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Worth fixing? (also, a very weird discovery)

10K views 56 replies 21 participants last post by  Austin Powers 
#1 ·
First off, I'd like to start by saying that if you have a rusty car, please please PLEASE don't fill it full of bondo and sell it as "rust free". Only reason it's rust free is because bondo doesn't rust!!

I did some more sanding, trying to get the whole car to bare metal, but i found a few spots with some bondo. So today i took the wire wheel to a few rusty/bondo areas and made some gruesome discoveries. The worst part of it is that i've only gotten to the top half of the car (from the tops of the wheel wells up) so far.
Now for the pictures. I'm not sure if it's worth patching it or if i should just get new metal since it's so full of bondo.
This is the back right quarter near the rear window. Yes that is mesh to hold the bondo.


Here's the back right wheel well. It's hard to see but there's actually no metal there at all. All bondo from the bottom up about 5 inches


Here's the front left fender up by the hood. There's no metal here either. I know there's bondo in the lower part too, just haven't gotten there to see how much.


And here's the weird discovery. As i started going through the paint, ridiculously thick primer, and the bondo, a steady stream of discusting water started pouring out from the panel. A good quart of it.


Should i just buy new metal? I'm not sure if it's worth the hassle to fix. I have to take it all of anyway.
 
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#4 ·
Yeah if you recently bought it I would be thinking about a small claims court visit. Get a few estimate on how much to repair and sue him for the max in small claims.

Is it repairable, sure it is just start doing it, a long walk starts with the first step.

Brian
 
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#5 ·
That was 3 years ago, no way i'm ever gonna find the guy.
Also under the rear window inside the car is really rusty. I think if i take out the window i can get a better look at what it actually needs. Just not sure if it's worth it to put patches everywhere or if i should just get new metal?

It's definitely getting done, just want to go about it the smartest way possible.
 
#7 ·
With what I've seen in "new metal" replacement parts, I personally would rather fix factory parts if they are fixable. I had such a bear of a time with the repop parts on my '71 Camaro when I replaced front fenders and valance. Horribly fitting, and I'd have been much better off fixing the old fenders. The valance was not saveable either way.
 
#9 ·
That lower quarter where the water poured out is pretty telling isn't it? That's why that spot rusted out to begin with I'm guessing. Design flaw IMO. If I were going to replace it I might want to add a drain hole if I could. Hopefully where you couldn't see it. Hard to tell from the pictures. But it looks like you might be able to just weld in some small patch panels without replacing a whole panel? Like the one with the mesh.
 
#14 ·
yep:spank: I kinda knew what i was getting in to, but didnt realize it had so much bondo. It was literally undectectable. Only reason i found that big hole was becasue there was a little bubble by the window and i followed it all the way down the trunk line. I wanted a project and that's what i got. I love this body style and i love this car in particular. But it just sucks that this crap was on the car the whole time and i never realized it. I would rather have been able to see a giant rust hole and know what it needs than have to find out it's been rigged.
 
#16 ·
The guy that bought it from you would have been cursing you if he got around to sanding it down.

Cars that are already painted always make me nervous. You never know what you're gonna get. :smash:

Oh well, you got a nice project car still.

Can you get some pics from further out?
 
#24 · (Edited)
Ok here's more pictures. The first 3 are of the right quarter in addition to the big hole.




The rest of the car isn't nearly as bad as the back right. So i'm thinking i should just replace that one panel and patch the rest.

Here's what i'm worried about on the left side:

Didn't sand much but there's actually metal here so it's worth saving:

And also under the rear glass inside the car is all rusted. Forgot to take pictures of that:drunk:
And here's just a picture of the car. Need to get all that paint off...
 
#25 ·
The quarter panel is spot welded to the car around the edges.
Alot of drilling and some cutting involved depending where you want to make the connection and if the replacement panels are "full" or "partial".

I think you're going to hit alot more rust issues than you have hit so far. Get a good look under the rocker panels as well. Anytime I've see a car with damage as you've got, the whole car was usually rotted around all the edges.
 
#26 ·
I believe the rockers have been replaced. They're solid and when i sanded the drivers side down there was nice fresh metal under the paint. No factory blue paint either so i guess that's a giveaway. I don't know how that right side got rusted so much worse than the rest of the car. Under the car is solid too. No rust on the subframe/frame rails. It's pretty weird.

Edit: didn't realize you said UNDER the rocker panels. I'll definitely check. I wasn't planning on pulling panels off or anything of that matter but i'm definitely going to now. I think it would be best to strip the car down as much as possible to get all the rust out. I want to do this right the first time.
 
#28 ·
Hard to tell from the pics I found, where they end. For a hundred bucks, I can't see it going all the way up and in where you need it. You'll have to give them a call.

For that price though, you can get a good jump on some of that rust. You would just use the new panel to mark off the old panel carefully, sneaking up on it by leaving an inch extra or so until you can get it in the correct position to scribe your final cut.

Then comes the welding fun.
What kind of welder you got?
 
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