I finally took off the crappy foam stock spoiler, and I was quite disheartened to find what I feared most. =( See for yourself. Here are a couple close-ups...



What do you think is the best course of action? Assuming I don't put another spoiler on (don't really have the money for one now). I'm kind of regretting that I took it off in the first place, but who knows how much more damage it would have done. Damn foam spoiler, collects water and then sits on the metal. Who the hell's idea was that? Bravo, Nissan.

Keep in mind I've never done body work before. I do have a lot of free time though, and I'd like to get this finished within the next couple weeks. I don't need anything show quality, but it would be nice to seal the holes and have it look nicer than it does now.



I'd appreciate any and all suggestions or help. Thanks so much. =/

Sand off all the rust, and for those really crappy parts, you're prolly going to just have to cut them off and make the holes bigger, but that gets rid of all the junky metal. Go to a hardware store and buy some aluminum sheet metal and buy some metal filled epoxy. cut out some aluminum so it covers the whole from the underneath side. sand down on the aluminum and where you are goin to attach it on the bottom because this makes the epoxy work really good. Mix up the epoxy, attach the aluminum so it covers the hole. Do that for the other hole(s) as well. Let the epoxy dry and set. I put some aluminum mending tape over the metal squares to really seal it from the bottom side.So now you have the holes sealed. The top side should still look crappy, but at least theres some metal sealing it from underneat. Now on the top side, sand down all the rust if you haven't already. Buy some Bondo brand Glazing spot putty. fill in the holes from the top side now with that. over fill the holes just so it gets filled in. after its dry, sand down the putty and fill in with more putty so its all flush up to the paint line (use a rubber squeege so its smooth). Let that dry, do any last sanding if you need to. Get some primer paint and prime up the putty. then you can have that body colored painted or whatever. but its sealed.damn, after reading through this i made it hella sloppy. So if you have an questions lemme know.OR, you could just buy a new hatch :pface

Thanks! I think My best bet is to repair it. If it ends up looking crappy, I can THEN go and buy another hatch. And this will be much faster I think, seeing as even if I did manage to find another cherry red '89-'93 SE hatch, chances are it'd have the same rust problem. Plus it'd be expensive. =P

Thanks again for the help though, I'll try to follow that as best I can, and I'll get back to you if I have questions. =)

It's not tinfoil, it's aluminum sheetmetal. Plus my method completely seals the holes until you can get an new piece or professionally done.

Your method just gets rid of the rust, leaves the holes and covering it up with the spoiler...allowing more water to get in and inevitably more rust some time down the road.

My method is the exact same as welding in new metal, however im using metal bonding epoxy instead of welds.

how about just going to a scrap yard and finding a rust free used trunk lid?

try http://www.car-part.com

take care,nils

I appreciate the banter. =)

I think I'm gonna go with the first idea though, since I don't have a welding gun or any welding tools. Also, it will be MUCH cheaper than buying another hatch ($20-40 vs. $200-400). But thanks for that link Nils...I will definitely look into that if this method fails.

As for putting the spoiler back on...I'm not planning on ever getting this "professionally" fixed, at least not in the next few years (I'm 18, fairly limited budget and uncertain future). And...I didn't show you the spoiler, but let's just say it's in tenfold worse condition than the hatch itself. It's faded, warped, cracked, ripped, and the bottom is covered in rust. That's not a viable option.

I picked up the epoxy and sheet metal and stuff while I was out today, and I'm going to start on that tomorrow or Friday. The one thing I don't have yet is the paint. The back of the hatch is okay, but as you can see from the pictures, about half the top needs to be repainted. I have the color code, but should I try to buy the paint and do it myself? Is it going to look like ****? It looks like absolute **** now, so any improvement is good, but exactly how ghetto are my attempts going to look? And do you think I need to remove the hatch and spray it, or can I do it with a touch-up brush? I don't wanna spray the back of the hatch, I'd lose the lovely 'NISSAN' and 'SE' logos. ;D Masking the brake light would be a b**** too.

But again, thanks guys it's all much appreciated. I'll keep you updated on progress. =)

The previous owner of my car has some gay a** spoiler on it so I took it off and it only left 2 small holes with some rust, however nothing nearly as bad as yours! My mom is out with my digital camera, so if you can hold off until a little later I can take pics of what I have done so far, it's quite simple and will look fine when its completed. I am only planning on smoothing out the glazing putty and just putting a layer of primer on the top, so I'll have 2 gray circles, but hell the holes will be sealed, and I am planning on just getting a new hatch anyways. K_car once you see the pics, hopefully you won't think it's that bad. I agree welding is WAY stronger and the only true fix next to getting a new hatch, but this is prolly the second best and by far the cheapest.

That's cool, I'll wait for the pics. =)

As for this rust converter stuff...am I correct in understanding that if I use it, I won't have to cut out the entire rusty area as Swift originally suggested? Just sand it down some, clean off dust/dirt, and paint the rust converter stuff on?

And I'm assuming that comes in first, before any sheet metal glueing or anything?

Because it sounds a whole lot better than trying to cut out all of the rust, I gotta say. =P

Okay here's the 3 I got so far. It's not completely finished yet, but I have it sealed, so that's good enough for me. The last pic is from underneath the hatch, the grey goop is the dried epoxy (yeah i was a tad bit sloppy lol). The red stuff in the 2 top pics is the dried glazing putty. Make yours look like mine and it will be all sealed. Obvoiusly you're going to have to cut the aluminum a bit bigger, but if you get the bondo brand glazing putty, it's already red and won't look super ghetto :PIt's also hard to tell in the pics, but on the top...yes thats still rust. The next step that I haven't done yet is to sand all that away, or paint on the rust converter. Then fill it in level with more glazing putty. Prime it and your set.Anymore questions? and Good Luck!

Thanks K-car, those directions make sense lol. I think I was confusing more than I should have been Good luck Yorb!

Well, I've been really slow with this project, busy with other stuff etc. But the rust holes are patched now (I haven't primed it yet due to indecision about paint). I think the best thing would be to take it and have it painted by professionals, but I don't know what kind of money I'm looking at here.

I took it to Peach Auto today and the guy looked at it and said $125 for the hatch, or $217 for the whole car. How does that make sense? Also, what's the difference between enamel and the pearl coat on it now? The rest of the paint is in pretty good condition, certainly good enough for me.

Someone tell me what to do! =( Thanks.

Bare metal? There is no bare metal. What's not covered by paint is covered by bondo.

You really think it's going to suck? It's Peach Auto Painting & Collision, they have dozens of locations all over the US. I don't know. He showed me a couple of cars that had just been painted, they looked pretty good...

What do you think about the price difference? $217 to enamel the whole car, vs. $125 to repaint the back hatch? I don't get it.

Thanks for the reply though.