Rust.. what to do?
 

Want your guys' opinion on my situation.

I have an 88 shell, stripped, its in pretty good shape overall, no damage except on the left rear fender which will get cut out and replaced with an overfender.

It does however, have some rust on each of the rockers/side of the floor where it connects to the rockers. Now, I've cut out all of the rot and debating what I should do to it now.

There is some surface rust inside the rockers, short of acid dipping the chassis, any way to coat this, or clean this out so the rust doesn't get any worse? Car will always be garage kept and not used on the road, only on the track. It'll have tonnes of drain holes so moisture can escape from there.

Should I fill the rockers with foam? Or will the foam trap moisture against the metal?

I will patch up the holes I have with some steel I have to finish it all up after I decide what to do on the inside, if anything.

Also, should I bother filling all the small holes (factory holes) in the floors to keep water out?

Cheers,
Carl

you have to treat the rsurface ust, it eats and never sleeps. you can spray and flush it with http://www.por15.com/METAL-READY/productinfo/MRG/ but after that it gets tough as it'll need to be encapsulated to keep from rusting more.

i silicone sealed the factory drain holes in the floor. when rain gets in the car, pop it open to drain.

Yeah, I got the same problem. I'd like to see some pictures as examples for solutions.

Riz.

every vert ive seen has that rust next to the rocker problem. mine just got cut out and metal put in painted over it and then cleaned and sprayed the whole under neith of my car with POR15. i dont drive my car in the rain or snow either. the rockers im filling all the holes in it then filling them up with foam/tuffstuff

Good luck!

If I were in your shoes, I'd look carefully at the level of rust, and decide for myself how long I truly expected the car to be around and if it were a structural or safety issue. I'd get an opinion of someone knowledgeable (i.e. my cage builder) on how much rust was there and how structural the damage was.

Me, my idea of a racecar is probably a little more disposable than yours seems to be, at least from your posts. I wouldn't mess around with safety/structural, if the damage is significant, I'd be looking for a new chassis, but if its just a little bit of surface rust, hey I'm not building a show queen.

PaulC

Yeah I'm not building a show queen either, there certainly isnt enough rust to make the car fold in half in the next few years, I just want to catch as much as I can. I'll probably crash the car in the next 5 years, and when that happens, I'll build up a new shell and move the parts over to that one, and having done it once, will probably build a better one.. or move to an FD..

I didn't see as much rust as there is when I first got the car tbh, and only paid $200 for it, but have put in lots of work stitch welding it and cleaning up the tub so far so I'll fix the rust for now and drive the shit out of it.

Thanks for the help guys, I'll post some pics up, lost my camera charger though, damn!