i bought this camaro a few months ago, the body looked pretty good, there were some few spots of surface rust on the roof, looked easy to fix. however the more i work on different things in it, im finding more rust. im not surprised but its starting to scare me a bit, ive never done major rust repair before and i dont know if thats what its gonna end up being. so far ive found several holes in the front wheel wells, some rust in the engine compartment, rear wheel wells the metal is just flaking away, alot of rust spots on the hatch, along with the surface rust on the roof.

are there any other common problem areas that i should look at? id rather get it all done now instead of doing it several times.

i will post pictures tomorrow of the rust i found.

 

1st u should remove all the rust until its bear metal. Depending on the rust u can do diffrent things. If its a little hole ur good. if its chunks of metal fallin off...that will require welding new metal. post sum pictures of the ones ur panicking about. Well help you.

 

a week later... here comes the pictures!

these are all from the drivers rear wheel well.

 

another wheel well,

the roof,

and right under the top of the hatch near the brackets, couldnt really get a good picture of it.

 

this is from the inside of the car on the roof, it looks like it goes all the way up under that support piece on right by the windshield.

i have no idea how id get under there to fix that.

 

IMO, from those pictures, it doesn't look too bad - the car is an 85?. Have you removed your battery and taken a look at the tray? Also, climb under the rear and look at the panel adjacent to the bumper. Does the car have ground effects?

 

yes the car is an 85, it does not have ground effects. i didnt get a chance to get pictures from the front or under the hood. i already know i have several holes in front wheel wells and the battery tray is no good.

did the underside of these cars come with a protective coating? because im wondering what all that gray flakey stuff is in the wheel wells and up underneath a bit.

 

Every unmolested third gen Camaro that I have ever seen has had undercoating in the wheel wells (all four corners). My 88' has undercoating under the car and under the hood as well-previous owner installed I am sure. My brother's 91' only has it in the wheels wells. The bad thing about undercoating (especially under the car) is that it can hide rust and by the time you know it's there it's because something has fallen off i.e. holes.

 

ahh, well im going to remove all that undercoating and check it just to be sure. i dont wanna have to go at this several times. any suggestions on how to get that rust on the inside of the roof?

 

Loctite makes a product called Extend. It comes in spray cans and brush-on bottles. It turns rust to black on contact. You wouldn't need to clean the area before applying as the products only works on rust. Now for areas where the rust is actually separating and falling off, they recommend you wire brush or sand with coarse paper to remove the loose stuff first. Beware, this stuff is pretty bad if inhaled-I wear a mask if I use it in the garage.

 

oh wow. ive never heard of that before but it sounds like exactly what i need.
thank you.