Taking apart my rear interior to see the damage...

Rear view before cleanup...




Views front and rear after cleanup...






Is it worth it to fix? How much do you guys estimate? Excuse me while I go get my tetanus shot now...

 

I had the same kind of rust in my 85, not quite as bad though, the question would be is there anything else wrong with the car? if not the i would say to keep it, all you have to do is weld in new plates to fix the spots that are rusted through, then i also put seam sealer around the welds and then sprayed undercoating all over the area to keep it from happening again. If you have access to a welder or a friend that does have at it! Would hate to see you junk the car just because of the rust in the wheel well!

Bryan

 

just a couple oil leaks that i have to find still but otherwise she runs perfect.

can i get some more opinions please?

 

Bteets9914 has the right idea.

 

You don't even need a mig welder. If you go get a cutting/welding torch kit and rent some tanks. You have everything right there to cut the metal and weld the new metal in. The torch is not as easy or fast to do the welding with but with a little practice you will find it pretty easy. Don't give up on the car it's saveable. And just do a simple repair, by using strong flat pecies, don't try and make it all round agian (no one sees it anyways).

 

You would have to make it some what round... To clear tire. You can usally get the shop that you buy your steel from to put a bend in it for you. Just guestimate (I'm sure there is an exact way, I just don't know) the arc.

The leather boots (in my car) might look a little funny too if you used straight peices of metal. Just really depends how much metal you take out and replace.

IMHO, if thats all the rust you have, consider yourself fortunate. I lived in Maine for a few years, and my Pathfinder shows (I bought it there). See through fenders, rockers, and floor boards Nothing structual though, so its still safe, just ugly.

Ben

 

I've read elsewhere to check the driver and passenger area under the dash...I guess I'll just take out the rest when I get to a welder...thanx for your input...if anyone else has any comments or pix of your rust and repair post it up...

 

i think porsche had the right idea when they made the 944... galvonized steel.

 

Or DMC when they made the DeLorean - Stainless Steel for the whole car

Yeah, definitely get it patched. If I had rust like that, I know a bodywork guy who'd do it for cheap. It's not hard to find bodywork guys who'll do simple welding for a small price, and if you've never welded before, you're better off doing that.

Just consider yourself fortunate that's all that's wrong with the car. I mean even the *most expensive* body shop would charge what.. $300 to repair that? A full brake system costs $800US in parts, shocks and springs are $500ish, engine rebuilds cost $1500.... There are much worse things than rust, believe me!

Get the entire underside of your car scrubbed and rustproofed with tar. That **** doesn't wash away every year like the oil does. It *does* come off, but for mine it's been like seven years since the tar was put there, and it's only come off in some places..

Jon

Jon

 

every 1st gen I ever owned "9" has had that problem.

I can upload some pics later of what some of my fixes look like.

your car looks repairable.

you just need 4 pieces of steel, maybe I will draw you up some diagrams later also.

 

Wow!! that's some serious cancer man. I would try to find and cut the pannels out of a junk car or fiber glass the holes after some major clean up.

 

Do not fiberglass!!! You don't want to make a structural peice out of fiberglass!

 

Hold on a sec, let me check the wells on my parts car.
BRB

 

NO cancer here. I'll bet you can find a good set and plazma cut them out amd weld them in yours real easy

 

I've searched around here...unfortunately, in the northeast most if not all rex's at the junkyards are rusted over beyond recognition...

I'd be interested if someone cut some good ones out and sent them up though...

 

V8kilr,

If you can please post your pics of before and after...and i would appreciate diagrams too...

thanks

 

hmm... concidering that those brackets hold in two main links to the rear end I dont think fiberglass would be very smart

I remember this problem on my very first 84 gsl, I had no clue how to fix it or how severe it was, so I welded the pieces up the best I could, then they broke loose, again and broke loose, again and broke loose.

I finally got so fed up I added a bunch of steel to reinforce them.

on another car " I believe my 5th 1st gen" I had to actually add a piece of steel that was the width of the car x 6" x 1/4" from bracket to bracket.

I actually found an even better way now after doing this 9 times or so.

here is one car that was really bad, I cant seem to dig up the before pics but look at the pics of the inside and you can get an Idea of the damage.

first thing to do is remove all the loose metal, a 3m perforated disc works best.

 

Here is the nearly finished product, tons and tons of welding.

dont worry I have another car in my driveway I will be fixing within the weekd so I will start a new thread on it then with before and after shots.

 

and the inside, dont worry about all the wires popping through, or the rust, these are unfinsihed.


after you get to this step you will need to add supports to the inside, these brackets go through alot of stress.

 

here is a shot of a different car where I had to add in the huge piece of steel you see in the pic.

try to look past the muffler and header and jacket and you will see it.

this is only necessary if the problem is very severe and you plan to add a ton of horsepower to the car.

 

Just out of curiosity... what guage metal did you use for the repair? Any idea what gauge the stock stuff is? The wells on mine are starting to show some rust and I want to nip it before it gets really ugly. I've got a sheet of 14 gauge and a sheet of 16 gaugeand I'm just wondering which would be better/easier to work in...

--Danny

 

the metal doesnt need to bend so it should be thick,

stock is something like 1/16" doubled up, so all together with the body its around 1/8"

I used 1/4" thick steel for my brackets

 

I'd say use the 14 guage. Thicker is better, methinks.

 

BTW this is NOT what we are really worried about.

it should be taken care of with some good 1/16" steel.

 

This IS what we are worried about