I’ve shared some pictures here before but want to get going on this area repair and was hoping for some been there / repaired that.

I have Maddog’s patch panels in hand.

Start by stripping to bare metal in this area?

Thanks and hope everyone had a good weekend.
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Yup, it’s the only way to see what shape the metal is in around the rust holes. Looks like the PO did tried to repair it, but they must not have prepped the area properly given the rust holes around where the welding was done.

Out the angle grinder comes...thanks mate.

I do not wish ill on anyone, nor do I want to imply there's more trouble there than meets the eye... however... With those gaps between welds, there's a good chance water has continued to make its way inside your long. You may want to cut the bad patches out and have a nice look-see before continuing with repairs.

Do you have access to a borescope? That would minimize the cutting.

It looks like it is only tack welded in. Worried about the structure of it.

i was thinking the same thing?

Thanks for the responses and considerations, this is a southern California car that I believe was garaged after the repairs were made, so it may not be that much worse. In other news pigs fly.

The borescope is a good idea, let me get that out and see what it looks like. The suspension consul is good and I’ve got good door gaps still at least.

Thanks again.

I think what you'll find is they laid new metal right over the original hell
hole metal. I've seen it about 10 times.

Now the issue is the cut out. You need to peel back the onion.
Don't cut thru the stiffener tops on both the inner and outer walls.

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Like cary said, start peeling back the onion layers... Godspeed & keep us posted!

Thanks gentlemen, will try to dig in tonight.

Fingers crossed.

Underside looking up.

They patched right over old metal.

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This is why we have to assume that most 914 for sale that have been fixed have been patched like this. That and they NEVER have under 100,000 on them inless there is proof.

Cars for sale that have shiny paint need proof of rebuilt body as far as rust goes.

Bob B

Looks like they patched right over the shelf attached to the upper long in that latest pic from the bottom side. I'd still send that borescope into the hell hole in the top of the long itself just to see how bad what else they covered up might be.

I did a cut and replace that wasn’t too serious that’s similar to what you’re doing.
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...=239002&hl=

That is so sad that people do this. I have seen this over and over and over. I just finished a 1973 911 Targa and you simply cannot believe all of the butchery that was done to this car. it looked like a nice car when it came in but when I took the trim off of the lower rockers and they were attached with 2inch long drywall screws, I knew that we were in trouble. The front wheel wells were patched using Lowes shopping bags,taped off and blown up to fill the cavity after they had taped up all of the rusted edges, then expanding foam followed up with roofing flashing and bondo. they had put outer longitudinals on with liquid nail and pop rivets and no inner structure at all, when I removed teh longitudinals you could see the heater tubes perfectly. That job went from a simply repaint back to the oem color to complete sheetmetal restoration.

@mtndawg - thanks for the link, very helpful. Please keep us posted on your progress.

@Uniquecoaches - wow! And yuck! Glad she is in you hands now. Post some pictures when you can of that journey.

its ok for a patch job and you can grind the areas with holes and fill with. bit more weld and seam seal.
Of course that said, it will never be correct looking , and if you want it that way it is a lot of work, but at least the correct parts are available. I would start with sandblasting to see exactly what you have. Grinding may distort things too much, and maybe hurt some original metal

Cut it completely out. As you've shown there's rusty metal underneath and it will just continue growing. Do it once, do it right and you'll be much happier in the future.

Thanks gentlemen, agree. I think I’m going to start by very carefully getting rid of the tack welds and that should allow me to remove this patches so I can figure out how to do it properly.