I don't know how much of a trick this is but it's what I have done on a couple of my cars and I like it. I will also add that you will not win any car shows with this, it's meant to be fast and cheap.

For the last little while I had a small touch of rust on the passenger side by the rear wheel well. As the months went on it got a little worse, at this point the rust still didn't go through the metal. One spot did have to be ground down to clear all the rust away but it was still solid.

The rust.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v468/jamsmcb/rust3.jpg

Now what I did was what you would normally do sand down all traces of rust and add a little bondo to make the whole thing smooth. Then paint with a rust preventing primer. Where I differ is that instead of painting the whole panel, which would look bad with a spray can. I mask off a design in the area, flames seem to work well around wheel wells. Seeing as color matched paints are never perfect the effect becomes like a ghosted or phantom flame. Most people will never even notice and even if they do, it still looks better than rust.

Here is the end result.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v468/jamsmcb/rust2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v468/jamsmcb/rust1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v468/jamsmcb/comp5.jpg

Thats pretty cool that you broke it up like that, in the second pic it's hardly noticeable. Good work!

looks almost like it was done in photoshop. one quick thing i gotta ask, i don't know anything about bondo. do u just buy it, and it is ready to use? or do u gotta mix it? and all u do is just apply, wait til dry, then sand?

Bondo comes in 2 parts, there is a base (bulk), and the hardner (small tube) they are different colors so you know when they are completely mixed. Depending on temp. you can have as little as 5 mins. work time and can sometimes start sandind in 10-15 mins. There are also UV (sun) activated fillers but I have never tried them.

another thing to note is that the more hardener the faster it sets but to much and you get pinholes in the plastic (bondo), then you need to final glaze it or use primer surfacer so it will smooth out.


another thing you need to note about bondo is that it is regular plastic filler....it WILL expand and contract during its life.....the more, i mean thicker you lay it down...the worse it will be....its meant for very shallow repairs after metal refinshing.....i can usually tell where people have used a half an inch of it to hastily mold stuff on cars....the paint is distorted after a couple of periods of warm and cold days.... im not saying its bad...but just to be careful....

p.s. not a half bad repair technique on the rust spot... its not text book, but it certainly worked..

forget the bondo get the fiberglass stuff it is more difficult to work with but it doesn't absorb water. the metal wont' rust out under it like bondo, if you clean all the rust away that is

fiberglass is the shit....expensive, but worth it....