I cut out the rusted part of the jack post front and cleaned it up inside. After poking around with the screw driver it seems to be fairly solid still no holes. I've made up a patch to weld back in place, I'm tempted to run a few beads of weld in here before I cover it up, would you do it? I'll use naval jelly, then treat it with Ospho before hitting it with some primer and paint to seal it up. What's behind this area if I do run some welds on it? I don't want to catch anything on fire.

Thanks,

Jsaum

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Thanks, I think I'll run a few beads of weld to fill it in.

You may want to rethink that last statement, laying a few beads over the first layer that has rusted will help how? And what is left of the second layer of metal even accept a weld?
Rust never sleeps, fix it correctly, you may have to cut a little more of the jack post cover off and that will allow you better access to the rust under the jack post.

Once you weld up the hole, whatever you left will do what it will do, so do it right while you have access. Before you weld the cover hole up treat with the proper preventatives for rust.

just my .02 cents.

Vysoc

Agree with the above. I bet if you pry back the metal on the lower later with a flathead screwdriver, you'd see more rust in there. I'd cut a bit more away from the jack post below to get better access to the layer behind it, clean it up more and weld a full layered patch there before closing up the jack post. I know the tendency is to not want to cut any metal out, but better to tackle it fully rather than to have to do it again later.

I pretty much had to do the same thing on my car a while back, link to some pictures:
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...94&hl=patch

Folks won't consider it the "right" way. But if it is like you say.... SOLID under the remaining cover, I might consider just treating under the cover and leave the larger hole. The factory hole was very small and pretty much good for nuthin'. dirt and water got up in there and just RUSTED. At least with a large hole you won't have that issue.

If you do cover the new large hole, leave yourself a small hole to poke and clean out the mud, like the factory did.

Good luck.

If you ever use the hole for a jack, you need to have that area with new metal. That is the part that lifts the car up, as it is in tension. I rarely use it, but sometimes it helps get the jack stand into the place you would otherwise be using for the jack! Instead of using the paddles they sell, I bought a trailer hitch ball and squared the shaft to fit. That way there is no torsional force, just straight up from a point on the ball.

Note from pictures that not everything everywhere needs new metal. Just sometimes. You might be one of the lucky ones.

I was able to go in and weld in some patches and beef it up. I'm sure it's stronger than before. It's not pretty but it works.

another solution

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You could drill some holes for exploration.

I also recently bought a USB bore-scope that plugs into an android phone for $13.
It works great. I was using it last night to look inside my center tunnel.
http://www.amazon.com/Depstech-Waterproof-...scope&psc=1

http://www.banggood.com/2M-USB-Borescope-E...ra-p-87566.html

The stuff from banggood will take ~3 weeks unless it specifically states from the US warehouse.

You could drill a ~3/8" hole a foot to the left of the jack post and insert the scope to inspect the backside.

I used 16 gauge sheet metal to patch up the rusted front part of the cover then made the corner pieces with flanges and welded them in for extra support. I think this should be strong enough I don't normally use the jack supports to jack up the car. Before sealing it up I treated the inside with Ospho, then used self etching primer and finished it off with a few coats of Rustoleum. Since this is covered I didn't bother to grind down the welds to make it look pretty!

Here's the final patches.