the bottom corner. After scraping for a couple minutes, the rust easily broke
off leaving a foam core exposed. The silver ring is the bare metal after
sanding and the middle part is the foam core.
I figured it most likely started to rust from water getting into the door from
rotten wood on the door edges. The door actually has a wooden structure of 1 inch
by 1 inch boards with a metal front and back side. The bottom 2 inches of each edge
was rotten. Here is a picture of one of the bottom rotten edges after I dug out the
rotten wood and replaced with a new 1 X 1 inch board. To hold the wood patch in place,
I used a screw through the metal frontside and a screw through the metal backside. I
filled in any gaps with wood filler.
To take care of covering the rust spot, I took a trip to Home Depot where they showed
me some filler material. It's actually Bondo resin/hardner and fiberglass fabric.
You cut a few sections of fiberglass fabric a couple inches larger than the hole
you want to patch. Then you mix up the resin/hardner and soak the patches in it. Lay
the patches over the hole and smooth down a little. After a couple hours, you can
sand. I had to add another couple smaller patches to fill in an indentation so I went
through the process twice. After all was sanded, I used some body filler to fill in
small rough spots and made smooth.
I also added small fiberglass patches over the screw indentations I made when I
drilled the screws to secure the wood patch to the door edges. Here's a picture
of a screw patch on the frontside of the bottom right. It looks a little beat up
but it all worked out in the end.
While working on the door, I put plastic up to keep the rain out the shed.
It didn't do much to keep the animals out. All the critters know I keep birdseed
in there. Here are some animals sneaking a cheap lunch.
Here's a persistent squirrel trying to get at the birdseed through the door
knob hole. I had to temporally plug the hole to keep them from chewing it larger.
I also saw them looking through windows and the roof vents trying to get in.
Here's the finished door painted the same color as the house trim. It
was previously a rust color.
