OK, i got a Camaro but it is in worse shape than i thought it was rust wise.. as in, it has a lot of rust, the floors are trashed so bad i cant put too much weight down in case i go through the floor - that is both sides and the rear footwells are not that much better - It also has a holes in both rear arches just by the wheel wells.

The rest is mostly surface type rust, plainly visible but not really bad enough to put a hole in anything but it is bad enough to need to be got rid of. The floors are def the worst part by far, i havent seen a pic on here of anything as bad and i have done quite a bit of searching. They are rotten from the rockers all the way across, although the rockers really dont seem to be in that bad shape.

My question is, if i have it blasted (sand/glass/plastic/whatever), will it remove all of the rust? I know that there will be a lot of holes that will need welding but i dont see any point in doing the whole project if the rust is just going to come back in a year or two. I'm talking about all the little nooks and crannies where the edges of sheetmetal are exposed and rusting, all through the engine compartment, the front towers, arches, and especially all of the underneath.

Are there any places that might be rusty that wouldnt get caught by blasting like inside the rockers or inside the rear quarters? I am just trying to cover all bases here before i decide to take it on or not.

I've never done anything like this before but i have done a lot of reading and it all seems so simple by just having the shell blasted but there is always a catch with these things

Any help or advice would be appreciated folks. PS. I have already done a bunch of searching, there are exactly 17 threads with the word blasting in the title

Cheers,
Richard.
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Forgot to ask, is it better to weld in new floors then have it blasted or would it be better to blast it then weld in new floors?

 

man dude that unfrotunately really sounds like a parts car more than anything else

rust is usually always worse than what you can see before stripping a vehicle down

if you see any rust at all when the vehicle is totally complete, then its most likely gonna have more, or lots more in it

youre gonna need access to a mig welder and spot weld drill bit and some other tools and access to the $ to be able ot buy new floor pans and so forth

big project

others here will have more info and other opinions


hopefully you dont have much $ in the car as it is now,

i mean there are cases where ppl take alot worse than that and completely replace all the metal but its not worth it unless youre rich and have all the tools and place to do it and if the car is desirable enough

really.


blasting is always the first step

then you cut off the rusted scrap back to solid metal only, no further than that though

keep as much good solid metal on it as you possibly can

some pics of this rust would be great

good luck

 

Same thing happened with my 88, form the outside it looked great, but underneith the naewer paint and chassis, it is in REALLY bad shape. Although I only paid $500.00 for it, and have used it as a daily driver for a year now.

So I am looking for another Camaro with a absolutley perfect solid body, and am just going to swap over my interior, engine, trans etc...

 

No-one on here had a shell blasted then?

 

just got my shell back from blasting a few days ago....although it didn't remove ALL of the rust, it did remove all of the paint and a large majority of the rust. The remaining is just surface rust and can be sanded off and or coated with por15 or some sort of rust treatment product such as permatex (i think thats what it was). After I used the rust treatment, i then vera-primed the remaing bare metal surfaces. Now I'm just waiting for sheetmetal to begin replacing panels. If you do decide to send the car off for media blasting, it will help if you cut out badly rusted areas, e.i. sections of the floor, rocker, quarter, or whatever. That way the ppl blasting the car can blast the inside areas, reducing more hidden rust. It cost me $900 to have it blasted. I'll try to post some pictures of the car so you have a better idea of what i mean, PM me if you have any other questions, I'd be more than happy to help.

alkalore - project <-- pictures

 

Is the permatex thing you speak of a "rust dissolver gel"? Is it a kind of pink goop in a white plastic bottle?

 

no, ive used the pink gel before and i didn't like it as well as the permatex rust treatment. All you have to do is brush it on, wait 15min, apply a second coat, then wait 24hrs b4 topcoating it, no washing with water afterwards. I think you can find it at napa or a similar store

 

For chemically converting rust, Ospho is king. Brush it on, wait 24hrs, then paint. The stuff rules.

And I, too, would consider parting the car out and then finding a more solid one to start with. Any amount of rust can be fixed, almost, but the more there is the more time and money you are going to have to spend. Sounds from your description like there is an unholy amount!

 

man if your car is as rusty as you make it sound you need not worry about if blasting will remove all the rust, after it is stripped you will have to replace a lot of the sheet metal on the car, maybe evey whole panels if its that bad, even if blasting removes "all the rust" there will still be holes everywhere that you will need to cut into and fix.

its a shame, these are such nice cars...

 

Great pics, thanks! I will try and post some pics of my car too so you can all see what i am talking about.. I think i have made it sound a bit worse than it is, I think it is probably in similar sort of shape to yours but with worse floor pans - they would need to be cut out and re-welded though anyway.

 

Ok, here are some pics.. I havent included the floor pans b/c i know how bad they are - please ignore the axle too, that will be getting replaced if i do a resto.

 

From the pictures you've posted, I'd have to say that those areas on my car where far worse off to begin with. If your serious about wanting to rebuild this car, go for it. As other ppl have said, it won't be easy, or cheap; it will be a challenge. But for me, that's what I wanted; buying new sheet metal isn't a problem for me, so I decided to work with this car instead of finding one that didn't have a rust problem.
If your interested, I'll post a link to the rest of my website.

alkalore - Andrews Homepage

It contains a few pictures of the car when I first found it, till right before I pulled the engine and transmission. As you will see, this car was a p.o.s. So as I said, if you are truly wanting a challenge, work with what you already have, tear the entire car apart, and start hunting for hidden rust or areas that will need to be cut out. Also, if you're still interesting in media blasting call around and ask the shops that do it what they suggest you do to the car before bringing it in so that you won't have to pay an arm and a leg.

-Andrew

 

Hey thanks for your pics, that is exactly why i bought the car in the first place, i wanted to strp it out completely and re-build from the ground up, i just didnt envisage dealing with quite so much rust.. like i said, if media blasting will get rid of it for the most part and then treating with anti rust chemical will make sure of the job i will go for it.. i know i could sell it and start with a more solid car but the car is what both me and the gf wanted (a 92 Z28) and it had to be relativley cheap so i didnt feel bad about tearing into it and the whole thing was to have a restoration project to take on...

Anyway, i apreciate the advise from everyone and all but i have done a lot of research already and know pretty much what i am getting myself into but i do still have some specific questions, IE will media blasting get rid of all of the rust? By the sounds of it, a combination of media blasting, and chemical anti rust treatment is the way forward but no-one has mentioned hidden areas that could be rusted like inside the rockers etc as i asked about in the very first post of this thread. Chemically dipping the whole shell i know will get rid of any chance of rust in those hidden areas but then people have concerns over those areas being unprotected (no paint coating) in the future... I ma very isterested in seeing more pics of your progress esp any pics you have of when the car came back from the blasting...

Other questions i have :

Cut out obvious rust spots before blasting?
Weld in new sheet metal before priming? do you need to sand off the primer if you weld after it is primed?
Is it worth bracing where the doors should be (or anywhere else) before it goes for blasting b/c of the floors?
Is it worth welding in SFC's before it goes for blasting?

So many questions who has the answers???

 

The only pictures I took of the car after I media blasted it are on the first link to my website. The floor pans are the only bare metal surface, everything else has been coated with etching primer to prevent more surface rust while I wait to start the metal work. If you look closely at the pans, you'll notice brownish/red spots; these are areas that the rust was not totally removed, but I 'am not overly concerned as they will be replaced, hence no etching primer. Unfortunatly I will not be doing anymore to the car until December maybe not till next year, b/c I am on a co-op for school making money to fund my projects. As for your questions, here's what I would do:
1)Yes, much easier in the long run, makes blasting easier and less expensive.
2)Use either an epoxy primer, etching primer or whatnot, I suggest going to a local body shop and ask them for advice. Really it depends on your time-frame which you choose. Epoxy is nice stuff, but expensive and if your cutting and re-welding....well its a lot of wasted money. I think the easiest way to do it is spray the car with a etching primer as I did, then weld in new panels sanding/grinding the etching primer and new panel coating a minimum of one inch of the joint. If your unsure how to properly join the two pieces dont hesitate to ask around.
3) Yes, do brace the doors; just a way of insuring that the car won't deform while you cut away at the floor or rockers. If you don't do this step and really cut into any of the car's exterior panels you are running the risk of ruining the car beyond repair. It's easy to do so why not.
4)I guess this one is up to you can't see why it would make a difference one way or another, other than if you put sfc in b4 blasting it would give the unibody more strength.

As for chemical dipping, dont know much about it.

About hidden areas of rust:
pray that you dont have any!
Really though the only trouble-some areas for hidden rust are inside rockers and maybe inside quarters if you dont cut out as much as I did, and the rear frame rails under the floor pan. On my car these were BAD, simply cutting the metal away gave me access to them, and I was able to fix them. Still trying to figure out how to get rid of rust inside the rear frame over the axle. If you can spray por15 in these areas after cleaning loose rust out it might work quite well. That's what I have considered, maybe I'll use an undercoating gun to get in there as far as I can. The rust inside my rockers isn't too bad but I'll be replacing the outer sheet metal on both sides so its not an issue.

Best of luck on your project, let me know if I can help you with anything else, and I'll keep you updated. I'd also be interested on how your project comes along.

Regards,

Andrew

 

Hey alkalore, who makes ur cowl hood?

 

Thanks a lot for the advice bud, sorry for the delay here.. i have been working as much as time permits on the car, still not certain on my gameplan at the minute.. I am working on freshening up the rear end parts at the mo, thinking of possibly stripping the interior and getting some replacement floor pans welded in.. that is by far the worst part, i could prob get some sheet metal welded in around the rear quarters too if i do go down that road. If i do all that i could prob get away with cleaning up the rest (engine bay etc) with the grinder/wire wheel and using a bucket load more POR 15 everywhere :-)

Kinda weent POR 15 crazy already, painted the gas tank, sender unit, filter bracket, panhard bar, LCA's etc.. thinking about painting the whole rear end and torque arm too.

I have a lot of work to do!