Let me start by thanking everyone in advance, I really appreciate all the help I have got from these forums.

This topic is to help me understand the work envolved in project car. I need alot of advice for alot of problems, mostly rust problems. When responding ro one of my problems just use the [number] so i'll know exactly what your talking about.

Ok this is my 1984 Z28 Camaro, I just bought it 3 weeks ago, I paid $600 for it. It needs ALOT of work to get it looking nice. I have the carpet already riped up, the seats out, most of the internal peices out.

 

[1]

This picture is from behind the weather stripping of my T-tops. Rust has ate holes in it. What is the best way to fix this ? I assume just sand it down , bondo it, and then use some kind of sealant? This seems like a huge problem to me, but maybe I am over reacting. The picture is taken after I already scraped away most of the dead metal with a flat head screw driver.

 

[2]

I am most likley going to buy a new hood anyway, but incase I don't. The rust is right on the edge of the hood, if I sanded it down and then used bondo would it break off if I open the hood at that spot? Someone posted on another thread of mine to use wire mesh but I need to know exactly what to get.

 

[3]

This is rust on my back seat floor from the T-tops leaking because of the rust eating in the damn roof. What in the world am I gona do here?

 

[4]

This is another picture of the T-top rust problem, but this side is actualy eating away the curve of the roof. I'm not sure bondo would do anything and if it could I wouldnt think i'm skilled enough to make it happen. This one is really on my mind, kinda worried.

 

Allright, I will try and help you out. I was in the same sorta position as u about a year ago.

Here is a pic of ONE of my problem areas.

I will then show you how I fixed it all.

 

[5]

This is a picture of my door panle/carpet panel / what ever it is. This is rotted to hell and obviously is gona have to be replaced. My question is ; the plastic screws that hold the panel on, do you screw those out some how or just pull the panel off with force? I need to know for when I go and pull new ones off a salavged car.

 

Then I cut out ALL the rust. Don't leave any behind, it is like cancer, you leave any behind and it will eat away at any fix you do.

Here is a finished side with metal i got for 50 bucks and I cut with a cutting wheel. Then i welded with a 200 welder. With the kind of rust you have u are def gonna want to get one of these welders. Work well and are cheap.

Then i seal the seams with calking.

 

I see you are still posting, Oh well I will finish my little walk through. (ignore the roll bar)

Next you seal the deal with POR-15.

Look into their products, they have ANYTHING and everthing you will ever want. Great stuff. Super fast shipping too. Worth every penny.

I did 1 coat inside and 2 under. Then 3 in the wheel wells.


ps- you pull the pins out, they SUCK. I am making my own panels from core board, i think it is called, then covered in foam and fabric. I am gonna use REAL metal screw to attach it. Good luck man and I hope I helped.

if you wanna see a TON more pics just check out my cardomanin site. Later

 

Oh crap so I need to buy a welder ... wonderful.

So I cut out the problem areas then weld sheets over the holes ?

 

Yeah, make the patch panels like 1/2" too big. Thay makes it a lot easier to work with. Remember if it is going to be hiden by the rug you dont' have to make it look good.

 

Thanks alot !

Could you tell me please how much the welder runs?
And also what website you ordered the por-15 from.

 

No prob.

Welder was 200 bucks at Home Depot. good deal in my eyes. i have used to put in my roll bar, smooth out my firewall, and TONS of other little things, SFCs, and so on.

The POR15 can be found at www.por15.com

Read about everything they have, you will be happy u did.

 

I be worried about a roll cage welded in by anyone other than a professional. But for floor plans its not a big deal.

 

Well yeah that is true if you plan to acctually race all the time. I welded it is for structural rigidity reasons. Thats all. I didn't really wanna get one in case I roll over. I realy don't plan on driving insanely fast anyways. The car will be fast, but i know i am gonna drive it like a granma' 90% of the time. Waaaaaay too much $ and time into this thing to drive it like a dick. I tossed it in cuz i had the bars laying around for a few years. Really not that big a deal. Many people think it is the end of the world to put some bars in. The welds are in there pretty damn good too, not too sure what else a pro would do exept make prettier welds.

Anyways, . A little tip. If you can clean the rust well with what you got, then wire brush it and you can get down to good metal, then just use the METAL READY from POR15, then let it evaporate. This will deposit zink on the metal. That POR-15 loves to addhear to zinc. Also don't bother buying a little, get the gallon, you will be hapy u did.

I did my entire floor, inside and out, not to mention other things with 1 gallon, and 1/2 a bottle of metal ready.

I just picked up a pint yesterdy online to do touchups on placeses I had to "mod" again.

 

Oh, yeah, and whatever you do... don't use an arc welder to weld sheet metal... I mean, you can do it if you're very good at it, but generally it's a very very very bad idea.

 

yeah stick with MIG. You can learn fast and for the porpose you nee it for, you can lay down a pretty strong, and who cares if it is ugly, bead. As long as it will hold. There really isn't too much stress there anywas.

 

Good Luck

 

If it was me I would scrap that car... I'm going through a restoration on a fullsize blazer that was full of rust, but it didn't look too bad till I really tore it apart further. Now im doing a full frame off resto and have spent so much in sheetmetel for it that I could of already bought one thats finished or in better shape... But it's your project and let us know what you decide on... good luck

 

That is true. I didn't need to fix a whole lot so it worked out for me. Looking at those pics it looks like there is going to be a lot more waiting for you. To fix that car up it would in no way be a cheap project. If you want to save $ sell that thing and get somehting that is a bit leaner. Unless you have some sentimental value or something. I know I did. This is my only car so far and was what I used all though highschool so I have a lot of good memories with it.

 

you've got nothing. That's barely rust. That's a sexy car, I love that year.

you don't "need" a welder, but if you're planning on using it alot that's fine, grab a cheap mig with gas.

you can use fiberglass cloth/mat and resin, and fiberglass reinforced filler instead.

structural areas need to be welded, but your hood shouldn't.
if you're only planning on doing this car in the near future, think about the price of a welder, (closer to $300 i'd guess.) and materials etc, and learning how to use it, and compare to one of those mobile welding trucks. you could probably pay a guy to drive up, weld it up (professionally), and be done with it, and have $200 to spare.

do you have an air compressor?

you'll need an angle grinder if you don't have one. Get fiber discs for it, and a knotted wire brush, cup or straight is your choice (I like the cup style).

grind you hood until the rust is gone, or there's only pits. use a rust acid (phosphoric acid), such as naval jelly. Then use fiberglass cloth and resin, and/or long strand fiberglass filler. Then sand (use a respirator), then normal plastic body filler to smooth out.

Is this to be a show car in the future, or a daily driver?

I'd use rubberized undercoating to prevent future rust, and to help deaden road noise.

Por-15 is great stuff from what i've heard, but it's ridiculously priced. I'm using Rust-Not by plastikote, and I like it. Zero-Rust is also good, but a bit more $.

 

oh yea, and to get that rubbery goop off the floor, which still has carpet glued to it, you'll NEED an angle grinder and a knotted brush. That was the ONLY thing that worked for me.

 

Well that was good advice above but I can fill you in a bit more.

A welder that can do all the work you need will cost you no more than 210 MAX. Mine was 202 I think. A spool of wire is 8 and last a while. You don't need gas either. You can get wire that releases gas as you are welding. Makes it a lot easier.

Those welding truck guys charge a ton more than doing it yourslef. Plus there is no way you will ever get it all layed out for the guy to weld. Fixing up a car is just too unpredictable. You are garonteed to run into more situations where you are going to need the welder. It is a lot easier than you might think.

But do whatever you see fit. Check out my site if you haven't allready and you will see ALL the stuff I had to do. Also just as one last little piece of advice. Don't cheap out on undercoating. You can cheap out on other things, but not this. Remember the fact that the last undercaoting didn't work is why you are in this situation inthe first place.

 

I'm doing the same thing you guys are doing right now, except mine looks like its got a bit more rust LOL. The whole front of the car was fine but behind the front seats was gone and the back seats was gone and so were them wheel wells. Fenders doors and hood i didnt care about since im goin to fiberglass anyways.

the rubbery goop stuff i used a heat gun and a putty knife and the stuff came right off.

If you dont wanna spend any money on metal, just go look in some dumpsters, i know it sounds cheap but around here theres a few metal shops that throw A LOT of good sheet metal away. Free for the taking. I sandblasted it and welded it in.

i have heard some bad things about POR 15 so im taking a different route.

my car is at high school where I'm doing all the patching and welding and finishing hooking the motor up, if you want i can take some pics for you.

o and BTW dennisbernal91z did you buy your cage from a kit? i bought the CE one and i am having trouble on installing it.

 

I don't have the experience or expertise to really help, but it looks like you've got a lot of work ahead of you. And I just wanted to tell you to take your time and enjoy the car. You're gonna consider selling it at times, but when it's done you'll have something to be proud of.


And take your time, it's not going anywhere.

 

Very true... Take your time.....As for my roll bar, I did buy it as a kit from jegs. It cost like 130 or something like that. Everything is oversized. You have to cut all the pipes to the right length. And when the bars weld to the body...well...that is harder if you are just doing this at home. I stuffed it in there as good as possible and put a plate under there that was supplied. I then welded everything I could. Here, there and everywhere. Is looks hediouse if u lit up the rug, but I am sure it is not going anywhere.

Any other Qs ask away. Like to help. Later.

-Dennis