I pull the console and carpet to chech the center tunnel to see if my clutch tube has broken away (seems OK, no movement at all) but find a lot of rust!! was sticking my hand in were I removed shiter and pulled out about a hand full ot the crap I(and that was all I could reach). I will probably take my shop vac out to get as much as possible, then what should I do to stop the rust. I tapped around the tunnel uptop and under the car and all the metal sounds solid.

Get all you can out and then pour some Jasco or POR15 down in there. The Jasco you can pick up at Home Depot for cheap, pour in down in there and let it sit for 24 hours. The smell is pretty bad but it works.

would that get all over my cables and linkage and cause me trouble? Also pouring it would get all around (top and sides) is tghere a spray

Yeah, pick up a spray bottle and spray it in, that is what I meant to say really. It's called Jasco Paint and prep. It is a rust coverter and works pretty good. It turns white when it is dry but underneath it will be black. I heard about it on here and have been using it since. It's green.

Oh, It wont hurt any of your wires or anything else in there. It just converts the rust.

Get a hudson sprayer...they can be pumped up to spray the Jasco and it has a long spray wand that you can stick down the tunnel.