Went to change a broken clutch cable, discovered car has cancer, bit emotional at this moment. Knew it was coming, didn't expect the scope Options

[davebrossi]

Hi All,

I prefer most often to lurk, but after a spin to a nearby autobody shop about filling in some rock chips on the rear fender flairs of the clown car netted me a 13,500 estimate, I've been a little on edge for rust. This morning I set out to change the clutch cable which had snapped last weekend. As I was getting myself situated I noticed some of the undercoating seemed more...flaky than usual.

I moved my finger towards it, brushed it and off it came! along with another small piece. I was now staring in disbelief at a mixture of pink body filler and carpet. OK! I told myself, this seems relatively minor, let's just clean the area, I can fix this, maybe not the best way, but I can!. That was five hours ago. As I worked I realized I needed to see where the damage was on the interior, so I removed the carpeting. Once again, I spied a familiar orange tinge... under the urethane installed at the factory. I started working with a chisel and hammer. What was a small hole was in fact a seam running along and right up to the driver's side right seat bracket. The concrete below glared at me menacingly.

The clown car (my 914-6) was the result of an venture from a forum member offering turnkey restoration of 914s. I have no interest in flaming or anything mean, so I will not say who, and that's not a challenge either, since frankly all of this was beneath urethane, and said individual cleaned, primered and properly painted surfaces all the way to the old urethane on the floor pans. but it is worth mentioning because rather than spiral down the inception styled road of 'oh god I'm doomed, DOOOOOMMMMED!' I sat back and thought about what they -had- restored and what I had to go back and work on. The interior of the door panels was rusty, I sanded, sealed with POR15, clear coat has a craze to it, but stable and looks fine. Small side sail bumps. Originally thought body filler, probably tin worm, but unlikely to fail while driving and drag me half out of the bottom of the car. Longitudinals, hell hole both extensively reviewed during restoration, both are clear. I don't see bubbles all over the car, and the 13500 was with a note saying "we don't serve yer kind round these parts try these guys since they do antiques" from a shop filled with classic american muscle cars and more of a 'get lost' message, which I understand because scope creep is real.

I want to believe this is one of those typical stories where I don't wind up with the Porsche 914 equivalent of "you have died of dysentery" on the Oregon Trail PC game, but I also have to face up to the fact that I will have to acquire new front and rear floor pans. Happily they can be ordered from Pelican without much fuss (the available weld in panels for the 914 is really REALLY a reason I love them in an odd sort of way.)

I know I have to invest in a welder as I lack the skills. I want to prepare the area as best as humanly possible because A.) I believe in being a good steward and B.) I'm afraid while I'm happy to pay for their services, I am cheap and would prefer to do the prep work myself.

Advice (maybe prayers?) is/are appreciated, but I will be searching threads and educating myself accordingly as I know I need to. in the meantime, here's some NSFW Porsche Floor pan gore;


the initial discovery and early cleaning



The point at which I realize I should probably look at the top end of things.



because regrettably I am a millenial, I wanted to show off my PPE for working with fiberglass and sanding.



The moment my heart sank, the colour drained out of my face, and I had to go have a little sit down. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/barf.gif)



This is the extent of the rot. You can see the garage floor clearly a menacing glare fixed on it's eyeball-less face :E! I wont blame the consumption of Hubert's lemonade, wait, no, yes I'll blame it for the rust after all!



The start of (and at which point I realized that the floor pans were toast on both sides) the surface rust on the other side.

I'll admit it was heartbreaking to discover. I wanted to give up and throw it all away, sell it and be done with it. But then again, new front and rear floor panels are made for a reason, and the last undiscovered country (Star Trek) both my father and I were starting into was body work in the last couple years. I'm hoping I'm not right thinking this will require the selling of one of both a kidney and a lung, frankly I have no idea, though (in a phrase I use talking with my employers often) I look forward to the opportunities it will afford me moving forward. Bonus points here in how my dad managed to cause the usual reaction that always happened when there was a setback and he had to tell mom one last time. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/chair.gif)

[davebrossi]

Hi All, I'm back! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif)

I can't promise super frequent updates as life gets in the way, but while I'm ablaze with indignation that the rust fairy has been overly generous in their gifts, I will follow up as I dig into what's wrong, where, and how much will need replaced. Without further delay, cue scaring the neighbors PPE Inspection selfie!



To address the question, no, I never served, but I have halted downward motion on a cactus bramble or three during ten years of airsoft, so good PPE is always essential, especially since I have the rare and mysterious ability to prove Murphy's chief axiom when it comes to bodily harm. With drill and new soon to be destroyed wire brush set I set off first to take a look at the upper floor pan, driver's side which was the cause of concern initially.



The white areas/pinkish areas are body filler. My initial suspicion of just one seam of total rot was optimistic at best.



This is the same low point from a side perspective. Lower in the picture you can see the previously discovered patch of sunshine and rainbows I originally discovered..oh dear, I'm seeing a pattern here.



I wander a bit too easily so I pulled back the carpeting and ran the drill along the side of the pan/up against the longitudinal for a little while. The areas that look like sludge or as I prefer to see them, miniature representations of the elephant foot in Chernobyl's reactor number 4, are rust, pure and simple. Going to see lots of it, hurray!

....I feel it warranted to mention at this point that A.) I had my tetanus booster last year and B.) shortly after this picture I nicked my hand with the brush. Thanks gloves! Saved me a lot of awkward questions tomorrow! :-D:-D:-D



Holey floor pans, batman! .. there.. see..um... see what I did there with the... THERE ARE MANY HOLES IN THE FLOOR PAN THERE! Again, this is the second low point, at which point I reasoned, yes, the upper floor pan on the driver's side is cannot be salvaged. Savaged maybe, but not mended.



I widened not just my camera angle here, but valid questions were raised about the condition of the firewall metal. The initial good news is that while I had some rust staining, and the glue holding the urethane cover gave me a a small scare, the floor pan seems to be the worst of it. The metal on the firewall -appears- (too soon to check, I burned through three 20V batteries in an hour and a half) solid.



Focusing on the firewall again. Hopefully by now we all know the car was originally red, even before the rust!



a close up just to the right of the bolts holding the engine mount partially in place, there is glue residue in the top right hand part of the frame, I promise having gotten my hand stuck to it rust hasn't become an effective adhesive that I know of.



Where the firewall mates up with the center cross piece, I used some of the last of the precious electricity to run the brush here to bare metal. The pan? Stuffed crust, rust flavor. The firewall/Center channel; I'm cautiously optimistic.



I did run the brush for a short time in front of the cross member there, the initial section I'd uncovered here, sure enough, Tin lizzy, come to say... something... I mean more rust. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif)



Last of the series, again, what I'm seeing is rust forming in the depressions in the pan, not to the level of severity I -thought- I'd creepily depicted in the upper pan area (i.e., that I didn't fall out the bottom of the car is a testament to the endurance of bondo under load by a man-wot-loves-cheesecake)

At this point with no batteries left it was game over, man, game over! I did get back inside before dark because they mostly come out at night...mostly. Unfortunately the brush and drill couldn't overcome the factory urethane closer to the peddle cluster, so that's another night for chip and hope. I'm also fighting two screws torqued a bit too over zealously into the side skirting. Inspecting the bare metal around the heat tube I saw no cause for alarm, but then I saw no cause for alarm driving the car about until the clutch cable retired itself.

I'm trying to maintain a light hearted attitude, yes, my nature is normally very cynical and caustic, so I fear a lot of bad attempts at humor shall follow. I figure I can either leave it buried for years, or get things as clean as possible so when the time comes the person who will be welding for me (not a forum member, but someone with 30 years experience welding stepped forward to do the job when I'm ready. That said, I am obligated to help said individual source parts for a 69 Chevelle in repayment. )

Now, a question! solid linkage for the transmission runs through that central 'tube' (I'm using the term loosely because I suffer from nominal aphasia and know someone will correct me) along with wiring from the engine. Before I go into 'scrap the hell out of the metal' mode on the passenger's side I'd like to pause and carefully disconnect what I need to. I assume that center tube remains when the pans are removed, along with the longitudinals. Other than under the car I can't really get a brush to it, any recommendations for Rust inspection?