i have a question regarding rust. i had to replace a blown bulb in the tail light and noticed patches or heavy rust spread out all around the surrounding area. some areas are so rusty that its coming through to the outside paint. is this a common problem or not? and, how repairable is this?

 

oh, are those drain tubes a special size or will standard plastic tubing work? mine are clogged shut.

 

POR-15 is an excellent rust encapsulant. Do a search for it on Google.

 

It is common, and it is fixable. I do hear good stuff about POR-15 also. www.eastwoodco.com carries it.

I dont know specifically about the tubes, but Im sure some tygon tubing from the hardware store will fit.

 

I cleaned out the drain tubes on my SA just the other day. Some persistance and a coat hanger go a long way. I was lucky though, the rust that the lack of drainage caused was only on the surface. I caught it before it started eating into the floor pan.

My previous '82 wasn't so lucky. At any rate, it's all fixable like the above posters said. If it were me, I'd try to get some new metal in there, but POR15 should work as well.

 

i will try por-15, but some areas are spongy and i suspect that rust has eaten through the metal. would it be possible to cut the rusted sections and weld good metal in its place?

 

yesterday i started preparing the rusty area from the outside of the car. i was probably pushing too hard and my hand went through the metal and into the trunk. damn, now there is a huge whole in my car. all i can do now is weld something in there, if i can cut out all the rust. i called a guy out west who has a rustfree rx-7 shell that i could use. but, where do i tell him to cut? he wants to be sure that he isn't cutting through anything structural to the body. am i really the only one attempting to do this? ?? maybe i should make some fiberglass molds or something

 

If the rust free car is in good enough condition, Id tell you to have him ship the whole car. If your quarters are rusted, Id bet everything esle is too. I bet the rockers are wasted inside, and if you pull the front fenders and look at the cap on the front of the rockers at the bottom I bet its wasted too. Also pull the storage bins, the sides of thr wheel arches are in bad shape too. The rust you have is fixable, but is it worth all that work? Not to mention rust is like cancer, unless you get rid of every little trace, it will come right back and spread again into your new metal.

Im gonna have some rust free quarter panel patches here soon, when I cut my rear quarters out for the bodykit, Id sell them on this forum, so keep your eyes out for them around winter time, if anyone needs em that is.