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Grex Cars Item 33: Rebuilding rusted lower door seams :
Entered by ragnar on Mon May 10 00:52:38 UTC 1993:

  I started tearing into Jodi's Omni today with a wire wheel and grinding
stone, and other such elements of destruction and rust removal.  The
general underside was in good shape, being gunked up wiht rust proofing
better that my older Omni and being wet with the oil that the engine
burps out from the head gasket all the time.
  What gave me a shock was to look up at the bottoms of the two front doors.
They are both rusted pretty badly along the seam, and I can put my hand into
the passenger side one through the hole in the bottom.  I can get all the 
rust gone, but will be left with very little door left in those lower 
regions.
  How should I best go about rebuilding these areas when I'm done?  I don't
care too much for body filler, but haven't tried fiberglass.  Or: what about
new doors?  What might they cost and what are my chances of getting decent
ones from a junkyard (pretty slim, I think, this car's only an 85 and 89 or
90 was the last year of production)?

3 responses total.

#1 of 3 by klaus on Mon May 10 12:56:50 1993:

I use to squirt a little non-detergent motor oil into these seams every
year.  worked great!  Have someone braze some new metal into those cleaned
out rust holes, clean, and paint with roofing tar from the inside, being
careful not to plug any water drain holes.  Maybe even drill several of
your own.  Oil, as I mentioned above every fall.  If your real cheap,
use tar-soaked cloth instead of metal in the holes.

#2 of 3 by glenda on Mon May 10 13:16:54 1993:

We had to have a front door on the Tercel (83) in 87 (we got broadsided) and
it cost approx $550 new.  We have been looking for a back hatch since the
original is rusted shut.  We can get one for about $150 at the junk yard, but
most 83 Tercels seem to have started rusting on the hatch, same as ours did.
Even the kids are in on the game.  Anytime we are going anywhere we look for
other Tercels in the same style as ours and yell out whether the hatch is
good or not.

#3 of 3 by klaus on Tue May 11 12:02:07 1993:

The answer to this problem is to head south where the only thing they
put salt on is food.  If you'r in good with one of the local junk 
yards, maybe they would be willing to inport one for you.  Then let
some non-detergent motor oil seep into the seams to displace any water.
The detergent in detergent motor oil attracts water, so don't use that.
{
drained.)

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