I thought I'd post some pictures of my car as it stands right now. Well not the whole car just the part I'm working on. My car suffers from an acute case or hell hole rot. A PO did some work on the bottom of the long that will have to be redone but this is how it stood a few days ago...

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I have drilled out about 40 spot welds and removed most of the suspension console. (I have a replacement ready to go). There is obviously a bunch of rust to come out and I am a little perplexed about my next step. I would love to remove all the rusty metal first and then go about replacing what I have removed but I am a little scared of breaking the car in half if I take too much out. I have identified waht I think needs to come out.

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I'm sure I will discover more but as it stands this is a significant amount. The lower wheelhouse wall looks pretty solid but the area where it hits the long does not. Is there anyway I can get around having to do this(Michelko's car)

Any thoughts or Strategies would be appreciated
Thanks,

I'm taking autobody at a community college right now and have used a portable sand (media) blaster. The thing is like a big vacume that shoots walnut shells out of a vacume hose. most of it gets sucked right back into the system. It works pretty good and might be a good way to identify the surface rust from the "too thin" stuff. I would think that you could rent one for a day and do even more than this area in that time.

yup... sand, media, dry ice or soda blast it so you can actually see the metal... right now all you can see is the rust holding hands.

BJH

Sorry to bring bad news, but you need to cut away all the rusty places and weld in new material. This area is the backbone of the car. Until you dig into it, you won't know how bad it is. The reference you give (Michel??) shows a pretty badly rusted car being repaired properly, one that looks to have been in worse shape than yours. There is another series of discussion in the 914 club from a guy in Germany that shows a pretty detailed restoration. I don't remember the name, but this guy did a bang up job of cleaning the rusted areas away, proper rust proofing of new parts, etc. There are also a lot of others, some show proper bracing of the car before removing metal. If it isn't done right, the result will be like the blue car in the reference you showed where a PO had just patched it up. You have the right idea by replacing the rusty components. Automobile Atlanta has a video series, photos, etc. showing repair. I have just completed a repair on my car of this area that wasn't as bad as yours on the longerons, but my firewall and floor pans were rusted. I bought some parts from restoration design, and made some of the others. For instance, I made simple angle pieces for the bottom of the lower firewalls (inner and outer). If I had it to do over again, I would have probably also bought these. i took my time and got all the rusted areas out, and replaced with good steel that was properly cleaned and painted inside and out.

Good Luck, Joe

Several people have mentioned sandblasting the areas that I will need to repair. What are the options for media blasting and which one are prefered. I have done some research here and on Shoptalk forums (and continue to search) but have yet to find any real recommendations. I have heard of people using several different types and have heard some things but don't know why one media is really better than another.

What I have heard:

Sand - Will remove rust and paint and even some metal. Will heat the panel but is cheap
Glass Bead - removes rust and sand but not metal. Media is expensive
Soda blasting - Removes paint but not much rust. I assume it require special equipment
Dry Ice - Mentioned above (I did not know this was used as a media but like I said I don't know much about media)
Walnut shells - Gentle but I don't know much else

I'm sure there are other types of media but I'm not sure what they are

I am planning on getting one of these Pressureized Media Blasters

Thanks,

Are these videos that AA sells or free videos on their web site? Thanks.

Hope I'm not hijacking, but someone mentioned renting a sand/media blaster. Has anyone done this ? I've only got a little surface rust to remove, and blasting sounds WAY less tedious that using grinder + wire brush.

I rented one, blasted using plastic spheres though. That way paint after paint layer can be removed (if needed). Also nice for blasting is froozen CO2, takes of the whole paint layer at once. On impact the paint is frozen and next peels off.

Hard to rent one thou (overhere in The Netherlands only one guy was willing to rent me one for a day), and not the cheapest solution either (S220/day including freezer and pelletizer!). Hence back to plastic spheres.

Cheers,
Marc

Glass beading will do the nicest job and the glass is only $10 a bag. The glass doesn't break down right away and with a kitchen siv you can reuse some of it depending on your blaster orifice.
I did my whole last car, hell hole and rust areas and the entire outside of the car this way.
Ice blasting is good too but is expensive and you need the right equipment for it.
The majority of my blasting was done with one of these. Speedblaster
About $50 but to get the best results you have to have a regulator and turn the pressure down to about 65psi. 100 psi is too much and you get too much air and not enough media.
BTW don't expect results like a full blown blaster but the 914 way (cheap) this will do the trick if you have the time.