I was wondering if the pictured rust is structural. Its all I can find on the car but it's got me worried. It is not below the rocker or the floorpan but under the circled pinch weld. I was also wondering if someone had an idea of about how much a body shop would charge to fix this. And I know the door jam is a different color...you can thank the previous owner and earl scheib for that. pictures:

 

No not really. Go to search button type in Vert restoration 101. Look at pictures.

Here
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...estoration+101

 

Still, rust spreads like cancer. You'll want to address this quickly or else it will only get worse.

 

Its a vert?

 

yeah it's a vert, I'm thinking this may be a good time to learn how to weld.

 

well, this is what I'm fixing on my '86 base model na (attached files). lol. I'm doing the work myself with about 20 hours of mig welding experience and a "you're doing allright" from a veteran welder on my penetration and strength. a bodyshop would charge my 3-4 times what the car is worth so it is simply for sentimental value that I am restoring this car. its almost done and should be stronger then it was stock.

yours should be a piece of cake to fix yourself if you do some research and learn. bodyshop will charge you probably $300-800 to do that area depending on the shop and how quick they are. yes, that expensive for something that simple. body work (especially rusty areas) charges crazy rates.

 

^Holy Fuuuck. Think thats the worst rust I've seen on a FC.

 

....i'm scared

 

Thats gotta be from Vermonts salty roads in the winter, and why I am not driving my rx during our vermont winters.

 

your FC looks like it was eaten by rats

 

lol. I have had it garage kept since I bought it 2 years ago. previous owner drove it year round in maine for a while and then left it sitting in a field for a little while. thats not what made it that bad though, it was the fact that he fiberglassed and bondoed over all the rust, so all that just got stuck inside with moisture and made things way worse. I have replaced the entire rocker and repaired the inner structure so far, taking care of any rust (cutting most out). I had to stop until spring now though as I no longer have the workspace available until then. I have the car interior stripped and inspected the underside and this is the only rust on the car. a little surface rust on my subframes but nothing significant.

anyway, on topic. that doesn't seem that structural to me at all so wire brushing and sanding it a bit along with some rust conversion product (metal ready is the best I've used, by POR-15) should take care of most of it. cut out any really weak metal and try to square it up and either weld in patch sections OR you could probably get away with cutting a piece of sheet metal to size and just use JB weld all along the seem. just have to hold it there for like 2 minutes while it dries. should be fine that way.

 

I'm glad that isn't really a structural area I think i'll just cut and wire brush for now so it doesn't spread too much more this winter. And then I'll be trying my hand at welding once it gets nicer out, I don't see any reason to half *** a fairly easy fix. Thanks for the reassurance guys.

 

well, even if you cut out back to the strong metal, they are relatively small holes so its not as if it were one gaping hole. you haven't really lost any noticable integrity I'm sure. after you brush and cut, you should use some of that metal ready stuff. its liquid so get a cheapie spray bottle (like a windex bottle) and spray some of that on and it takes care of the rust in like an hour for bad areas. then you just dust the powder residue off and you can weld as it has zinc in its composition so its conductive. its really good at converting and eliminating rust. after you fix the whole thing, get a rattle can of self etching primer and spray that on to protect it.

tips for mig welding (most likely what you will be doing, its easier then tig. DON"T use an arc welder, its too hot and you will have trouble): use a gas mig welder, not gasless. so much easier. set the gas to around 10 Lpm (litres per minute I think). I use a 140amp welder and only use the lowest setting for that thin sheet metal. wire speed set to about 25 (goes to 100 I think). its easy to blow right through that thin metal so instead of welding on power 2 really fast, I go a little slower on lower power. its all about penetration. obviously get some practice in on some junk metal and you should be good. its not that hard when you understand what you're doing. take a read and ask questions here: http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/
its a UK sight but there are a few americans on there. they have a forum so you can ask questions and they are really helpful. made me feel a lot more confident about my project. They can help you more on setting up your specific welder and techniques. good luck!