Give it to me straight guys how bad is this?

Should I replace all of the panels or is there an alternatve? There is a small 3/8 hole in the top of the frame member but there is NO rust on the bottom side of the car (jack point/suspension mount).

Stupid me, here is the picture.

How much do you like this particular car? How much work have you put into it so far?

If you can weld, it is very saveable. Not a real huge deal. But if you can find a non-rusty donor car, it might wind up being easier to swap the good parts over.

--DD

naaa, that's good!
spray "Metal Ready" in the holes in the frame and on everything else.
(yes, you can weld through Metal ready), then weld a plate over the mess.
then put POR-15 on it.

see here:

Dman,
If you can weld or have a friend who can this is no big deal. Looks like you've got the engine out, so you're well on your way. I'll contradict Andy just a little and say grind out the bad stuff. It's the only way to know for sure how far the damage goes. You may find that 3/8" hole will open up to 6"x4" before you get to solid metal. Trim your holes up nice with an angle grinder or whatever you've got, THEN treat it with medal-ready, then clean it, then spray the area with zinc-chromate weld-through primer and weld your patches on. Then POR-15 it if you want. Be sure you metal-ready, clean, and zinc-prime the underside of the patch area and inside the suspension console/hollow frame area as best you can before you close up the hole. It'll be good for another 30 years. Also check the firewall near your patch area shown - it may be thinner than you think down there at the corner. Good luck - your car doesn't look in bad shape from the pictures. Definitely worth fixing, and you can do this repair in just a couple of hours, easy.

-Ben M.

Seems like no big deal, simple repair. I live on the east coast,...........if no welder........and no grinder........you can't have a 914 <_<

airsix is right. if you look at my second picture you can see that i cut out the upper hole until i reached solid metal. (did that with the big one too) ...

Wanna trade?
Didn't think so... so quit your whinin' will ya...

get out your grinder and your welder and be done with it

make sure you cut out all of the cancer before you stich her back up again

cheers,

Jeroen

This is the only real rust on the car so I want to fix it and learn to weld. I was planning on replacing the area where the bat tray mounted and it sounds like I can spot fix the other areas.

I have done some pretty wire wheel work and most of the metal in the frame area is in good shape.

Thanks guys I am feeling better already I didn't want to do any major panel replacement

I'm sure you were planning on this but just thought I'd mention...If you want to learn to weld do a couple of off-car practice projects or work on some scrap first. That repair would be a tough first-attempt. Welding into that corner is a PITA because you won't be able to see around the gun well. I did that very same repair about 2 years ago as my 3rd welding project and it turned out alright, but if it had been my first project I would have made a big mess. By "a couple of practice projects" I don't mean you need 300 hours behind the gun - Just an hour or two of practice and you should be ready to go. Be sure to practice on steel the same guage as your repair (14 guage?) so you have your technique, speed, and heat worked out before you dive in.
It'll turn out great.
-Ben M.

Anything is repairable.

Man, Why is everyones car rusted in the same place?

Is that a serious question?

Because the battery is poorly placed, and tended to leak acid, as rainwater washed down over the area. The body was never given any rustproofing (such as e-coat) from the factory. Over time, and because of battery design in the 70s and 80s (pre-Optima type battery), it became a huge problem for our babies.

I've seen far worse.

-Rusty

nope, seanery is just trying to be me and DD, postwise that is

I can't believe I got passed by 2 people!

Damn, I gotta post more.


Lawrence, no, it was not a serious question, but I'm sure there is a newbie somewhere who may not know.

I only try to post when I'm convinced I'm incredibly witty... or have something constructive to say.

-Rusty

914/6

Not me, I'd only have 25 posts.

This topic, and these pics are making me feel great

Mine aint bad, aint too bad at all

DMAN, yours looks great :finger2:

This one was a goner too. Rusted right though the frame rail. When I got it the battery just sat down there spilling acid onto the the rail. It was all rusty and paper thin.
Geoff

try this again....

I thought I was the only one w/ a nasty hiding under my battery.

The PO had duct tape over it.

It's an AZ car & the longitudinals look like new.

Hoping to get some pointers on the installation of these.

Take the motor out!
Drill out the spot welds with a spot weld cutter
Take out the metal parts
cut out carefully the rust or first make a pattern replacement piece and cut the rust out and fit new piece.
Clean, grind, prime with weld thru primer
Test Refit all pieces
Weld in by tacking in slowly so they fit right
Weld the rest by stitch welding
You can drill SMALL holes in the engine shelf so when its welded in it looks like it was spot welded in. Same with the other piece.
Geoff

I bought this air tool at Harbor Freight for the job. It is air powered, one side of the die makes a flange & the other side makes a 3/16" hole.

Try this:

nice tool there MarkV, i could have saved myself some time, oh well ...
how much $$$?

Thats kind of trick...
Geoff

What can I say; I am a sucker for tools, especially air tools.

It was on sale for $29.00, the regular price is $49.00. I was surprised at how well it works. It has a small hydraulic ram in it. It does not use air pressure to operate the die so it is slow & quiet.

Better picture:

very nice indeed. i think i have to add that to my list ...

Thats way cool.

I am building a small arsenal for my kids. That is my first boy's next bithday present

I really dig that tool chest in the classifieds. To bad I dont live in Cali

I'm feeling a lot better. Seems like my car has the flu and a couple of you guys have that weird flesh eating disease!

Here is a pic of a rotten long. Even "Rusty" wouldn't try to fix this!

Geoff

outsch! that looks very bad.
at least the screw for the backpad is nice & shiny <_<

Damn Geoff, no wonder you were sliding around so much at the AX! :finger2:

seriously, that is funky

So much rust for such a little car! What are the vice grips holding together?

I pulled the fuel pump so I had the vise grips on the fuel line. "Course when I touched the 33 year old plastic line it broke spilling 20 year old gas all over me and the floor. Damn does that shit stink!!!
PO, had rebuilt the motor into a 1.8L and parked it (1983)due to it ran waay rich. Hmmm, when I took it apart the CHT was dead shorted to the engine tin. Maybe that's why!!!Car was just parked and rotted away!! A gonna project that never happened.
Hey, it was wet out and with the new Kuhmo's well, that 's excuse I am tellin.
Geoff

wow, that even looks worse than mine!

thanks for sharing... I feel so much better about my "car" now

cheers,

Jeroen

Yikes !! The tin worm never sleeps. :toilet:

I have to say, living in the northeast you just tolerate alot more rust than most...we love salt here..

I had to replace the inner fender, the top of the long (the flat part under the battery) The engine shelf, and the suspension console...

I bought a welder, practiced on spare sheetmetal in the garage, took it all apart...measured it all before hand... and put it all back together, POR 15, seam seal, the works
I then painted the whole bay and got totally carried away painting all my engine tin to match...

It really was not to bad...probably took two weekends with all the interuptions of life getting in the way...

Jereon, from the pics of your car I have seen it don't look too bad. Just lots of work to finish! haha
Now you can see why I junked the 70 car, hell, I got it for free so why not after stripping it for parts.
Where are you on the project now? I haven't seen an update for awhile.
Daag,
Geoff

I am almost done with thewelding rust repair in this area and I have another question.

I am adding a Permacool oil cooler to the car and was wanting to cut a hole in the spot shown in the pic. The cooler will be mounted in the fenderwell as far forward as possible. The plan is to try to pull more fresh air into the engine bay and exaust it into the fenderwell.

Do you think this will physically hurt the car? Should I weld a plate around the hole?

The factory uses a similar hole on the other side of the car for the factory oil tank.... it wont be a problem if you add one to the passenger side of the car.

East coast people are loving your "rust problem"


B

What rust?

Mine already has enuf 8" holes... no need to cut another

cheers,

Jeroen

It will be fine unless you drive the car on the street and in the rain. Tons of road shit gets thrown up there by the tires and will trash your set up.
Geoff

I got the same problem. Glad to see that mine is fixable : ) !! I've got it pretty well cleaned up and some guy is actually going to come to my house and weld it! What is Metal Ready and POR15?? I thought my rust was bad and now I've seen worse.
Cheers, Elliot

Geoff, when I looked at that pic of the rusty long. you posted, I cringed. That was the most upsetting pic I've seen posted since the naked old lady!

Lots of cars in Seattle look like that, rusty longs and passenger floorpans.

Easy to get ripped off around here.
Here's a name for it:
S-stupid
A-advanced
R-rust
S-syndrome

So fellow listers, if your car has SARS keep away from my car!

Geoff

Good god man!
Some of you Cali boy's are total whiner's about rust!

This coming from a guy that had horseshoe's flying out of his butt (rust wise) when he snagged his first 914.

But you should have seen my parts car, it broke in half as we tried to load it, held together by the shift rod and wiring harness. Cut the wires and rolled the front on, then a trailing arm broke off pulling the rear half on with come-alongs!
Almost killed my back and reopened my old hernia, but it was worth it.