Decided to take out the battery and mount off today to take a look at what seemed like some minor surface rust. I was also planning on relocating the battery, but anyways this is what I found. I dont think this is a good sign but Im wanting a second opinion. Should I even bother trying to fix this? I had big plans for this car and this just hit me in the heart...i think its gonna hit my liver soon too...

 

i had that problem but it was just surface rust! yours is a bit worse im afraid. check that its not that bad on the frame rail below where the crossmember is and if its not get to sandin and buy sum por15.that is the main worry! that under the battery tray part tho is probably gunna have to be cut and re weld in a new piece of sheet metal and where that light bracket is. but dont give up on your seven man! thats not really that bad.

 

The frame rail looks ok and the rest of the car is rust free. I was looking at getting the car to a body shop in the next couple of weeks for a full paint job. I guess I can have them look at it and see if they can patch it up. Im still pretty bummed about it, almost made me want to buy another shell altogether...

Thanks for the encouragement man!

 

This is caused by spilled battery acid and a lack of maintenance - - which means the rest of the car may not have any problem at all. Curable by cleaning/grinding out the rust, and welding in patch steel to fill any holes, before proper priming and painting.

Unless the structural members are compromised, this is no where near bad enough to be giving up on the whole car over it.

 

i say rebuild the whole car out of stainless steel!

 

Everything else looks good, its only on that corner. I havent owned this 7 for that long. Its actually my 4th first gen but the first I ever owned with this much rust. Im glad to hear its not as bad as I thought tho. Thanks DD!

 

Just make sure you get it all out the first time before you start covering things back up.....

 

Take it to a body shop that you trust and have them remove all the rust. Do not take any short cuts or you will end up trying o fix it again in a few years.

 

Since that part is forward of any suspension mounts, it's not really a safety or performance concern. Treat it with some Muriatic Acid ($5.00 a gallon at hardware stores), rinse thoroughly, then get some paint on it right away.



.

 

Treat it with POR15 after removing the rust. If you have an air compressor, you can use a sand blaster to clean it up really nice. They sell a sand blaster gun that you stick the end of the hose in a bucket that works well is is cheap. You'll want to remove the headlight motor first.

 

A family friend that owns a body shop took a look at it yesterday and he's gonna be taking care of it. Im taking the engine/tranny out and dropping it off at the shop in a couple of weeks. Im pretty stoked about it, thanks for all the help and advice guys!

 

Get some some "during" and "after" pics while it's there. Questions about rust come up often on here and a lot of people just give up on it. Having some pics showing that it can be fixed might be good motivation

 

Will do...I bought a cherry picker today so, engine/tranny will be out tomorrow and the 7 should be in the shop Saturday, hopefully.

 

Got a good amount of work done today. Still a lot more to do, but its getting there...

 

Wow dude that is a nice SE. Don't give up on that!

 

He messed around with the rust spot a little bit today, says it will be sand blasted soon, they just been knocking out the body work. Hoping to have everything primed up by Thursday.

 

What color are you going to go with?

 

Im gonna stay with the tender blue, maybe with a little more flake. I have to wait till he gets the paint, he'll make 3-4 different mixes for me to choose from. What would you have gone with???

 

That tender blue is a nice color. If it was upto me i would get some pearl into it. My se has the Corvette white pearl and i love the depth it has on the car

 

Original color that the car came with is always a good choice! saves time and money on painting the bay and jambs. i do like that tender blue color as it is subtle yet very "unique" if you get what im sayin. Especially for an SE!

I have mine in primer right now and cant decide of going with the tornado silver(which will still kinda match but not offset too much with the paint in the bay) or the original sunbeam silver?

 

Yeah he told me he could do some pearl with it...I'll try to take some pics of the different mixes and post them here.


Thats exactly how I feel about the tender blue. My first 7 was Tornado silver.

 

I've heard about using rhino inside the engine bay and on the underside to prevent from salt and corrosion.


what do you think?

 

yeah ive heard that to from the offroad community, on the underside its cool cuz its easy to wash and it keeps the heat out, but in the bay ive never heard of. it would probably retain more heat.

 

i say what sleeper did, dont give up on it man! someone else would get it and just fix what you could of.

 

its been a while since the car hit the shop....this is where it stands now: