Check your longs!! Mine had some piles of dirt come out (not necessarily picture below) but not that much. There wise a nice clod of dirt compacted around the jack point on the passenger side.

My car is, so fortunately, looking pretty good. I have rust in the hell hole. My firewall and floorboards look great. I am sure there is rust back in behind that long area though.

First is drivers side:

And passenger side:

I pulled my passenger rocker last year for the first time. It was filled with rubber worms from the car's old track days...

When I pulled the rocker covers off the 'BB', I stuck a piece of coat hanger wire up into the weep holes in the bottoms of the jack supports and was amazed how much dried up dirt came out.

I ended up drilling additional weep holes at the opposite lower corners of the supports and continued removing dirt from a different angle. Then I blew compressed air into one weep hole and even more dirt came out of the other. Now any moisture should drain better no matter whether parked flat, uphill, or downhill.

Click to view attachment

I wonder if drilling some drain holes at a few locations in the longs would be beneficial

Hi, I would drill maybe 3 x 1" holes in the longs evenly spaced.
Then blast the hell out of inside with hight pressure water.
Then wait until dry and blast the inside with rust converter ie "Phosphoric Acid"
This will slow the rust if any.
The fit rubber bungs in the holes so these can be removed at times for cleaning and inspection.

Hmmmm......that seems like a good idea to drill some weep holes (and to spray inside the longs to protect from rust as long as possible). However, wouldn't that damage the "heater mufflers" in there? I would assume the acid would destroy them.

BTW, where can I acquire some new bolts (especially for the bottom) for the rocker panels? Just hit up my local hW store? I am going to be using sheet metal screws for the rocker panels on the topside/threshhold area instead of rivets.

The acid is used in rust converters in a mild form when dry it leaves a white powdery coating and neutralises the air to moisture reaction on ferris metals which arears as rust. This is a neutralising process not a complete fix so I have sprayed some thick oil in the longs to reduce the chance of rust reaccuring.

I'm going to insert an inspection camera in the longs to assess their condition and see where any obstacles exist.

I used Eastwood's 'Rust Encapsulator' spray (the green stuff) in my tunnel, will probably use the same in the longs.

I'm thinking the best place for a drain hole will be at the lowest section in each of the longs, just beyond where the downward angle transitions to horizontal

The rocker panel has drains pressed in it already .............
Kind of hard to explain
I'll shoot a couple pictures today at the shop.
They just need to cleaned out.
I have two new rocker panels waiting to be installed.
I'm thinking I'll shoot a blip of orange paint on the drain holes before I clear coat it after I paint it. Just as a reminder.

I think the original jack points kind of had drains holes in them.
But they were too close to the bottom radius of the rocker and probably got filled up pretty quickly.

When I did my long repair, I made sure that all of those drains were still intact on the inner rocker. I suppose one could drill an extra hole to feed that rust encapsulator tube in, just make sure that the RE doesn't go on so thick that it plugs those drains. They can, and should be cleaned with a small screwdriver occasionally. The jack point is a whole different story, as Cary mentioned. But it seems to me most of the rust that occurs there actually starts from the outside in, as debris piles up on it over the years.

with that amount pictured i think you're in pretty good shape.

Thanks for all of the replies. I am going to clean each of the longs this weekend and get a good look at them (it was getting dark when i took pics yesterday). I definitely like the idea of spraying some rust encapsulator into the longs.

I also like the idea of spraying some thick oil into the longs afterwards to help keep future rust at bay (until the day that i do a full restore on this car). What kind of oil can be sprayed in for this purpose? Motor oil?

Motor oil would work but gearbox/diff oil is thicker.

Thanks for the all the replies.

Who sells the Rocker Panel Jack Plugs? 914Rubber have these?

I probably need a few other pieces from 914Rubber so hoping I can combine it all together.

Once you spray an 'encapsulator', why would you need to (or want to) apply any type of oil in there?

Once you spray oil in there, you have a hard time getting it all out if the need arises

You mean it will still rust after that?

Just kidding....guess it is kind of an either/or situation then. If I had to choose one i would spray a rust encapsulator I guess because at some point the car will have to be restored....even though I live in Cali.

After the rust is treated, flood the inside of the longs with boiled linseed oil. it works great at sealing and preventing rust.

Here's a picture of the rocker laying on the bench.
Inside of the blue boxes are the drain holes.

Click to view attachment

So I was able to finish cleaning up the longs today. In addition, I checked all of the drain (weeping) holes on the longs and jack point and they are all clear. I'm in the midst of rattle canning my rocker panels but that will be another thread.

For now, here are a couple more close ups of the passenger side long and the "worst" of it...which thankfully is nothing.

Doesn't look bad at all.

Maybe wire-brush the surface rust and hit it with some rust mort (or a similar product)?

I'm more concerned with what the insides of my longs look like, since I did have a hell hole issue/repair.

I need to determine the best location(s) to insert the inspection camera. I don't think the OEM drain slots are large enough to accommodate the camera head. I'm leery of pulling those rubber plugs from the inside (passenger compartment) for fear they will either break, or have a hard time reinstalling them

Are they still available new? ... Bueller?, anyone?

Yeah, those rubber plugs would be good to know if they can be reinstalled easy? And if they can be sourced if mine crumble when I take them out?

I am positive my longs have rust inside because 1.) It's a 914 and 2.) I have a giant hole in the hell hole in my "no rust" 914.

If you look inside the engine compartment back up by the area where the torsion rods secure, you will see a hole the size of a quarter. This holes is on top of the upper long, and it is all connected down into the lower long. If you want to introduce some kind of liquid or rust inhibitor, this is a hole supplied by the factory.
Craig at CAMP

If you look inside the engine compartment back up by the area where the torsion rods secure, you will see a hole the size of a quarter. This holes is on top of the upper long, and it is all connected down into the lower long. If you want to introduce some kind of liquid or rust inhibitor, this is a hole supplied by the factory.
Craig at CAMP

Thanks, Craig ... I'll check it out and see iffin I can get the camera down there