A Question for the body experts, 1993 deVille

[936CD69]

Hello all,

I realize my cars are a bit newer than usually discussed here, but I thought I'd give my question a shot. My recently acquired 93 SDV has a rust perforation at the front of the right front wheelhouse. It appears that, although the previous owner said the car was rarely driven in winter, dirt salt whatever was thrown by the tire and trapped behind a plastic inner fender, and eventually the panel rusted thru. The left side has similar surface rust but is far from rusted thru, just a cleanup, repaint and rustproof application will take care of that.

I have attached 2 exploded views from the GM parts manual . On the scan labled ill3, the rust area is on the lower front of the part labled # 2. The other scan the part is #34 and also has an illustration of the entire front body structure. I was fortunate that a GM dealer could order the panel thru Vintage Parts, It's called the front lower wheelhouse. The rust hole is an oval about 4" wide and 10" long, and follows a bend from the more vertical part of the strut tower to the more horizontal part where the coolant reservoir and battery are located.

I really don't want to weld in that area if at all possible. I was told that after trimming the new part to cover the hole, cleaning the edges of the hole back to solid steel, and proper prepping, I could use SEM panel adhesive to bond the new panel over the old. This would be from inside and would be covered by the coolant tank when done, so the repair would not be noticeable. SEM tech data says not for use on structure, but what is the opinion on using it in this case. The rest of the front end structure is as new very solid. Opinions?

BTW, the underbody on this car is cleaner than on my other lower mileage 93, there isn't even ANY rust on panel seams or brake lines..

Thanks for your help,

Craig

[936CD69]

Any input, gents?

the following spec is from the tech sheet on the adhesive. Engineering guys, does this help answer my question?

Lap shear @ 70°F (21°C) (psi) on steel: 3000+ ASTM D 1002