Fixing rocker panel rust - 99 s70

[abscate]

Advanced option for summer.

Passenger foot cooling and rinsing for LHD cars

[smacknab]

Posting these here for future reference if anyone wants to see that it can be done.

I should mention that I got very lucky in a couple of ways:

1. Abscate cut out good donor metal for me
2. A friend could lend me a welder
3. Another friend who does professional body work (on million dollar cars) gave me three hours of his time to splice in the new panel. Which I should say, was by far the hardest and most skilled part of this work. Without him I would've been screwed.

But basically you cut out the bad, butt-weld in the good, sand to metal with a wire wheel, flap wheel and sand paper. Clean it up with degreaser, 1-3 coats of primer, wet sand, 2-3 coats of base coat and 2-3 coats of clear. Wet sand and polish to blend into the panel. I will also go back with a ton of seam sealer to prolong the life of the work.

I used two Chris fix videos which together essentially explain the whole process.

This one for the welding:
This one for the sanding and painting:

Autozone or PepBoys probably won't carry your Volvo's base paint. For getting the paint I went to a professional autobody supply store who mixed the exact base color down to pulling out three swatches that were known variations in the silver paint in this year and visually picked out the right one. They also matched it with the correct clear coat. One spray can of the base paint costs probably $30, of which I used a little over half. It was pricey but I think it's worth it if you have the option.

You might notice I didn't grind down all the welds, some of that was on recomendation from my friend that grinding down too far could undo the welds. Some of it was that I kinda dig the welds. Scars are cool.

Was it worth it?
For me, sure. But only because I got really lucky with the help of some friends and I had put a TON of work into the car already. Sunken Cost Bias might be the name of this car.
For anyone else I'd probably say run for your life and get another one since they're cheap enough. But I wanted to post this to show that if you really want to save your car, it is not impossible. It might be worth outsourcing the metal splice portion if it's in a very visible part of the car.

[abscate]

Link to the metal harvest thread , if SM doesn’t mind

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=94422&start=10

[j-dawg]

Badass. Big ups. I'll admit I didn't think this was gonna happen. Should have had faith.

[Sveedy]

You should feel rightly proud for taking on and beating that problem. Well done !

[abscate]

Tim in NY put me into these guys for colour match paint

https://www.automotivetouchup.com/about-us.aspx