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Rust Repair 1

You may remember I fixed a rust spot some time ago. It was on the body, just past the corner, but the corner had a bit of rust, too. I painted both the corner and a rectangular bit of the body. I let Melissa mask off a bit of the corner in the shape of a lightning bolt, and we painted that bit yellow.

As you can see from the picture, the masking was incomplete. But the kids think it looks "more electric", so it's cool.

Two weekends later, I repaired the rest of the rust. To make the job look consistent (as opposed to "black patches"), I painted the portion of the hatch that runs between the two corners. To make it look cool, I painted it black and yellow, like a caution tape.

Read on for the other pictures.

It's one of the basic rules of converting an EV: choose a donor with no rust. Rust could indicate structural weakness, and when you're loading a car down with lead, you want a sturdy frame.

I thought I had managed to follow at least one of the basic rules... until I found a rust bubble under my driver's side rear turn signal lens.

I got some advice on how to fix it, then attacked it with a few flap wheels and a sanding block. I wound up sanding right through the metal and into something ugly on the other side.

Turns out someone else had trouble with rust in this spot before. But instead of actually fixing the problem, he just slapped some bondo on it and figured he was done. Naturally, that didn't cure the problem. And then it became my problem.