How to Restore Sheet Metal - Impala Core Support Repair

Should you restore it? Is it worth your time? Those nickel and dimes add up quick, though. Sometimes it’s hard to put a price on your time – sometimes the aftermarket is totally worth it. But, how well will it fit? You learn when and where to make those decisions and how to stretch your pennies after some practice.

So what do you do? It might be a philosophical question here. Sometimes morals come into play. Does it have soul or are you just trying to drive it? Silly things like my radiator support induced these very questions. Do I go aftermarket and potentially create a domino effect of misaligned metal? How deep does this rabbit hole go?

Well, it seemed worth it – to sand blast, weld, smooth, and paint my crusty old radiator support. I spent an hour of sandblasting, 3-hours welding and grinding, and another 4 or 5-hours smoothing and finishing before sending it off for powder coating. That was over the course of a week with other real-life things in the way. Did it seem worth it? Well… Yes. Because I did it and I took pride in doing it.

So here are some tips on restoring and prepping old metal for powder coat or paint. It might just come in handy for some of those nickel and dime parts.

It’s always easier in theory. But, it goes much deeper than the surface… rust that is. You’re going to find pits, holes, and cracks that you couldn’t see until after the metal is clean. But, it can be fixed. I addressed the holes with a little mig-welding. Get yourself a good gas welder setup, you won’t regret it. The pitting I took care of with some high-temp filler.

If you have larger holes to fill, grab some sheet metal welding plugs like Speedway’s PN 9101203, these are handy to have around.

After I welded and grinding smooth the unneeded accessory holes and other rust holes, I applied 2 thin coats of 3M Panel Bonding Adhesive, sanding between each coat.. The panel bonding adhesive is high-temp, which can withstand baking off in the powder coating oven.

I started with 80 grit and finished with 120 grit using a DA on the big areas and sanding by hand in all the nooks and crannies. A final 120 paper is plenty for powder coat finish. If you have questions talk to your painter on what they prefer. After my final sanding was complete, I sent it off to Turner Design Works to apply a flat black powder coat to it.

The finished product? Not too shabby for an amateur. I’ll take all the practice I can get working with metal.