.jpg

 

[atpbx]

When making requests like this, it helps if you state whereabouts in the country you are.

Why?

Its a car, it can go anywhere there is a road

 

[atpbx]

That sill looks like it needs cutting out and welding, you never really know until you start digging. The arches will need taking back to bare metal and treated, depending on how bad they are, welding might be the only fix. £400 would be a conservative estimate for the work to be done at a bodyshop.

I've already had it looked at, and a got a quote for doing it, the parts are dirt cheap, its a fiesta, a sill is £22.50, wheel arches £12.50 I can do the "cutting out and welding" bits , Its the filling and spraying I'm no good at.

At the end of the day, its a 1997 fiesta to hack to work in over winter, If someone with more experience at bodywork than me reckons they can tidy it with out me having to resort to breaking the welder out, I'll bring the car over and pay them to do it, otherwise I'll just let it rot away.

 

[atpbx]

If you poke that sill (specifically the underside area) with a screwdriver and find it (most likely) goes straight through, then it might be worth thinking about what to do next...

It doesnt, I've already looked.
If it did, I'd plate it over.

 

[atpbx]

Yes, but while I have a mate who could do this job for you at a good price, it might not be something that will be done in a day and the car may not be legally driveable by end of the first day. (He's the expert, not me, I dunno if it's doable or not) so if you're in Scotland or something there's not much point me asking him, since we're in South Wales.

I'm in lincolnshire, you are 3 hours 20 minutes from me, and all my relatives live in cardiff, so thats a happy coincidence.
No problems getting a couple of days off either.

 

[atpbx]

Its got plenty of MOT left, I just think for the sake of a couple of afternoons work that its too good just let rot away.
However, I have someone who is coming over tomorrow who knows what they doing, the boss is letting me use the warehouse and it will be cleaned up by the end of the weekend, for the princely sum of a Bic Mac and fries.

 

[atpbx]

Tyre sidewalls look past best as well.

That arch may need cutting out and a new metal bit welding in, sill could be anything but a metal plate after cutting the bad bit out is the least work its goign to need.

Nah, not at all.

Its all done now, no welding required anywhere, the arches and sill have all been stripped down to the bare metal, rust cleaned up with a rotary brush, and its primed and waiting for the top coat to go on tomorrow morning.

We've not bothered matching the edges of the paint where we have sanded down, lifes too short, it as after all just a hack to get to work and back, so it wont look great, but it wont be rotting away either.

If it bothers me too much seeing where i've cleaned it up, I my take a couple of days off and re do the worse parts, alternatively, I might even just stick some cheap ass plastic wide arches on it .

 

[atpbx]

thats it youve given me the balls to do mine aswell, Seeing as i have the same car in the same colour would you mind telling me how long it took you , what you used , The total cost to you(if you dont mind) also what is our colour actually called is it moonstone silver? that would be such a help dude.

Also do you reckon you could show an after pic? it would be cool to see what i can expect? thanks again

The wheel arches are not great, because we literally just buzzed all the rust off and didnt bother sanding down the surrounding areas level, we've just treated the metal with rust treatment, then anti rust primer, then normal paint primer.
The paint will go on today, again, we are not doing any buffing or sanding just getting a color on it, so in all honesty, its going to look really *****.

To strip both arches and the drivers sill down and to sand, grind, and wire brush the paint away, took 2 hours. If you wanted to do match the paint up, you would need another hour or so.
You need to treat the metal once thats done, let that dry for 20 minutes/half an hour (tin says 3 hours **** that) then fill any holes, deep pits with chemical metal or filler, depending on how bad things are, that could be a couple of hours, etc etc.

Lets put it this way, if you started early on a saterday (and not midday like we did because we had to wait for the warehouse) you could do a really good job of stripping down, sanding and filling, and probably get the primer on by early saterday evening, and of done a good job on it.
IF you started early sunday you could probably get all the top coat on, sanded and buffed properly and then put a couple of coats of lacquer on by sunday evening.

I've used halfords paints (moonstone silver, basic grey primer) some hammerite smooth grey anti rust primer, and a can of the basic clear laquer.
Paint was £20
Rust treatment was £5
Assorted sanding discs and buffing pads (comes in a pack from halfords) £7
And then assorted power tools, A 750watt drill, a dremel, a grinder with a wire brush attachment.

So if you already have, or can borrow the tools, you need 2 days, it will cost about £30 in paint, and another £15-30 depending on what attachments you need to buy (or burn out and need to replace).
Also, if you find a hole in the sill, a garage will be able to patch it up for about £25 or so, so its not the end of the world if you find one.

Best bit of advice is get a torch and go over the sills and arches and prod and poke all the dodgy areas and make sure there is still metal left to sand back to before you start.

 

[atpbx]

The dreaded tin worm, you a fighting a loosing battle, short of cutting out all rusty metal and welding in new. You could tidy it up for a year or so, but that sill doesn't look good.

??

Its all done, sill is fine, the bit in the picture was literally just bubbly paint.